WARNING: This article contains full spoilers for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
Harrison Ford finally reprised his role as the legendary treasure hunter in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny last month.
The film has been a long time coming and has also been touted as the final outing for both Ford and Indy, after he has been in the role for more than 40 years.
However, fans of the franchise were not too happy about the ending.
In the final moments, Indy reunited with his estranged wife, Marion Ravenwood, before the picture cut to black. Fans were looking for something a lot more definitive and final for Indiana Jones, however, like a powerful death where he went out in a heroic blaze of glory.
Director James Mangold couldn’t disagree more, however.
Speaking to EW, he revealed there was “no version” of the film where Indy died at the end of the story.
“How could I have done that?” Mangold asked. “I think everyone, particularly, because I made [2017 X-Men spin-off] Logan and wrote it as well, there was a lot of anxiety that I was just going to turn into the icon executioner.”
Mangold did confess that he appreciated the buzz, though.
He said: “Honestly, I enjoy that people were so atwitter about it, because to me, there really is no attraction to just getting thousands of people in a theater and hitting them in a head with a hammer.” (sic)
He added that “death is not an ending”. “The reason death worked in Logan is because of the beautiful irony of his death, which is that he lived such a painful life, that it was only in the last 30 seconds of his life that he actually got to experience love,” he went on.
It was a totally different story for Indiana Jones, though.
Mangold continued: “For Indiana Jones, it isn’t about him dying. It had to be about him coming to terms with this period of his life and this period of the world. And in a way, coming to terms with whether Indiana Jones has relevance to ours.”
