Some new quotes from Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny director James Mangold have been published by way of The Hollywood Reporter.
Yet as fans already know, the film’s opening sequence is set back in Indy’s glory days. Ford was de-aged using AI technology and the Lucasfilm’s library of footage from his previous work. Mangold says the sequence isn’t just a fun throwback but provides more meaningful context to the character for the rest of the film.
“It reminds the audience of the contrast between a hero in his physical prime and a hero at 70,” Mangold says. “We’re not relying solely on the audience’s memory of the previous films. It reminds everyone what he’s done, what he’s survived, what he’s accomplished. By showing him in his most hearty and then finding him at 70 in New York City, it produces for the audience a kind of wonderful whiplash of how they’re going to have to readjust and retool their brains for this guy. His past is a live memory for the audience, hanging over a man who is now living with anonymity in a world that no longer cares or recognizes the things he felt so deeply about. You’re left with a multilayered perception of his character, both what he was and what he is, and how the world is different between the first 20 minutes of the movie.”
Though there's always something vaguely mannequin-like about the end result to even my aging peepers, the glimpses we've gotten of this VFX effort look like it's going to be the best of its kind so far. Read Mangold's comments in full here.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter