After three Indiana Jones sequels all launched with mixed results, you may very well be cautious walking in to see Harrison Ford don the whip and put on the hat once more. With the latest trailer, it seems to be a mix of the old and new with some Crystal Skull elements creeping in along with some actually exciting bits accompanied by a new rendition of the classic theme. You may be thinking, oh dear, not another cash grab, not another outing with an old man way past his prime.

But there’s a silver lining in all of this news that people may not fully realize. James Mangold is sitting at the helm of this project. There may not exist a better director for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. He’s tackled some pretty diverse subjects from comedies to biopics to Marvel movies. He also ends up with at least one Oscar nomination for almost every movie he makes which is a pretty impressive track record. All this to say, this guy rarely misses when he goes after something. Let’s take a look at some past projects and how easily they could have been big blunders.

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A Resume of Success

     20th Century Studios

The R-rated superhero movie is a difficult animal to tackle. For every Deadpool, you end up getting a Spawn or a Faust that most see as a disaster. Zack Snyder’s Watchmen was met with pretty mixed audience results, but Logan on the other hand was widely beloved. What’s more, is that it did something seldom done by making a movie largely centered around getting older. It stars both a slow Wolverine and a not-all-there Professor Xavier getting worse instead of better.

But the movie is largely about creating a satisfying conclusion for both Wolverine and 20 years of X-Men movies. This all fits in perfectly with the ultimate goal of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Harrison Ford has said this is really the only reason he wanted to come back, to see how it all ends. As a final note on the topic, the movie got nominated for an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, which Mangold had a hand in. An impressive and rare feat for a Marvel movie which usually just sees the pity nomination for Special Effects.

You don’t have to know anything about cars to enjoy Ford vs Ferrari. It’s a car movie that doesn’t delve too deeply into minutiae that anyone can follow along to what really ends up being a fierce story of a rivalry between two huge car companies. Nominated for four Oscars, it’s a fun biopic of the very real rivalry between Henry Ford II and Enzo Ferrari as well as the role Ken Miles and Carroll Shelby played in the victory. What makes this one a qualifier though is the perfect pacing. The people in this movie are racing around much like the cars they drive. There’s hardly a dull moment which is an important quality in an Indiana Jones film.

Let’s go back further now to 3:10 to Yuma, which is a fantastic film all about complex characters and old men trying to prove their relevance. Christian Bale as Dan Evans is old, slow, missing a leg, and not in the prime of his life anymore. His own son detests everything that he is. He wants a man of action, an imagined ideal that conforms more to the villain than his father. Someone young and dangerous but his father’s days of this have passed on. Dan Evans can’t be that guy anymore, but it’s his dedication to what he stands for and his personal decisions that end up winning over his son instead of being the fastest gun in the West.

Sound familiar? This is where Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny really has an advantage with Mangold, someone who has written the script before. Indy isn’t a spring chicken, but there’s still a very likable character to be found even if he isn’t dragging himself on the underside of a truck at 80 years old.

Mangold’s Personal Attitude

     Walt Disney Studios

All told, this guy has the experience, but it seems also that he has the mindset. He has already separately discussed changing the script to accommodate for Indy’s age, which is a good sign given that it’s not something that they should simply ignore for the sake of the film. In fact, it stands to reason that it will be a much better film for embracing the challenge of what to do with your character who isn’t as spry as he used to be.

He’s also spoken to series creator Steven Spielberg for advice on the topic which seems wise given he did head up four of these movies. Spielberg reportedly told him, “It’s a movie that’s a trailer from beginning to end — always be moving.” Which does make a lot of sense when applied to the other films in the series.

Mangold has further spoken about his passion to bring a conclusive and satisfying end to this hero’s journey. Speaking of the script, he said “It became really important to me to figure out how to make this a movie about a hero at sunset.” He also sounded very eager to repeat what treatment he gave to Logan by embracing the concept of getting older mentioning “To me, whatever your greatest liability, you should fly straight towards that. If you try to pretend it’s not there, you end up getting slings and arrows the whole way.” This is something that even Steven Spielberg didn’t seem to get by poking fun at his hero’s age at every opportunity in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

In the end, Mangold has urged fans to give it a shot and then judge the movie saying, “Maybe, just maybe, I won’t let you down.”