Warning: This article contains major spoilers for Indiana Jones And The Dial of Destiny.
The director of the latest Indiana Jones movie has addressed Shia Labeouf’s absence from the film, insisting his character’s fate wasn’t influenced by any off-screen factors.
Shia played Mutt Williams, the long-lost son of Harrison Ford’s titular character, in 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
However, in the newly-released Indiana Jones and the Dial Of Destiny, viewers learn that Mutt was killed in the Vietnam War.
The decision to kill off Shia’s character has naturally raised questions over whether the actor’s comments on the franchise influenced the decision.
While The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull wasn’t exactly critically-lauded at the time, Shia hasn’t minced his words when talking about the movie and its director in the years since its release.
In 2010, he admitted he felt “like I dropped the ball on the legacy that people loved and cherished”, and six years later, he claimed: “I don’t like the movies that I made with [Steven] Spielberg.”
Speaking to Variety, Dial of Destiny director James Mangold has insisted these comments weren’t taken into account when the new film was being written.
“[His character’s death] is separate from all past studio, political intrigue on movies I didn’t make,” he said.
“You were either going to make a movie all about [the two characters] or you’re going to have to find a way to not have [Mutt] around, because he was too significant a player in the previous film to just pretend he didn’t exist.”
Giving his verdict on Harrison and Shia’s previous Indiana Jones efforts, he added: “I didn’t think his whole thing worked that well in the previous film. I just went towards something else because it was what was more interesting to me.”
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, the fifth instalment in the franchise, marks 80-year-old Harrison’s final outing as the intrepid archaeologist, and the straight–talking star is definitely ready to hang up his fedora for good.
In June, Harrison claimed he is not “going to miss anything” about playing Indiana Jones as he told Entertainment Tonight: “Because the film will still be there for people, when I’m dust, and it doesn’t matter.”