by For fans of everyone’s favorite archaeologist-adventurer, Indiana Jones and the Quadrant of Destiny has been a long time coming. The 1960s-set sequel is finally hitting theaters later this year, and we’ve had a few teasers of what’s to come so far.
Notably, this will be the first feature film in the franchise not to be directed by Steven Spielberg, with James Mangold (Le Mans ’66, Logan) at the helm for this fifth and final outing. Spielberg and series co-creator George Lucas will serve as executive producers.
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Mangold said the film is a story about “a hero at sunset,” coming to terms with Indy’s advancing age, but what else does this fifth and final film have in store?
Here’s everything you need to know about Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny…
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny release date
Barring further delays, the new Indiana Jones adventure will hit theaters worldwide exclusively on June 30, 2023.
It is set to be the longest Indy film yet with executive producer Kathleen Kennedy telling Collider at the Star Wars Celebration in April that the film is “about 2 hours and 22 [or] 23 minutes,” adding that runtime “seems to be a hot topic.”
The film will host its world premiere at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival on Thursday, May 18 with Disney confirming this will indeed be Dr. Jones’ last quest on the big screen.
It has been 15 years since the fourth installment, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which came a full 19 years after the original Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade trilogy.
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The first rumblings of a fifth installment came after the release of Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull in 2008 and gradually got louder over time. This is the first new Indy adventure released by Disney, which acquired Lucasfilm in 2012 and later bought the distribution rights to Indiana Jones from Paramount in 2013.
Look for it on Disney+ rather than Paramount+ a few months after the exclusive theatrical release.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Fate Trailer
The first trailer for the film was released in December 2022, followed by a 30-second teaser during the 2023 Super Bowl.
The official trailer was released by Lucasfilm at Star Wars Celebration in 2023. It gave us our best look at the film, showing that Harrison Ford’s Indy is back to his swashbuckling best.
Who is in the cast of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny?
For starters, The Man in the Hat is back. Whatever Disney’s plans are after this, Harrison Ford has made it clear that there is no Indiana Jones without him, and he’s dutifully returning for this fifth run-around.
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She also clarified that this is her latest, telling Empire magazine, “I just thought it would be cool to see one where Indiana Jones was at the end of his journey.”
Leading the new additions to the cast is Phoebe Waller-Bridge as Helena Shaw, Indy’s goddaughter, a character who drags our hero on his latest adventure when she brings trouble on her doorstep.
Speculation abounds that Helena may be related to another character in the franchise, but this is one aspect of the film that is being kept under wraps.
Elsewhere, the great Mads Mikkelsen plays the film’s villain, Jürgen Voller, a Nazi scientist who has found a new calling in the US space program but still has plans to change the world.
Speaking to Yahoo at the Star Wars celebration, director James Mangold says Voller is different from previous antagonists who have faced Indy.
I would say it’s more sophisticated,” Mangold said. “He’s worked in the US before on our lunar projects and helped get us to the moon, so he’s been a part of life in the US. But he has another agenda—and that would be familiar.
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Other new supporting cast members include Antonio Banderas and Toby Jones as Indy’s new allies, as well as Boyd Holbrook (“I’m a lap dog to Mads, and a nut too,” says Holbrook) and Thomas Kretschmann as a Nazi colonel.
As for the other returning cast members, John Rhys-Davies appears in the film’s teaser trailer, reprising her role as Sallah from Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade.
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There have been numerous reports of Karen Allen returning as Marion Ravenwood, who married Indy at the previous film’s climax, but they are unconfirmed as of now.
One character who definitely won’t be returning is Indy’s son Henry “Mutt” Jones III, played by Shia LaBeouf in the fourth film.
Mutt was written into early drafts of the film when Spielberg was still busy directing. LaBeouf’s character has since been confirmed not to be in The Dial Of Destiny, but Mangold told Entertainment Weekly that “we’ll find out what happened to him” in the new film.
The story of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Fate
As with Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull, many plot details are being kept under wraps, so we still don’t know much about what the script – written by Mangold, Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth – has in store.
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However, Empire Magazine’s preview tells us that the film mostly takes place in 1969 and Indy will be up against the Nazis again, this time as some of their scientists end up working for America in the space race against the Union Soviet.
Jez Butterworth told the magazine: “The simple fact is that the moon landing program was run by a group of ex-Nazis. How ‘ex’ they are is the question. And it makes Indy’s nose turn up…”
We don’t yet know what the titular Dial of Destiny is, but following the franchise formula, we expect a McGuffin storyline in the same lineage as the Ark of the Covenant, the Sankara Stones, the Holy Grail, and (who could forget?) the Skulls of Crystal of Akator.
What we do know is that the film’s traditional prologue will be a flashback set in 1944, with an older Indy fighting Nazis during the war.
Filming took place at Northumberland’s Bamburgh Castle (could we see the Disney logo transition to this location like the traditional Paramount logo fading in earlier films?) in June 2021 and we got our first glimpse of the incredibly aged Ford in the first trailer for the movie.
Filming also took place in Glasgow, with the city center transformed to resemble a ribbon parade for the Apollo 11 astronauts in New York City. The event in question took place in August of 1969, weeks after the moon landing, so if you’re wondering if this installment is one small step for man and one giant leap for Indiana Jones, then maybe not.
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Mangold has also been on the ball with debunking some reported spoilers – there’s inevitably a lot of speculation surrounding the plot of this film, but reports of reshoots and poor test screenings would appear to be petty.
The director told Entertainment Weekly, “I think what we’re trying to do is balance an accurate and realistic assessment of where this character would be at this point in his life, and doing it honestly, and at the same time, rehearsing and driving that forward.” which promises the very title of our film, which is a wonderful game and adventure with action and chivalry and skin-tight escapes and ingenious solutions to diabolical problems.
“This is an Indiana Jones movie.”
Speaking to Yahoo at Celebration, Mangold added: “It’s a new time and it’s a new place and plus we’re giving you both a taste of the past and then a sudden and shocking awakening in the present.
“But equally what makes it new is that you have an old-school hero in an age that doesn’t necessarily welcome old-school heroes anymore.”
Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny is in theaters June 30, 2023.
Watch Harrison Ford Talk De-Aging for Indiana Jones 5
