When filmmaker James Mangold was announced as Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny's director, excitement for yet another sequel - something most hoped to never see again after Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - increased significantly.
However, even with 70% on Rotten Tomatoes, it still somehow ended up being one of 2023's biggest box office flops after earning only $384 million worldwide. With a whopping $295 million budget, it's thought the movie lost Disney and Lucasfilm upwards of $130 million.
Whether fans didn't want to see an older Indy or it was just the wrong story remains up for debate. However, the icon himself, Harrison Ford, isn't losing any sleep over the movie bombing.
"Shit happens," he told The Wall Street Journal. "I was really the one who felt there was another story to tell. When [Indy] had suffered the consequences of the life that he had to live, I wanted one more chance to pick him up and shake the dust off his ass and stick him out there, bereft of some of his vigor, to see what happened. I’m still happy I made that movie."
Ford now has the opportunity to rebound with Marvel Studios' Captain America: Brave New World and told the site he signed up to play President Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross with "no script" presented to him. "Why not? I saw enough Marvels to see actors that I admired having a good time."
"I didn’t really know that at the end I would turn into the Red Hulk," he then joked. "Well, it’s like life. You only get so far in the kit until the last page of the instructions is missing."
Recently, Mangold admitted that the response to Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny - social media painted it as an insult to the iconic series - "hurt" him.
"You have a wonderful, brilliant actor who’s in his eighties," he started. "So I’m making a movie about this guy in his eighties, but his audience on one other level doesn’t want to confront their hero at that age. And I am like, I’m good with it. We made the movie."
"But the question is, how would anything have made the audience happy with that, other than having to start over again with a new guy?"
Reflecting on Ford, Steven Spielberg, and Kathleen Kennedy approaching him with the idea of helming the next Indiana Jones movie, Mangold said, "And then here come lifelong heroes from my childhood into my life going, 'We have something for you to work on."
He'd add that was it a "joyous experience, but it hurt in the sense that I really love Harrison and I wanted audiences to love him as he was and to accept that that’s part of what the movie has to say - that things come to an end, that’s part of life."
Were you disappointed with Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.