Mutt Williams, Shia LaBeouf’s character from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, is not in the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. This much has been known for some time. What hasn’t been known is if the film will just ignore him or make him part of the story — and now, we have a little more clarity on that.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Dial of Destiny director James Mangold confirmed fans will “find out what happened” to Mutt in the new film. He wouldn’t elaborate beyond that but it’s an encouraging piece of information. That Indy has a son who played such a huge part in his previous adventure, and whose mother Indy subsequently married, would have been a very weird thing to completely ignore. Sort of like if Crystal Skull ignored Indy’s dad or Marcus Brody, friends from the previous film. Of course, it didn’t and they were respectfully, but quickly, explained as dead by the story.
For Mutt, we imagine something similar. The bulk of Dial of Destiny takes place in 1969, during the height of the Vietnam War. You can very easily see that character being drafted and maybe dying there. He also was pretty cavalier with his motorcycle riding, so an accident wouldn’t be out of the question. (That admittedly feels like a less dignified way to go.) Or maybe he and Indy just had a falling out and don’t speak anymore. There are any number of ways the film can explain his whereabouts without making him a part of the story.
That story, though, will see Indy struggling with his old-school ways in a new-school world. “I’m always interested in this idea of a hero at sunset,” Mangold said. “What does the hero do when the world no longer has a place for him? I find it really interesting to try to look at classical heroes through the prism of our jaundiced contemporary attitudes.”
Read more from Mangold over at Entertainment Weekly. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny opens June 30.
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