20 facts you might not know about 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'

George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, two of the most successful filmmakers ever, worked hand-in-hand on the  Indiana Jones series. By the time they pitched the concept to Paramount, they already had quite a bit of cache. When they signed a deal with Paramount in the late 1970s, it was for five films.

After Last Crusade, Lucas and Spielberg figured that would be that. Even with the five-film deal, the duo was done with the globetrotting archeologist. Lucas couldn’t think of a plot idea worth turning into a film, and Spielberg figured he was going to “mature” as a filmmaker and did not want to direct any more films in the series.

While Lucas didn’t think he could make another Indiana Jones movie, he did produce the TV show The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles . One episode featured Harrison Ford narrating as an older Indiana, which gave Lucas the idea of jumping forward in time with the character. The original films were an homage to old film serials. In Lucas' mind, the new film would pay tribute to 1950s sci-fi films. Ford didn’t like that idea, and Spielberg didn’t want to do another alien movie.

Though his star and director weren’t into the idea, Lucas proceeded. He hired Jeb Stuart, who had written The Fugitive, to handle the task. Lucas had discovered that Joseph Stalin was interested in psychic warfare, so he asked Stuart to make the villains Soviets and the aliens psychic.

After the Stuart draft, Lucas brought on Jeffrey Boam, who had written on the screenplay for Last Crusade. Boam wrote three drafts, the last of which was completed in March 1996. A few months later, Independence Day was released. In the wake of this, Spielberg said he had no interest in an alien invasion movie, and Lucas moved on to the Star Wars prequels.

In 2000, Spielberg said in an interview his kids kept asking him when he would make a new Indiana Jones film. Over the next few years, the director made several darker films, such as A.I. and Munich. After all that darkness, Spielberg wanted to make a lighter film, and that got him ready to finally make a fourth Indiana Jones movie.

There was still a roadblock to a new Indiana Jones movie: Lucas’ insistence on aliens being involved and Spielberg’s skepticism. However, Lucas reframed the aliens as being interdimensional beings rather than from another planet. Apparently, that worked. Lucas also suggested that the Crystal Skulls could help ground the concept of aliens. He had planned to use the Crystal Skulls in a Young Indiana Jones episode, but the show was canceled.

In 2002, M. Night Shyamalan was brought on to write a draft of the film. This was before the bloom had come off the rose with Shyamalan. The filmmaker felt too daunted at writing an Indiana Jones movie and did not enjoy working alongside the big three of Lucas, Spielberg, and Ford. He left the project swiftly.

The Nazis are the foremost villains in the Indiana Jones trilogy. When Frank Darabont did a pass on the script in 2002, the film was going to feature ex-Nazis pursuing Jones in the 1950s. Soon, Lucas and Spielberg soured on the idea. After making Schindler's List, Spielberg realized he didn’t want to deal with Nazis again. Thus, out went the Nazis, and the Soviets were back in as the baddies.

That Darabont version had the subtitle “The City of Gods.” After that, titles bandied about included “Destroyer of Worlds” and “The Atomic Ants.” Spielberg decided he wanted to mention the Crystal Skulls in the title, and Lucas contributed the “Kingdom” part, getting us to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Ford is known to be curmudgeonly and has spoken about, say, not enjoying playing Han Solo in the past. Apparently, he was dedicated to playing Indiana Jones again. He also was not trying to hide his age. Ford wanted to use his return to the role to highlight the viability of an older hero. The actor refused to dye his hair and asked for more references to Indiana’s age in the script. He also did as many of his stunts as he could.

Oscar-winning actress Blanchett stepped into the villain role as Irina Spalko, a character that didn’t enter the proceedings until David Koepp’s draft, which came late in the project (Koepp has sole screenwriting credit). Spielberg was a big fan of the character and Blanchett’s performance. He has called Irina his favorite Indiana Jones villain.

Allen made a splash as Marion in Raiders of the Lost Ark, and finally, the character got to return to the series. Although, Allen was basically the last person to know. In January 2007, after the film had already been announced, Spielberg called Allen to tell her the news before adding, “And guess what? You're in it!”

Originally, Indiana and Marion were going to have a 13-year-old daughter, but Spielberg found that idea too similar to The Lost World. So, they created a slightly older son character. At this point, Koepp was going to make Mutt a “nerdy” character, but Lucas wanted him to be like Marlon Brando in The Wild One. Mutt went from Potsie to Fonzie.

Connery was given a chance to make a cameo as Henry Jones Sr., and Rhys-Davies was asked to play Sallah for the third time. However, both turned the movie down because they felt their roles weren’t big enough.

People were excited to see Indiana Jones back on the big screen, and they came out in droves. The film made $790.7 million worldwide. It was the third-highest-grossing movie domestically that year, but the films that beat it signified the sea change in movie-making. Those two films were The Dark Knight and Iron Man, presaging the rise of the comic-book movie.

Critics actually liked Crystal Skull, by and large. The film has a 78 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and Roger Ebert gave it three stars. However, moviegoers were not as happy with it, particularly because Indiana Jones survives a nuclear blast by hiding in a fridge. This led to the rise of the phrase “nuking the fridge,” which is akin to “jumping the shark.” 

Spielberg and Lucas have taken “credit” for the idea of Indiana hiding in the fridge while admitting it was fairly silly. Why fans suddenly wanted verisimilitude from a franchise that had already included boogens melting a Nazi's face and surviving a plane crash in an inflatable raft, we don’t know.

Fans may have quibbled, but they didn’t ask for the film to be banned. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation did. They said the film “demonized” the Soviet Union and wanted Crystal Skull banned. Needless to say, their pleas went unanswered.

Getting to play the role of Mutt was big for LaBeouf at the time, though in the ensuing years, the actor has worn out any goodwill he had generated through a series of incidents and decisions. In the wake of Crystal Skull's release, the actor spoke about the film at Cannes in 2010. He expressed disappointment in the movie and himself, noting that he had “dropped the ball on the legacy that people loved and cherished.” After this, Ford gave a very Ford interview, in which he called LaBeouf a “f—ing idiot” and added, “As an actor, I think it's my obligation to support the film without making a complete a— of myself.”

A fifth Indiana Jones film was announced in 2016, with Ford returning to the role. The film was supposed to be released in 2019, but it got delayed, and, well, a pandemic happened. Spielberg stepped down as director, being replaced by James Mangold. The fifth movie, currently untitled, is scheduled to be released on June 30, 2023.