It turns out those Indiana Jones 5 rumors were right as director James Mangold has admitted the ending to the film was changed.
Recall all the controversy as rumors offered that test screenings were held featuring different endings that audiences absolutely loathed.
The endings are said to have included Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Helena) replacing Harrison Ford at the request of Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy.
The worst ending is said to have taken place in the 1930s. A young Indiana Jones sacrifices himself to save Helena, causing old Indy to fade away. Helena picks up the whip, dons the fedora, and becomes the new Indiana Jones and the classic John Williams music score hits. The leaks also said that a significant portion of the film took place in the ’30s.
What does James Mangold reveal?
Regarding what James Mangold has to say, he doesn’t confirm Phoebe Waller-Bridge was going to replace Harrison Ford but he does confirm multiple endings and scripts (via Gizmodo):
“When I came on the movie, they had been playing with a bunch of different things which were basically just reduxes of what had happened in the first movie. Just more apparitions and ghosts and I felt like I was just watching the first movie over again when I envisioned what was in the existing scripts. And I felt like what Steven [Spielberg] and George [Lucas] and Larry Kasdan and David Koepp as well had done successfully in the other films, was to keep kind of pulling up a rock on a different aspect of history and metaphysics and not going back to the same thing. In a way I didn’t want to do the kind of ‘Is it a Death Star again?’”
Mangold also reveals that Indiana Jones 5 originally mostly took place in the 1930s time period (just like the leaks said):
“…the movie is exploring the themes of time, past and present. That became my central idea.” Which is why the movie opens in the past and, in other iterations, went back there at the end. “When we did start writing, it was my theory that at first that we would end up back in Nazi Germany in 1938.“
Mangold also confirms an ending had the older Indiana Jones returning to the time of the younger Indiana Jones in the ’30s from the start of the movie (again, just as the leaks said):
“As we got there, it started occurring to me that a) that’s what the audience is going to be anticipating, and therefore not very surprising to them, and b) we’d be plunged just back into the opening of the film only with a 79-year-old Indy running around,” Mangold said. “I felt we needed something more shocking, something bolder, and something that also affected Indy. If he had gone back to Nazi Germany, he would simply be a hero trying to stop Voller from doing his plan. If he ended up where he does end up in the film, he was going to be facing bigger questions about his own life and what he studied all his life. And I thought that was going to be more interesting. And also, usually bolder is better if you can do it.”
Doomcock was right
Again, while James Mangold hasn’t confirmed that Indiana Jones was going to get killed off and replaced, he does confirm the leaked story elements that Indy was going to go back in time to the 1930s where his younger self exists from the start of the movie.
In the theatrical release, the end of the movie sees Indy time travel to the past with Helena, to the Seige of Syracuse in 212 BC.
According to the leaks, that scene actually took place before Indy went back in time to the 1930s at the end of the movie, where he ends up getting killed and Helena takes over.
This also seems to explain why the ending to the theatrical release seems rushed. The theatrical release ending features a wounded Indy in Rome who passes out and then wakes up in his apartment and the movie ends.
Judging from the leaks, Mangold nixed the return to Nazi Germany ending (said to be at the request of Bob Iger) and quickly wrapped things up in Rome.
Also, recall how following the leaks James Mangold cursed out and harrassed fans online including YouTuber Doomcock who now we know was right all along, and others.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny also ended up bombing big time at the box office and reportedly lost Disney and Lucasfilm $100 million.
James Mangold is also developing a Star Wars movie at Lucasfilm and has joined James Gunn in the new DCU on Swamp Thing.
There it is folks – Mangold finally ADMITS there were multiple endings, EXACTLY as my spies reported! Once again, and never doubt: DOOMCOCK WAS RIGHT! #DoomcockWasRight https://t.co/q8wRD8Ox9O pic.twitter.com/3klpXtuGTe
— Doomcock (@doomcock) December 9, 2023
