2008's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull jumped the shark in a big way. While the franchise had embraced somewhat fantastical elements in the past, introducing aliens proved a step too far for many fans and wasn't what they were looking for from the iconic adventurer.
While that movie wrapped up with Indy heading off into the sunset, James Mangold's Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny was the franchise's true finale and, well, was even more of a disappointment for many fans.
Still, the movie didn't feature any little green men, even if it failed to recapture the magic of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom, and The Last Crusade.
Steven Spielberg and David Koepp have since reunited for a new UFO movie, Disclosure Day. In a piece from Vulture (via SFFGazette.com) celebrating Spielberg's legendary career, Kathleen Kennedy and George Lucas reflected on Kingdom of the Crystal Skull's aliens, with the latter admitting that it was largely his idea.
"I wanted it to be kind of a War of the Worlds sort of thing. Harrison said, 'I’m not going to do another science-fiction movie.' And Steven said, 'I’m not going to do another science-fiction movie,'" the Star Wars creator recalled. "I said, 'Steven, this is perfect because it’s the 1950s, when flying saucers were a whole thing,' but he said 'no.'"
"We did about five scripts, and finally Steve and I compromised: 'Look, what if they’re not aliens but from another dimension,'" Lucas added, revealing how one of the Indiana Jones franchise's biggest missteps came to be.
Kennedy, who was Lucasfilm President until fairly recently, concurred that Spielberg and Ford were not "100% on board," and explained, "That’s why the movie, out of the four that Steven made, is the weakest. And that’s why Harrison was so deeply committed to Destiny. He didn’t want that to be the end."
In 2022, Koepp confirmed he also wasn't a fan of the idea of bringing aliens into Indy's world. "I was never happy with the idea [of including alien-like creatures in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull]. When I came on, I tried to convince [director Steven Spielberg and franchise co-creator George Lucas] to change it - I had this other idea. They didn't want to change it."
He continued, "I'm not saying mine would've been better. But I think that a lot of the pushback that movie got, in a larger sense aside from little things people might not have liked - that were too silly or whatever - the larger one was that [fans said] 'We don't feel like aliens should've been in an Indiana Jones movie.' Fair enough, in retrospect, you're probably right [Laughs]."
Both Spielberg and Koepp have since redeemed themselves with Disclosure Day, but Indiana Jones's future is less certain. The property seems to have been put on the shelf for now, but we know Ford is 100% done with the role.
There were once rumblings about rebooting the series, with Guardians of the Galaxy star Chris Pratt taking over the role from Ford. The moment for that has passed, and Lucasfilm likely learned its lesson from 2018's Solo: A Star Wars Story, where Alden Ehrenreich was tasked with taking over another of the actor's most iconic roles.
As for Disclosure Day, that's playing in theaters worldwide.