Indiana Jones and Logan Director James Mangold Talks Directing Actors in Established Roles (Exclusive)

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny director James Mangold is no stranger to stepping into established properties and/or taking on iconic figures as the subjects of his films. Mangold became a household name thanks to taking on Marvel’s most popular X-Men character, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, in the character’s second and third solo films – including the visionary threequel, Logan. Mangold obviously felt up to the challenge of bringing back Indiana Jones for one more (worthy) adventure and has also taken on real-life icons in Ford v Ferrari. 

So how does one of the most acclaimed directors of our time handle the challenge of making films with actors like Hugh Jackman and Harrison Ford, who come with so much prior experience? 

“Well, you rely on them [the actors], they’re a great source of wisdom about how the character works. But also in a sense, how you direct them also indicates… I mean, they want the dialogue because the actor brings their character and how they play them, but they also have a series of choices,” Mangold explained to ComicBook.com’s Jamie Jirak. 

“The main job I always think of for me, on a movie, is tone. What is the tone of this picture? How does the tone of this movie work? And that ends up intersecting with character choices, meaning which kind of Indiana Jones are we going to come upon? My hope, because the tone of Indiana Jones movies in the past is so wild and zig-zaggy and almost changing and shifting even with the same film, is it was to give the audience that rollercoaster ride. For instance, the first almost 25 minutes of the movie is in the 1940s and our best effort to make a new old Indiana Jones movie and give you a blast of what it is you probably miss about those pictures. And then to drop off a cliff and land in the late ’60s and find Indy in his seventies in a different situation.”

As Mangold hints, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny requires Harrison Ford to take on the challenge of both playing the version of Indiana Jones fans remember from the old films (with the aid of some de-aging VFX), as well as the aging version of Indy that we find in this fifth film of the series, over four decades later. That’s gotta be a unique challenge for both a director and a star – and viewers can’t wait to see how it turns out. 

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny will be in theaters on June 30th.