Warning: SPOILERS for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny are in play. If you haven’t taken this final adventure with Dr. Jones, you’ve been warned.
Right from the start of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, the twists in Indy’s life started to come fast and furious. With a shot revealing that his marriage with iconic sweetheart Marion Ravenwood was on the outs, a set of divorce papers made for a pretty grim piece of early exposition. That decision tied into a twist that comes later in the movie, which sidelines Marion for all but the final scene of the film. If you thought Indiana Jones fans were disappointed in this turn, actor Karen Allen shared some thoughts that were on a similar wavelength.
As Ms. Allen was interviewed by THR, the initial expectations she shared for her potential role in Indiana Jones 5 seemed reasonable. The project had been in development for over a decade, with early phases presumed to include more Marion Ravenwood adventure in the mix. That was all dashed when Allen read the completed script, which led to this heartbreaking reaction:
The next thing I knew, I was reading a script that told [Dial of Destiny’s] story, and of course, I was disappointed. I had thought that I would be majorly a part of the film, and that was just not the direction they decided to go. I think they had some problems to solve with the story in terms of Shia LaBeouf not coming back, and they chose to create this story that Mutt had been killed in the war and that it put a wedge between Marion and Indy. I mean, you could have knocked me over with a feather when I read it. But I was really happy that they came back together in the end.
It appears that the reason why Mutt Williams isn’t in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny had a direct impact on the presence of Karen Allen’s Marion Ravenwood. With that tragic loss in the family looming over the pair we met in Raiders of the Lost Ark, it gave her absence a thematic purpose. Learning this fate when being handed the presumed shooting draft, and after over a decade of waiting for this next chapter to take off, certainly counts as a shock of one of the largest magnitudes.
Karen Allen’s reaction to this Dial of Destiny twist also makes sense because of just how much she cares for the character of Marion. As she collaborated with Steven Spielberg and writer Lawrence Kasdan to phase out Marion Ravenwood’s potential damsel in distress moments in Raiders, it isn’t a stretch to share the disappointment of seeing this iconic source of wit and assistance absent from the majority of Indiana Jones 5; especially when Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull went through the trouble of marrying the reunited couple after decades of waiting.
Should there be any silver linings to this story, it’s the following takeaways. First, and most importantly, Indy and Marion’s relationship timeline does end happily, and the scene that shows Harrison Ford and Karen Allen reliving a moment of Raiders of the Lost Ark love is one of the best things to happen in Dial of Destiny. But also, judging by how Karen Allen played off Indiana Jones 5 questions as recently as last December, she is an amazing secret keeper, which only makes her even more of an asset for any project that’d like to hire her.
All of this talk about the unfortunate treatment of Marion Ravenwood might be enough to revisit the rest of the Indiana Jones franchise; or at the very least, 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark. No matter your preference, a Disney+ subscription can make it happen, should you have chosen wisely to sign up.
