Indiana Jones and The Dial Of Destiny: Release date, trailer and cast as Cannes reviews arrive

'It's not the age, it's the mileage honey'

·10-min read
Harrison Ford in the first look image from Indiana Jones 5. (Lucasfilm/Disney)
Harrison Ford in the first look image from Indiana Jones 5. (Lucasfilm/Disney)

For fans of everyone’s favourite adventuring archaeologist, Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny has been a long time coming. The 1960s-set sequel is finally coming to cinemas later this year and we’ve had a few teasers of what’s to come so far.

Notably, this will be the first feature film in the series not to be directed by Steven Spielberg, with James Mangold (Le Mans ’66, Logan) at the helm for this fifth and final outing. Spielberg and series co-creator George Lucas will serve as executive producers instead.

Read more: Indiana Jones 5 could be the perfect end for Harrison Ford

Mangold has said the film is a story about “a hero at sunset”, reckoning with Indy’s advancing age, but what else does this fifth and final film have in store?

Here’s everything you need to know about Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny…

Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny release date

Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) in Lucasfilm's IJ5. ©2022 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) in Lucasfilm's Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. (Disney)

The new Indiana Jones adventure will arrive exclusively in UK cinemas on 28 June, 2023. This is two days earlier than its global release on 30 June.

It is set to the be the longest Indy film so far with executive producer Kathleen Kennedy telling Collider at Star Wars Celebration in April that the film is "around 2 hours 22 [or] 23 minutes", adding that runtime "seems to be a hot topic".

The film will host its world premiere at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival on Thursday, 18 May with Disney confirming that this will indeed be Dr Jones' final big-screen quest.

It’s been 15 years since the fourth instalment, Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull, which came along a whopping 19 years after the original trilogy-topper Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade.

Read more on Variety: Indiana Jones 5 planning Cannes Festival premiere (2 min read)

The earliest rumblings of a fifth instalment came after Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull was released in 2008 and have gradually grown louder over time. This is the first new Indy adventure released by Disney, which acquired Lucasfilm in 2012 and later purchased the Indiana Jones distribution rights from Paramount in 2013.

Look for it on Disney+ rather than Paramount+ a few months after the exclusive cinema release.

What are critics saying about Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny?

After premiering at Cannes Film Festival to a standing ovation and a teary-eyed Ford, early reviews for Indy's fifth and final adventure have started to arrive. Is it fortune and glory or do critics have a bad feeling about Dr. Jones' last quest? Here's what they've been saying...

The Telegraph: A shabby counterfeit of priceless treasure (4 min read)

Evening Standard: Harrison Ford still packs a punch (3 min read)

The Independent: Harrison Ford carries this ragged exercise in nostalgia (4 min read)

Variety: Harrison Ford Plays the Aging Indy in a Sequel That Serves Up Nostalgic Hokum Minus the Thrill (7 min read)

The Hollywood Reporter: Harrison Ford Cracks the Whip One Last Time in a Final Chapter Short on Both Thrills and Fun (7 min read)

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny trailer

The first trailer for the film was released in December 2022, followed by a 30-second teaser during the 2023 Super Bowl.

The official trailer was released by Lucasfilm at Star Wars Celebration in 2023. It gave us our best look yet at the film, showing Harrison Ford's Indy is back to his swashbuckling best.

Who’s in the cast of Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny?

(L-R): Teddy (Ethann Isidore), Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) and Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) in Lucasfilm's INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY. (Lucasfilm)
(L-R): Teddy (Ethann Isidore), Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) and Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) in Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny. (Lucasfilm)

For starters, The Man In The Hat is back. Whatever Disney’s plans after this, Harrison Ford has made it clear that there’s no Indiana Jones without him, and he’s duly returning for this fifth run-around.

Read more: How Harrison Ford won the role of Han Solo

He’s also made it clear that this one is his last, telling Empire magazine: "I just thought it would be nice to see one where Indiana Jones was at the end of his journey."

(L-R): Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) and Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) in Lucasfilm's Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. (Lucasfilm)
(L-R): Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) and Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) in Lucasfilm's Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. (Lucasfilm)

Leading the new additions to the cast is Phoebe Waller-Bridge as Helena Shaw, Indy’s goddaughter, a character who drags our hero into his latest adventure when she brings trouble to his doorstep.

Speculation abounds that Helena might be related to another character from the franchise, but that’s one aspect of the film that’s being kept under wraps.

Doctor Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) in Lucasfilm's Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. (Lucasfilm)
Doctor Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) in Lucasfilm's Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. (Lucasfilm)

Elsewhere, the great Mads Mikkelsen plays the film’s villain, Jürgen Voller, a Nazi scientist who’s found a new vocation in the American space program but still has designs on changing the world.

Talking to Yahoo at Star Wars Celebration, director James Mangold says Voller is different to previous antagonists that have faced Indy.

I’d say he’s more sophisticated,” said Mangold. “He’s already been working in the United States on our moon projects and helping put us on the moon, so he’s been kind of part of life in the States. But he has another agenda – and that one would be familiar.”

