Indiana Jones Creator George Lucas Never Would Have Taken Dial Of Destiny's Big Swing If He Were Still In Charge
Spoilers belong in a museum! Or at least behind a major spoiler warning, as this article discusses the granddaddy of spoilers from "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny."
After "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" brought the original trilogy to a satisfying close in 1989, franchise creators George Lucas and Steven Spielberg struggled mightily to figure out a way to deliver another worthy sequel to the fans who so passionately wanted another adventure. Star Harrison Ford was getting up there in age, enough time had passed that it became clear a new approach was sorely needed, and all those years in development only made the pressure that much higher to live up to and exceed everyone's expectations. So when "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" finally made its way into theaters in 2008, audiences were mixed over some particularly risky choices: The addition of Shia LaBeouf's Mutt Williams, the noticeably digital sheen that felt at odds with the aesthetics of the previous movies, and that little matter of introducing interdimensional beings through the MacGuffin of the eponymous Crystal Skull.
The release of "Dial of Destiny" seems to have done much to get things back on track (you can peruse /Film's review by Lex Briscuso here), but it certainly goes to some fascinating places — quite literally — in its final act. That's right, we're talking about the inclusion of actual time travel that takes Indy, his troublemaking sidekick/goddaughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), and a cabal of Nazis led by Dr. Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) from 1969 to, uh, roughly 200 BCE. Surely for a series steeped in magic, the supernatural, and extraterrestrials, Lucas himself would've gladly taken a similar swing had he remained in charge ... right?
Well, incredibly enough, an old interview he once conducted strongly suggests otherwise.
'You can't just make something up'
One man is ultimately responsible for masterminding the utterly mystical universe of Force-users in "Star Wars" and also had the last word on Indiana Jones coming face-to-face with the existence of multiple deities and those aforementioned aliens ... but, for George Lucas, time travel was apparently a bridge too far.
Yes, believe it or not, Lucas once directly addressed the possibility of time travel in an "Indiana Jones" movie back when "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" was about to release. In a 2008 interview with Total Film (which was transcribed and archived here), the creator explained how, despite such otherworldly plot developments taking place throughout each and every film, he strove to maintain the idea that it was all "grounded in some kind of reality." That meant riding a very fine line between maintaining suspension of disbelief and steering clear of the more outlandish ideas some may have had for Indy's next adventure. As he explained:
"The thing is, if you believe in the Ark of the Covenant, if you believe it has some relationship to God, if you believe it strikes people down — which is all true in a certain code of reality — then it all makes sense. But you can't just make something up, like a time machine. That's not what it's about. These are supernatural mysteries, not action-adventures where you have no historical or archaeological context."
Okay, so clearly George wasn't aware at the time that there was a very real, historical artifact (which we extensively covered here) that, with a little artistic license, could potentially hint towards the possibility of time travel. Fortunately, "Dial of Destiny" director James Mangold and credited co-writers Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth, and David Koepp managed to crack the code for this story.
Alternate history
It's certainly possible that, in the years since, George Lucas ultimately came around to the concept of time travel finding its way into the plot of "Dial of Destiny," but the man is certainly no stranger to vetoing "Indiana Jones" scripts that he found lacking. In an enlightening article over at ScreenCrush, writer/critic Matt Singer explored the utterly fascinating alternate version of what would go on to become "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." One early draft, written by "The Shawshank Redemption" and "The Walking Dead" writer Frank Darabont and made in collaboration with Spielberg himself, shares many of the same elements as the final film ... but with key changes that, arguably, could've led to a much more satisfying adventure.
For one thing, while Karen Allen's Marion Ravenwood crosses paths with Indy in a very similar way in the Darabont script titled "Indiana Jones and the City of the Gods," there's zero mention of the two ever having a son together. The estranged lovers go through the same broad strokes of teaming up on an adventure in Peru to track down the alien-looking Crystal Skull with Indy's old colleague named Oxley (played by John Hurt in the film), but without the distraction of the vine-swinging Mutt. Also, while the Soviets remain central antagonists to Indy, there's no character named Irina Spalko for Cate Blanchett to completely chew the scenery up with reckless abandon.
The entire article is well worth reading in full, though you may not be surprised to hear that, for whatever reason, George Lucas simply couldn't get on board with the script — to both Darabont's and Spielberg's chagrin. Maybe it's fitting that "Dial of Destiny," with which Lucas had no official involvement, tapped into similar ideas of what could've been.
"Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" is currently playing in theaters.