Rumor: Kathleen Kennedy Wanted James Mangold To Jettison Marion Ravenwood From ‘Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny’ Film
John F. Trent
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A new rumor claims that Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy was behind a decision to jettison Marion Ravenwood from much of the Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny script.
Kathleen Kennedy attends the U.S Premiere of Lucasfilms’ Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, sponsored in part by Dolby, Swaine and Hamilton at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, CA on Wednesday, June 14, 2023
(photo: Alex J. Berliner/ABImages)
This new rumor comes from scooper WDW Pro.
WDW Pro relayed that one of his sources informed him that “Marion and Indy were together for this adventure again in the Spielberg scripts that were put together and that when James Mangold came in that he was heavily influenced by Kathleen Kennedy to drop Marion and switch to a younger woman who would be able to essentially act as the new lead and then have Harrison Ford play the part of a broken kind of Indiana Jones.”
The scooper then adds, “In all fairness, I’m told that Harrison Ford was keen on that because he wanted to have a more hefty role in terms of pushing his acting abilities with Indiana Jones. He did not want to play the same Indy for a fifth time.”
(L-R): Doctor Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen, standing), Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) and Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) in Lucasfilm’s INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
This rumor comes on the heels of actress Karen Allen speaking to Variety and relaying that her character had a much larger role in the film Steven Spielberg was planning on making before he stepped away from the film in 2020.
She said, “I think because the last time you see Indy and Marion, they’ve gotten married — I don’t know that I thought we’d pick up from where we left off, but I did always imagine that it would be a story with Indy and Marion going forward.”
“When Steven was going to direct the film, I think the scripts were more focused on an Indy/Marion story. But when Steven stepped aside and James came in, he started fresh with new writers and they just went in the direction they went in,” Allen continued.
Karen Allen as Marion Ravenwood in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Paramount Pictures
“They were going to tell a different story,” Allen asserted. “That’s not to say that I had ever read a script that Steven was working on, because I hadn’t.”
“But I just knew from conversations that we’d had that the ongoing story had involved Marion in a much bigger way than the story that they ended up with,” she concluded.
Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones and Karen Allen as Marion in Raiders of the Lost Ark, part of the Indiana Jones 4-Movie Collection
When asked if she would be interested in returning to the role of Marion again, Allen answered, “Absolutely. I don’t necessarily think that that is something that’s going to happen, but it would be delightful to play her again. I mean, I feel like I didn’t really have the opportunity in this film to take her into this later part of her of her life.”
“It would be incredible to be able to explore who she is and who she’s become. I don’t know,” she said. “They’re so interwoven with each other, I can’t imagine someone creating a film that revolved around Marion without Indy, but never say never. It could always happen!”
Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones and Karen Allen as Marion in Raiders of the Lost Ark, part of the Indiana Jones 4-Movie Collection
What do you make of this new rumor that Karen Allen’s Marion Ravenwood was supposed to have a much larger role in Spielberg’s film, but it was jettisoned when Mangold took over at the behest of Kathleen Kennedy?
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