In “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” we saw Harrison Ford for the last time as the whip-swinging archaeologist. However, the film almost turned out to be much more supernatural.
Although “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” turned out to be a flop at the box office, the audience rating of 88% on Rotten Tomatoes proves that fans could indeed find a lot to enjoy in the film. Even if the work does not reach the heights of the original from 1984, it could still be considered a worthy conclusion for Harrison Ford’s character.
The film not only served as a farewell to the archaeologist, but it also marked the first part of the series not directed by Steven Spielberg. Instead, “Logan – The Wolverine” director James Mangold took over. Mangold revealed in an interview with Gizmodo that the fifth installment of the Indy series was originally intended to be much scarier (via ComicBook.com):
“When I took over the film, [screenwriters Jez and John-Henry Butterworth] had played with a number of different things that were basically just a repetition of what had happened in the first film. Just more apparitions and ghosts, and I felt like I was watching the first part again when I imagined what had been in the scripts so far. And I felt that what Steven [Spielberg] and George [Lucas] […] had successfully done in the other films was to always tackle a different aspect of the story and metaphysics, and not keep returning to the same theme. In a way, I didn’t want a repetition like ‘Is it another Death Star?'”
We met the stars of the film for an interview and asked them whether “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” would conclude the series.
How “Indiana Jones 5” was meant to breathe new life into the franchise In the interview, Mangold looked back on the development process of the story for “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” He described how he had tried to find a solution to breathe new life into the series while remaining faithful to the previous films:
