‘Indiana Jones 5’ director knows exactly what you were thinking and dubs himself ‘the icon executioner’

When James Mangold was first announced to be directing the movie that eventually became Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, everyone’s first reaction was to question why anyone other than Steven Spielberg should be tackling the legendary franchise.

Once that particular dust storm had settled, a feeling of dread began to set in, and with good reason. After all, Mangold was the one who sentenced Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine to death in Logan, so the prospect of him taking on another veteran legend was enough to send a shiver down the collective spine.

Funnily enough, Mangold was completely aware that fans would perhaps put two and two together, and even bestowed himself with an ominous nickname during an interview with Entertainment Weekly to showcase just how cognizant he was of that fact.

“I think everyone, particularly, because I made Logan and wrote it as well, there was a lot of anxiety that I was just going to turn into the icon executioner. Honestly, I enjoy that people were so atwitter about it, because to me, there really is no attraction to just getting thousands of people in a theater and hitting them in a head with a hammer… Death is not an ending.

The reason death worked in Logan is because of the beautiful irony of his death, which is that he lived such a painful life, that it was only in the last 30 seconds of his life that he actually got to experience love. And that to me was what was so moving about that ending. And [Jackman’s] off making another one right now. So you could see the finality of that.”

As Mangold says, Jackman may have returned to shoot Deadpool 3 alongside Ryan Reynolds, but we’d be very surprised if Harrison Ford ever ends up dusting off the whip and fedora for another Indiana Jones flick.