James Mangold has also teased what the Dial of Destiny actually is.
One of the most contentious features of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull surround the character of Mutt Williams, the young greaser who, it was eventually revealed, was the son of Indiana Jones. Mutt Williams was played by Shia LaBoeuf, who has not been announced as part of the cast for the upcoming sequel – Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
It’s fair to say the character wasn’t well received by fans, and that included LaBoeuf himself, with the actor saying in 2010 that “I feel like I dropped the ball on the legacy that people loved and cherished. You get to monkey-swinging and things like that and you can blame it on the writer and you can blame it on Steven Spielberg (the director of that film). But the actor’s job is to make it come alive and make it work, and I couldn’t do it. So that’s my fault. Simple.”
However, director James Mangold has now revealed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that audiences would “find out what happened” to the character of Mutt in the new film, which is set in 1969, more than a decade after the previous installment of the franchise. The director also teased what exactly the titular dial was – without going into too many details, of course.
“I can’t, because I don’t want to give the movie away,” he said. “But is there a relic in this movie that possesses a kind of power, or may possess a kind of power? And is it based on history and scientific speculation? Yes.” The revelation that the relic is ‘based on history and scientific speculation’ makes sense for this franchise.
Previous films have featured Indy searching for items like the Ark of the Covenant, and the Holy Grail – items that have had stories, and myths, told about them for generations that must have some sort of historic substance for the stories to exist in the first place. This shows that Mangold is well aware of what makes Indiana Jones special, and the man himself is under no illusions as to what he needs.
“I am under no illusions that my job making an Indiana Jones film was to suddenly beat the humor out of it and turn it into some kind of dirge,” he said. “I think that what we’re trying to do is balance both an accurate and realistic appraisal of where this character would be at this time in his life, and do that honestly, and at the same time, try and carry forward what the very title of our movie promises, which is a romp and a wonderful adventure with action and chivalry and escapes by the skin of your nose and ingenious solutions to diabolical problems. This is an Indiana Jones film.”
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny opens in theaters on June 30, 2023. Check out the trailer down below.
