Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny was Harrison Ford’s last outing from his beloved franchise. However, the film did not do well at the box office and did not receive rave reviews.
Its director, James Mangold, pointed the finger at the fans.
During an interview with Deadline, he said the audience was not ready to accept the older Indy.
“You have a wonderful, brilliant actor who’s in his eighties. 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,” the filmmaker said.
He continued, “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?”
James also said the negative reception stung him but expressed joy at meeting Harrison and the franchise’s previous director, Steven Spielberg.
“Here come lifelong heroes from my childhood into my life going, ‘We have something for you to work on.’ It was 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,” he concluded.
Released in the summer of 2023, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny made $381.6 million globally, reportedly registering a $100 million loss for Disney.
