The upcoming fifth movie in the Indiana Jones franchise is titled Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, but we have no idea what the mysterious “dial” is. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, director James Mangold was asked to give details about the titular item.
“I can’t, because I don’t want to give the movie away,” Mangold said. “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.”
Each Indiana Jones movie features a mystical item that acts as a macguffin for the characters to pursue. Previous films featured the Ark of the Covenant, The Holy Grail, a sacred stone and the infamous crystal skull. The Dial of Destiny will likely have some kind of spiritual or technological importance for Indiana Jones and for the antagonists of the film.
Indiana Jones will be a man out of time in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
This will be the first Indiana Jones movie that will not be directed by Steven Spielberg. It will hit theaters almost 15 years after the fourth film, The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. That movie, which co-starred Shia LaBeouf as Jones’ son Mutt, was not well-received by audiences. LaBeouf will not be appearing in The Dial of Destiny, but Mangold said we will find out what happened to him.
Mangold is looking to recapture the vibe of the original trilogy of films, which famously featured Jones battling Nazis in classic adventure movie fashion. Dial of Destiny will apparently open in 1944, with a digitally de-aged Harrison Ford going on adventures until a time jump fasts us forward to 1969, during the thick of the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union.
“I mean, 1969 is the beginning of now, really, in terms of technology and the space race,” Mangold said. “So, you have Cold Wars, nuclear power, intrigue, the lack of clear good guys and bad guys. In the same way, you have to be really considerate about how you try and transpose a fairly simplistic kind of black-hat, white-hat sensibility into a period that is more complicated. We try to exploit that by jumping forward into 1969 to a hero who is used to a black and white world, in a world that has gone gray.”
Mangold recently voiced his displeasure with online speculation that this movie will set up Harrison Ford’s replacement in the franchise. He and Ford have both said that Ford will be the only star in the Indiana Jones franchise. The Dial of Destiny is due out on June 30, 2023.
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