Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny director James Mangold recently revealed how the fifth film in the franchise will avoid the mistakes of its predecessor, 2008's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
In an interview with Variety, Mangold explained how Dial of Destiny's World War II prologue fixes one of his biggest issues with Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which was that the 2008 film barely acknowledged that Harrison Ford's Indiana Jones had aged out of the 1930s and '40s era that he was meant to embody. "What’s so beautiful about the best of the Indiana Jones movies is that thematically they know what they’re about," Mangold said. "I didn’t feel like I knew what Crystal Skull was about. He's living in a world that has overtaken him — a world that has found new heroes in John Glenn or Elvis Presley. No one in the film is really thinking about the past; everyone’s focused on the future."
Mangold revealed that Dial of Destiny was originally at risk of making the same mistakes as Crystal Skull, such as featuring a MacGuffin-like relic that audiences had already seen in a previous Indy movie. So, during Mangold's rewrite of the film's script, he changed the relic into an ancient mechanical device that was invented by the Greek mathematician Archimedes and allowed its user to manipulate time. "Indy had spent his entire life exploring time," Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy explained. "Once Jim seized upon that as a theme, it emotionally resonated, frankly, with all of us, who have in excess of 40 years invested in this storytelling."
The Final Indiana Jones Adventure
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny picks up 12 years after Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, taking place around the time of the 1969 Moon Landing. The long-awaited sequel will mark Ford's last time playing Dr. Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr., a role he has inhabited since 1981. In Dial of Destiny, Indiana Jones and his goddaughter Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) go on a journey for Archimedes' dial. Along the way, the two cross paths with Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen), an ex-Nazi working for NASA with whom Indy has a history, who is after the dial for its dangerous power.
Joining Ford, Waller-Bridge and Mikkelsen in the film are Boyd Holbrook as Voller's crazed lapdog Klaber and John Rhys-Davies, who reprises his role from previous films as Indy's friend Sallah. Thomas Kretschmann, Shaunette Renée Wilson, Antonio Banderas, Toby Jones, Olivier Richters and Ethann Isidore also star.
How Much Might Dial of Destiny Earn During Its Opening Weekend?
Early box office tracking for Dial of Destiny has the final Indiana Jones movie projected to earn around $70 million domestically in its opening weekend. While impressive, that number is well below the $100 million opening Kingdom of the Crystal Skull earned during its premiere weekend.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny opens in theaters on June 30.
Source: Variety