Karen Allen says Indiana Jones 5 originally had "much bigger" role for Marion

indiana jones and the kingdom of the crystal skull, shia labeouf and karen allen
Indiana Jones 5 planned "bigger" role for MarionLucasfilm/Paramount Pictures/Kobal - Shutterstock

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny spoilers follow.

Indiana Jones star Karen Allen has revealed that new movie Dial of Destiny originally had a "much bigger" role for her character Marion Ravenwood.

The star first appeared as the character in Raiders of the Lost Ark, returning for 2008's Kingdom of the Crystal Skull where she eventually marries Indy (Harrison Ford).

While she's back briefly in Dial of Destiny, Allen explained in a new interview with Variety that the first iteration of the newly-released fifth movie intended to have Marion play a larger part, before director Steven Spielberg departed.

indiana jones, raiders of the lost ark, karen allen
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"I think because the last time you see Indy and Marion, they’ve gotten married — I don’t know that I thought we’d pick up from where we left off, but I did always imagine that it would be a story with Indy and Marion going forward," she said.

"When Steven was going to direct the film, I think the scripts were more focused on an Indy/Marion story."

Allen recalled that when director James Mangold stepped in, "he started fresh with new writers and they just went in the direction they went in," noting that "they were going to tell a different story".

karen allen
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"That’s not to say that I had ever read a script that Steven was working on, because I hadn’t," she added. "But I just knew from conversations that we’d had that the ongoing story had involved Marion in a much bigger way than the story that they ended up with."

The star went on to admit that she was "disappointed" over the plotline that Indy and Marion had divorced after their son Mutt (Shia LaBeouf) was killed in the Vietnam War.

"I knew that there had been talk that they did not want to go forward with Shia, so I knew that something in the story had to create the potential for him to not be there in a way that made sense," she continued.

indiana jones and the kingdom of the crystal skull, shia labeouf and karen allen
Lucasfilm/Paramount Pictures/Kobal - Shutterstock

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"I didn’t know that he was going to die in Vietnam until I read the script. Oh gosh, it was maybe six months before they were going to start shooting. I was deeply happy that Marion came back at least the end of their story.

"If this is indeed truly the last film of this particular group of films — if this is the last story with Harrison as Indy and me as Marion — I was profoundly happy that it didn’t end without them coming back together.

"That meant a lot to me, to feel like they were going to ride off in the sunset together."

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is out now in UK and US cinemas.

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