With nearly 20 years passing between Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, many fans assumed the latter would be a sendoff to the title character, but even star Harrison Ford recently recounted how the film’s finale didn’t quite offer the concrete conclusion that audiences were hoping for. While that film did conclude with Indiana tying the knot with Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) and teasing that their son Mutt (Shia LaBeouf) could carry the torch of the explorer, Ford noted that this ending felt more like “suspended animation.” Ford’s hero is expected to get a more definitive ending in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which hits theaters on June 30th.
“Six years ago, I thought maybe we ought to take a shot at making another one,” Ford recently shared with CNN. “And I wanted it to be about age because I think that rounds out the story that we’ve told and we brought it to the right place. I mean, the last one ended in kind of a suspended animation. There was not a real strong feeling of the conclusion or the closure that I always hoped for, the roundness and speaking to this issue of age. Not making jokes about it, but making it a real thing.”
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Ford isn’t entirely alone in this feeling about Kingdom of the Crystal Skull offering a hint of a conclusion without fully resolving the story, as many fans assumed the goal of the project was to introduce audiences to a hero for a new generation. By including Mutt, as played by the then-promising LaBeouf, it was assumed that the film would wrap up Indiana’s journey and allow Mutt to take the lead of the series. The film even offered the tease of Indy’s iconic fedora tumbling towards Mutt’s feet, only for Indiana to proudly take back his rightful hat.ย
Despite the inherent potential of the overall franchise, Ford and Lucasfilm have made it quite clear that not only will this be Indy’s last adventure, but that the role won’t be recast or rebooted with a new performer. In this regard, it seems as though Dial of Destiny was explicitly developed to be the intentional sendoff of the character, as opposed to Crystal Skull merely allowing it to passively serve as an ending.
The iconic Harrison Ford returns for one last adventure when Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny premieres 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 Jรผrgen 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 set to be Ford’s final appearance as the iconic archeologist.
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