Read more: 'No-one is replacing Indiana Jones'

Other new supporting cast-members include Antonio Banderas and Toby Jones as new allies of Indy’s allies, plus Boyd Holbrook (“I’m a lapdog to Mads, and a crazy one at that,” the Holbrook says) and Thomas Kretschmann as a Nazi colonel.

Klaber (Boyd Holbrook) in Lucasfilm's Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. (Lucasfilm)
Klaber (Boyd Holbrook) in Lucasfilm's Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. (Lucasfilm)

As for other returning cast members, John Rhys-Davies appears in the teaser trailer for the film, reprising his role as Sallah from Raiders Of The Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade.

Read more: The Last Crusade was nearly a total disaster

There have been numerous reports about the return of Karen Allen as Marion Ravenwood, who married Indy at the climax of the previous film, but these are unconfirmed for now.

Shia LaBeouf as Mutt Williams in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. (Alamy)
Shia LaBeouf as Mutt Williams in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. (Alamy)

One character who definitely won’t be back is Indy’s son, Henry “Mutt” Jones III, played by Shia LaBeouf in the fourth film.

Mutt was written out in the earliest drafts of the film when Spielberg was still attached to direct. It’s since been confirmed that LaBeouf’s character is not in The Dial Of Destiny, but Mangold told Entertainment Weekly that we’ll ‘find out what happened to him’ in the new film.

Indiana Jones and The Dial Of Destiny's plot

(Clockwise from right): Colonel Weber (Thomas Kretschmann) and Doctor Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) in Lucasfilm's IJ5. ©2022 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
Colonel Weber (Thomas Kretschmann) and Doctor Jurgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) in Indiana Jones 5. (Lucasfilm)

As with Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull, a lot of plot specifics are being kept under wraps, so we don’t yet know much about what the script – written by Mangold, Jez Butterworth, and John-Henry Butterworth – has in store.

Read more: Funny Raiders of the Lost Ark detail you missed

However, Empire Magazine’s preview tells us that the film primarily takes place in 1969 and Indy will be pitted against the Nazis again, this time as some of their scientists wind up working for America in the Space Race against the Soviet Union.

Jez Butterworth told the magazine: "The simple fact is that the moon-landing program was run by a bunch of ex-Nazis. How 'ex' they are is the question. And it gets up Indy's nose…"

Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) in Lucasfilm's Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. (Lucasfilm)
Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) in Lucasfilm's Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. (Lucasfilm)

We don’t know what the titular Dial of Destiny is just yet, but following the franchise formula, we expect a plot McGuffin in the same lineage as the Ark of the Covenant, the Sankara Stones, the Holy Grail, and (who could forget?) the Crystal Skulls of Akator.

What we do know is that the film’s traditional prologue will be a flashback set in 1944, with a de-aged Indy battling Nazis during wartime.

Filming took place at Northumberland’s Bamburgh Castle (could we see the Disney logo transition to this location like the traditional Paramount logo dissolves in the previous films?) in June 2021 and we got our first glimpse of the dazzlingly de-aged Ford in the first trailer for the film.

Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) in Lucasfilm's IJ5. ©2022 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) in Indiana Jones and The Dial Of Destiny. (Lucasfilm)

Filming also took place in Glasgow, with the city centre transformed to resemble a ticker-tape parade for the Apollo 11 astronauts in New York City. The event in question took place in August 1969, weeks after the moon landing, so if you’re wondering about this instalment being one small step for man and one giant leap for Indiana Jones, then maybe not.

Read more: Why a female Indiana Jones is a bad idea

Mangold has been on the ball with debunking some reported spoilers too – there’s inevitably a lot of speculation around this film’s plot, but reports of reshoots and poor test screenings would seem to be mean-spirited scuttlebutt.

(Lucasfilm)
(Lucasfilm)

The director told Entertainment Weekly: "I think that what we're trying to do is balance both an accurate and realistic appraisal of where this character would be at this time in his life, and do that honestly, and at the same time, try and carry forward what the very title of our movie promises, which is a romp and a wonderful adventure with action and chivalry and escapes by the skin of your nose and ingenious solutions to diabolical problems.

"This is an Indiana Jones film."

Talking to Yahoo at Celebration Mangold added: “It’s a new time and it’s a new place and also we’re giving you both a taste of the past and then a sudden shocking awakening into the present.

"But similarly what does make it new is that you have an old-school hero in a time that doesn’t necessarily welcome old-school heroes any more.”

Another reassuring element is Spielberg's glowing response to the movie. Speaking to Empire, the franchise's long-time director admitted that Mangold's movie was "really good."

“I just had that experience two nights ago. Bob Iger had a screening for a lot of the Disney executives and I came to the screening along with James Mangold, the director. Everybody loved the movie,” he told the outlet. “It’s really, really a good Indiana Jones film. I’m really proud of what Jim has done with it.”

He added: “When the lights came up, I just stood up and turned to the group and said, ‘Damn! I thought I was the only one who knew how to make one of these’.”

High praise indeed.

Indiana Jones and The Dial Of Destiny is in cinemas from 30 June, 2023.

Watch Harrison Ford talk about de-aging for Indiana Jones 5