Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’s CIA Agent Mason Originally Had an ‘Offensive’ and ‘Problematic’ Death

Wilson, incidentally, played one of the Dora Milaje in the 2018 film “Black Panther.” That’s her on the left in the picture above. 

While being interviewed by Variety on the red carpet of “Dial of Destiny,” Wilson revealed how elated she was to be working on an Indiana Jones movie, and how much faith Mangold had in her. She didn’t even need to audition; Mangold wanted her to play Agent Mason right away. Wilson doesn’t reveal exactly what happened to Agent Mason in an early version of the script, other than to say it was a problem for her. It seems her character might have died in a much less dignified way, and might have even bore the brunt of a Nazi’s vitriolic language. Luckily, Mangold was open to a rewrite. Wilson said: 

“I was quite impressed by a lot of things, but I also had thoughts and wanted to make input about my character in particular. And the brilliance and wonder of James Mangold is his ability to collaborate, and he heard me out and he was very honest about it and took what I said and it was implemented in rewrites. That has been a wonderful part of this process — to actually be able to feel like you are integral and you have a point of view when it comes to what’s being written.”

Her issues were, she revealed, some of the wording surrounding Mason’s murder:

“I don’t want to spoil too much, but my character had a particular way of exiting the film. And initially I found it to be a little too offensive and a bit problematic, and I was like, ‘We probably don’t need to say these words or have it done this way, and this is something I’m uncomfortable with.'”