The legal entanglement that was the Indiana Jones franchise has now been untangled.  When Disney purchased Lucasfilm, there was a question of how future Indiana Jones films would proceed since Paramount released the first four movies.  Today, Disney announced that it has reached an arrangement with Paramount regarding the franchise.  Under the new deal, Disney has acquired distribution and marketing rights to all future Indiana Jones films along with its current ownership of the rights that it secured when it purchased Lucasfilm.  Hit the jump for more, including where Paramount fits into this new deal.

Though Disney now owns the Indiana Jones series and can produce future films at its leisure, Variety notes that under the new deal, Paramount will still be responsible for the distribution of the previous four Indiana Jones films and will enjoy financial participation on any future Indiana Jones films that are released.  A fifth Indiana Jones film has yet to be officially announced, but a property that lucrative likely won’t stay dormant for too long in today’s franchise-happy box office climate.

Though George Lucas and Steven Spielberg have been more apprehensive about moving forward with a follow-up to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Harrison Ford is very much game to don the whip and hat once again.  The 72-year-old actor recently said that he would do Indiana Jones 5 “in a New York Minute,” and with all legal entanglements out of the way, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear word about some sort of new Indiana Jones movie—be it a reboot or straight sequel—sooner rather than later.

If you’re keeping score at home, Disney now has distribution over Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and Indiana Jones.