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‘Indiana Jones’ reunites Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg in fifth installment, Disney announces

Han Solo may be dead, but Indiana Jones is alive and kicking: Disney announced Tuesday that Harrison Ford will reprise his role as the iconic archaeologist-adventurer in the fifth “Indiana Jones” movie.

Also returning for the as-yet-untitled film will be director Steven Spielberg, who has helmed all four previous movies. The new installment is set for release July 19, 2019.

“Indiana Jones is one of the greatest heroes in cinematic history, and we can’t wait to bring him back to the screen in 2019,” Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn said in a statement. “It’s rare to have such a perfect combination of director, producers, actor and role, and we couldn’t be more excited to embark on this adventure with Harrison and Steven.”

Franchise veterans Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall will produce.

Ford, 73, first played the role of the intrepid explorer in Spielberg’s 1981 “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” the director’s homage to 1930s movie serials. It and the next two films — 1984’s “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and 1989’s “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” — were set in that decade, while 2008’s “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” jumped to Cold War 1957.

The initial movie is among the American Film Institute’s roster of 100 Greatest American Films. The franchise has grossed nearly $2 billion at the global box office.