Shia LaBeouf’s Indiana Jones Hero Fate Revealed
Shia LaBeouf will not be returning to Indiana Jones 5, per director James Mangold.
Shia LaBeouf can be a fairly divisive figure, and most fans agree he was the worst part of Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull. Now, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (which has bombed in recent test screenings) director James Mangold has confirmed that LaBeouf’s character Mutt will not be returning to the franchise in this new film. However, Mangold has reassured audiences that they will “find out what happened” to this character in a movie that will be focusing mostly on grizzled archeologist Indiana Jones.
Arguably, part of what made Shia LaBeouf feel so out of place in Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull was that his character archetype felt out of place. To accommodate Harrison Ford getting older, that movie was set in a time when “greaser” culture was ascendant in America. Nonetheless, it felt jarring to see LaBeouf looking like a reject from Grease as he joined Indy on the latter’s globe-hopping adventures.
And, of course, anyone who still liked Shia LaBeouf in that last Indiana Jones movie lost their faith when they saw him swinging on those stupid vines. Notably, in a movie where we see Indiana Jones survive an atomic explosion by hiding in a refrigerator, it was the antics of motorcycle punk Mutt that earned the greatest ire from fans. Therefore, it’s not that surprising that Mutt won’t be riding with his father again in the new movie.
Interestingly, nobody is a bigger critic of Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull than Shia LaBeouf himself. When he attended the Cannes Film Festival in 2010, the actor was surprisingly candid about letting down fans of this familiar franchise. He even pointed out that while it’s easy enough to criticize things like the swinging vine scene and blame the writer or director, it’s the actor’s job to bring their vision to life, and LaBeouf feels he let fans down in that regard.
Both Shia LaBeouf fans and Shia LaBeouf haters have been intrigued by the promise that we’ll discover his fate in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. It’s possible that some letter, gift, or another artifact from Mutt’s character may help to drive the narrative forward. Then again, Crystal Skull teased the death of Indy’s father by simply showing us pictures of Sean Connery, so it’s possible that Mutt’s fate may be revealed as part of a throwaway Easter egg, and they could always elaborate more in the future Disney+ series.
Aside from all the negative fan reaction to his prior Indiana Jones performance, James Mangold has another compelling reason to keep Shia LaBeouf out of the new film: he’s effectively been replaced! Details are still very light on the plot for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, but it looks like much of it will revolve around Indy’s goddaughter Helena, played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge (best known for making you laugh uncontrollably during almost every frame of Fleabag). If a young new female protagonist ends up carrying the torch, and especially if Indy ends up dying, then this new film may end up having a lot in common with Logan, the blockbuster movie previously directed by Mangold.
