Harrison Ford reveals reason for 15-year ‘Indiana Jones’ sequel gap

“Indiana Jones” fans haven’t seen Harrison Ford as the fedora-wearing archaeologist since 2008’s “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.”

The final installment of the long-running franchise to include Ford, 80, is titled “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” and is set to be released on June 30.

The star explained to Digital Spy in a recent interview why there is a 15-year gap between the fourth and fifth films.

He noted that the studio wasn’t clamoring to release another flick so soon after “Crystal Skull” debuted.

“Well, it wasn’t as though we sat around for 10 years waiting to come up with an idea,” Ford said.  

“When we finished the last film, I don’t think anybody thought about going and doing another film for some time,” he added.

The length of time between the last two movies could also be attributed to “Crystal Skull’s” not-so-good reviews.

While it was regarded as 2008’s second highest-grossing film and took in about $790 million, it holds a 53% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Critics’ reviews were mixed, with one person even calling it “the most lifeless of the series” and “simply [not] a very good motion picture.”

Ford continued to tell the entertainment news outlet that “there were some interesting ideas that were floated” for a fifth movie over the last few years, however, producers weren’t too keen about them.

“And then we found an idea, and a script, and a strong story that we wanted to tell,” he gushed about “Dial of Destiny.”

“Dial of Destiny” takes place in the mid-1960s with Indiana joining his goddaughter Helena Shaw (played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge) as they go on a quest to find a dial that can change history.

“The Wolverine” director James Mangold is helming the feature and it also stars the talents of Antonio Banderas, Toby Jones, Boyd Holbrook, Ethann Isidore and Mads Mikkelsen.

Ford was also digitally de-aged for the flick, as the new story takes place just a few years after the time period in which “Crystal Skull” is set.

“We’re coming to the end of Indiana Jones’s time on the planet, and I wanted to see a conclusion of his story that accommodated the reality of his age, and what that effect has on this person that we’ve come to know over the years,” the father of five stated.

Because the upcoming flick is Ford’s last turn as the whip-slinging action star, he couldn’t help but get emotional about the ending.

He confessed that he “felt a sense of peace, a sense of contentment” to be ending his Indy run.

“The feeling I had is the feeling you have when you’ve made something, and you can look at it, or you can remember having made it, the satisfaction of putting work in, and getting something worthy out of it,” he said.

“Crystal Skull” took place in 1957 amid the Cold War and focused on Indiana meeting his son, Mutt, (La Beouf), as they go on a journey to find a sacred artifact before Soviet agents discover it first.