Indiana Jones Star Karen Allen Was “Disappointed” by Small Role in Dial of Destiny

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny didn’t just bring the tale of Harrison Ford’s iconic explorer to a close, it also wrapped up the story of the character’s beloved wife, Marion Ravenwood. Karen Allen reprised her Raiders of the Lost Ark character for her third Indy film in Dial of Destiny, appearing in the final scenes of the film to reunite with Ford’s titular hero. According to Allen, however, she had originally believed Marion had a bigger role in store for Indy’s swan song.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Allen revealed that the initial plan for Indiana Jones 5 (when franchise helmer Steven Spielberg was circling the picture) was more of a story about Indy and Marion. However, when James Mangold and an new writing team came on, the challenge of writing around Mutt (Shia LaBeouf) caused them to work away from Marion’s story as well.

“When Steve [Spielberg’ was still going to direct the film, I didn’t have the opportunity to read any of those scripts, although I know that Marion was much more involved in the story at that juncture,” Allen said. “So I knew James [Mangold] had hired new writers and that there was going to be a whole new approach with a new director and new writers, but I was really going into the unknown.”

“The next thing I knew, I was reading a script that told [Dial of Destiny‘s] story, and of course, I was disappointed,” she continued. “I had thought that I would be majorly a part of the film, and that was just not the direction they decided to go. I think they had some problems to solve with the story in terms of Shia LaBeouf not coming back, and they chose to create this story that Mutt had been killed in the war and that it put a wedge between Marion and Indy. I mean, you could have knocked me over with a feather when I read it. But I was really happy that they came back together in the end.”

Marion’s Dial of Destiny Return

While Marion only appears at the end of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Allen always assumed her character would be a part of at least one more film in the franchise. During the same interview, Allen said that she never expected Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,

“They married us at the end of the film, and I think there was already talk about wanting to do another film. So, no, I assumed that I would be a part of the next film,” Allen said. “[Nineteen] years passed between the third and fourth, so you never know how long these things are going to take. The idea when we shot the fourth one was that we might do a fifth one within a couple of years, and then a couple of years turned into [15].”

The iconic Harrison Ford returned for one last adventure as Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny premiered in theaters on June 30th. Lucasfilm’s latest film in the long-running franchise sees Dr. Jones team up with his goddaughter Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) in a race against nefarious forces to secure a powerful artifact. The duo will go up against the mysterious former Nazi-turned-NASA scientist Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen), and the film also features stars Boyd Holbrook, Antonio Banderas, Toby Jones, and John Rhys Davies. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is directed by James Mangold and is Ford’s final appearance as the iconic archeologist.