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Before Steven Spielberg dropped out of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, the story was expected to be pretty different than what was ultimately delivered, according to an actor. James Mangold, the Oscar-nominated director who made Ford v Ferrari, Logan, and Walk the Line, stepped up to direct the movie after Spielberg bowed out. Along with the director change also came a change in the script, it seems.
This story contains spoilers for The Dial of Destiny.
Karen Allen returns in The Dial of Destiny to play Marion Ravenwood, but her part in the film was reportedly scaled back significantly. Allen told Variety she thought The Dial of Destiny would continue Marion and Indy’s story after the dramatic events of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
For anyone unaware, that movie ended with Marion and Indiana Jones getting married after Marion revealed that Mutt (Shia LaBeouf) was his son. But in The Dial of Destiny, it is revealed that Marion and Indiana separated after Mutt was killed in the Vietnam War. Marion and Indy finally reunite at the end of The Dial of Destiny for a nice moment to wrap up Harrison Ford’s time as the archaeologist adventurer.
“I did always imagine that it would be a story with Indy and Marion going forward. When Steven was going to direct the film, I think the scripts were more focused on an Indy/Marion story,” Allen said. “But when Steven stepped aside and James came in, he started fresh with new writers and they just went in the direction they went in. They were going to tell a different story. That’s not to say that I had ever read a script that Steven was working on, because I hadn’t. But I just knew from conversations that we’d had that the ongoing story had involved Marion in a much bigger way than the story that they ended up with.”
Allen said she was “disappointed, of course” when she learned about the new script for The Dial of Destiny that would largely cut her character out.
“I knew that there had been talk that they did not want to go forward with Shia, so I knew that something in the story had to create the potential for him to not be there in a way that made sense. I didn’t know that he was going to die in Vietnam until I read the script, oh gosh, maybe just it was maybe six months before they were going to start shooting,” she said.
Allen said if The Dial of Destiny is indeed the final entry with Ford as Indy and Allen as Marion, then she’s happy Marion and Indy had one more moment together. “That meant a lot to me, to feel like they were going to ride off in the sunset together,” she said.
Instead of a story that focused on Indy and Marion, The Dial of Destiny focuses on the adventures of Indy and his goddaughter Helena, played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
Finally, Allen said she would be interested in coming back to play Marion again if she’s asked, but said this probably won’t happen. “They’re so interwoven with each other, I can’t imagine someone creating a film that revolved around Marion without Indy, but never say never. It could always happen!” she said.
The Dial of Destiny released in theaters on June 30 and put up $60 million at the box office in the US for its opening weekend. However, with a reported production budget of $295 million, The Dial of Destiny is one of the most expensive movies ever made, and some believe the film will struggle to turn a profit. The movie also didn’t get the strongest review scores, which may play a role in how well the film does over time. It has made $154 million globally so far.
