Indiana Jones and the Great Circle finally puts an end to a decades-old lore sepculation, but we wanted a more definitive answer.

indiana jones and the great circle

The way that the split between Indianapolis and Marion Ravenwood transpired is clarified by Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. By doing this, the next game resolves a long-standing lore query that has been plaguing Indiana Jones fans since the 1980s.

Cover image of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.Indiana Jones and the Great Circle releases today. | Credit: MachineGames.

Being the original and most identifiable love interest of the main character, Marion Ravenwood is one of the most recognizable figures from the Indiana Jones series. Although she plays a significant part in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), she does not appear in The Temple of Doom (1984), and she does not reunite with Indy until The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008). The specifics of how the two split up are never explained in the films themselves.

So, How Does Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Explains the Situation?

A screenshot from Raiders of the Lost Ark.Indy and Marion broke up, but we didn’t know why. | Credit: Paramount Pictures.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle provides some much-needed clarification on how this happened, forty years after The Temple of Doom established Indy and Marion’s split as canon. In the opening scene of the game, Indy discovers a new journal that Marion gave him as a gift.

This leads his mentor, Marcus Brody, to ask him where the gift came from. Although Indy is evasive at first, it is later revealed that he abruptly left Marion to travel to Siwa, Egypt, in an attempt to escape some of the issues that have arisen in their relationship.

The new game takes place in the time between the events of the first two Indiana Jones movies. Despite giving a dull answer to this highly speculated question, this game is set to be a great open-world title.

Troy Baker, who plays Indiana Jones in the new game, uses a younger version of his likeness and does a Harrison Ford impression. Because it’s an original story that takes place between Raiders of the Lost Ark and Temple of Doom, viewers can fill in some of the blanks and discover more about Indy’s past exploits.

Indy Tried Getting Rid of Marion Prior to Great Circle

A screenshot from Raiders of the Lost Ark.Marion tried to settle things up. | Credit: Paramount Pictures.

It is also revealed in the game’s opening sequence that Marion has been attempting to contact Indy for months after he left her. Marion’s calls eventually stopped, and Brody was the one taking them while he was in Egypt. All of that is to say that Indy started their breakup by effectively ignoring her until she gave up.

Regarding his motivations, the fourth Indiana Jones movie provides some hints. Indy implies that they fought frequently and that he was uneasy around Marion when he tells her in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull that he has never prevailed in an argument with her. Not only does it break the silence about the spilt-up, but the game also breaks a rule for a typical RPG title.

Although Lucasfilm has been ambivalent about whether Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is truly “canon” to the Indy timeline, the fact that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg contributed to the game’s development lends it a higher degree of realism.