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Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull has always been controversial. Even screenwriter David Koepp wasn’t happy using aliens in an Indiana Jones film; back in 2022, he revealed he tried to persuade Spielberg to change it. George Lucas had always wanted to make a B-movie from the ’50s, focusing in on UFO hysteria that flourished after the 1947 Roswell incident, and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was the result.
Celebrating the release of Spielberg’s latest UFO film, Disclosure Day, Vulture spoke to Hollywood insiders including Kathleen Kennedy and George Lucas himself. Kennedy openly recalled how Spielberg and Harrison Ford both struggled with the idea of aliens in Indiana Jones, and Lucas admitted this was largely his idea.
“I wanted it to be kind of a War of the Worlds sort of thing. Harrison said, ‘I’m not going to do another science-fiction movie.’ And Steven said, ‘I’m not going to do another science-fiction movie.” I said, ‘Steven, this is perfect because it’s the 1950s, when flying saucers were a whole thing,’ but he said “no.” We did about five scripts, and finally Steve and I compromised: ‘Look, what if they’re not aliens but from another dimension.’”
Kennedy agreed, confirming Spielberg and Ford were “not 100 percent onboard.” In her view, “That’s why the movie, out of the four that Steven made, is the weakest. And that’s why Harrison was so deeply committed to Destiny. He didn’t want that to be the end.”
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Steven Spielberg Was Right to be Skeptical of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
It is, of course, more than a little amusing to hear that Spielberg tried to argue he didn’t want to do another science-fiction film. Even more amusingly, Disclosure Day riffs on the very same alien legends that inspired Kingdom of the Crystal Skull; the films even use the same legendary “little gray men” design for the extraterrestrials. The problem, though, is that Spielberg’s more recent sci-fi works; Disclosure Day‘s ending ties all the themes together quite well. In contrast, aliens and Indiana Jones just didn’t click.
The problems weren’t limited to the core concept, unfortunately. Koepp and cinematographer Janusz Kamiński were part of the same Vulture round-robin, and admitted they found the whole film a struggle. In Koepp’s view, the best line was contributed by Larry Kasdan, who he believed should have written the whole script. Kamiński felt Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was “by far was the hardest movie I’ve ever done in my life,” largely because he was trying to reproduce someone else’s style.
Nineteen years later, it’s pretty clear Spielberg’s instincts were right about Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. While it’s true the film performed better than Dial of Destiny in the box office, it’s never going to be considered a classic. It’s fascinating to now learn this was not because of Spielberg, but rather because of Lucas; a salutary reminder that Lucas often made controversial decisions, making the movies he wanted to regardless of popular appeal. Perhaps Lucas’ version of the Star Wars sequels would have been just as divisive as the Disney ones.
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