German actor Thomas Kretschmann, best known to audiences for playing Baron Wolfgang von Strucker in “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” has joined the cast of “Indiana Jones 5” in an undisclosed role, TheWrap has exclusively learned.
Harrison Ford is set to return to the role of the legendary swashbuckling archaeologist in “Indiana Jones’” fifth installment. Mads Mikkelsen and Phoebe Waller-Bridge also recently joined the cast.
Legendary composer John Williams is also set to return, continuing a musical legacy that began 40 years ago with “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”
James Mangold is set to replace Steven Spielberg as the director of “Indiana Jones 5.” This will be the first time in the franchise’s four decades that Spielberg won’t direct an “Indiana Jones” movie, though he is set as a producer on the upcoming film.
When “Indiana Jones 5” was first announced in 2016, it was slated for release in July 2019. It was pushed to July 10, 2020, then again to July 9, 2021, and will now be released on July 29, 2022.
Jonathan Kasdan (“Solo: A Star Wars Story”) was recently brought on to edit the script after original screenwriter David Koepp, who penned 2008’s “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” exited the project. Kasdan’s involvement continues a family tradition; his father, Lawrence Kasdan, wrote “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”
Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall and Simon Emanuel will serve as producers.
Kretschmann, who first broke out to American audiences as Hauptmann Wilm Hosenfeld in Roman Polanski’s 2002 film “The Pianist,” also played Baron Wolfgang von Strucker in 2014’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and 2015’s “Avengers: Age of Ultron.”
Thomas Kretschmann is repped by APA, Germany’s Hoestermann and Myman Greenspan.
Lucasfilm declined to comment.