Taking over a franchise from Steven Spielberg is a thankless task, and James Mangold’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is proof. The fifth Indiana Jones movie is far from the worst non-Spielberg sequel to a Spielberg film — the Jaws and Jurassic Park follow-ups would like a word — but it might be the most high-profile flop. Dial of Destiny was Disney’s summer tentpole and, despite enjoying a bigger opening than any movie in the series, it also cost at least $100 million more than any other movie in the series. It’s one of the most expensive films ever made and, barring the kind of act of God you might see in the third act of an Indiana Jones movie, there’s no way it will ever turn a profit for Disney.
That isn’t great news for James Mangold, who is set to direct another movie for Lucasfilm. Mangold’s film about the dawn of the Jedi is one of three forthcoming Star Wars movies announced earlier this year at Star Wars Celebration 2023, alongside a film about Daisy Ridley’s Rey forming a new Jedi order and a Mandoverse movie from Dave Filoni. Mangold’s movie always seemed less commercial than the others, set thousands of years before the earliest Star Wars movie and focused on the earliest days of people learning to commune with the Force.
“I thought about a biblical epic, like a Ten Commandments and the dawning of the Force,” Mangold said at SWC '23. “Where did the Force come from? When did we discover it? When did we know how to use it? And a story just started developing.”
That sounds cool as hell. It also sounds, given Disney’s track record, like something that is definitely not going to happen. Since the House of Mouse acquired the Star Wars license back in 2012, it has canceled far more Star Wars movies than it has actually released. Even among the movies that have made it to the big screen, multiple have swapped directors mid-stream, with Disney taking projects away from attached creators because of difficulties on set. Much of Solo was shot by Across the Spider-Verse producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller before they were fired and the remainder of the movie was given to steady hand Ron Howard to finish. Gareth Edwards started out as the director of Rogue One (and did get credited as such in the final release) but the movie was finished by Andor creator Tony Gilroy.
More relevant for Mangold’s situation, though, is Disney’s penchant for taking a director’s film away if they have a project go poorly. Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow was announced as the helmer of Episode 9 but, after his movie The Book of Henry bombed and received baffled reviews, the movie was taken from him and given to J.J. Abrams. Game of Thrones showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff rushed through the final season of their HBO fantasy series, presumably so they could get to their Star Wars movie, only for that movie to be canceled once Game of Thrones’ final season was poorly received. And, though the movie was a box office smash, Disney seems to have quietly canceled Rian Johnson’s announced Star Wars trilogy in response to fan complaints about The Last Jedi.
All of that leaves James Mangold in a precarious position. Like Colin Trevorrow, his movie is bombing - and his budget was 30 times higher than Trevorrow’s $10 million. Unlike any of the other directors, his Star Wars movie would be unlike anything we’ve ever seen and without any real commercial hooks, but would still probably be very expensive. If I was a betting man, I would say it’s only a matter of time before he’s benched. That's bad news for Mangold, and bad news for anyone who wants to see Star Wars move beyond the Skywalkers.