The Indiana Jones franchise has always been Steven Spielberg and George Lucas’ baby, but it sounds like the next sequel might finally be leaving the nest.

In an interview with Collider, Indiana Jones 5 screenwriter David Koepp (Jurassic Park, War of the Worlds) offered an update on how the project is coming along in development. According to Koepp, who is hard at work putting the script together, he’s had “no contact” with George Lucas on the creative side. He is working with Spielberg, though. Even more, he said to his knowledge Lucas isn’t really involved at all with the project. Considering he’s the guy penning the script, he’d probably know.

Going back through the franchise’s history, Lucas typically helps generate the story idea (even if he might not write the actual script). Lucas was a big reason the last film focused on aliens, because that was the story he really wanted to explore. Koepp actually collaborated with Spielberg on Indiana Jones the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and noted that in hindsight, it might not have been the best fit for an Indiana Jones story. But they learned a lot from that experience, and they’ll be applying those lessons to the sequel:

“I don’t know that the idea [aliens] was most suited to an Indiana Jones movie, but that was what we did. So we tried to be very careful with the selection of the MacGuffin and the eras to give ourselves as much latitude to make the best kind of Indiana Jones movie that we most want to see. Learning how that’s the importance of the choice of the MacGuffin is a big deal.”

No word on when this one might get in front of a camera, but Koepp said 2017 isn’t outside the realm of possibility. Considering Disney has it penciled in for release on July 19, 2019, there’s still more than enough time to figure it out.

(Via Collider)