Throughout the course of cinema, few actors have been as synonymous with one specific role as Harrison Ford and Indiana Jones, joining an echelon of stars such as Bruce Willis (John McClane), Sigourney Weaver (Ellen Ripley) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (The Terminator). For better or worse, each role has and continues to be a permanent fixture on the actor’s résumé, and that doesn’t look to be changing anytime soon for one Harrison Ford.
Now that Indiana Jones 5 is looming on the horizon, buoyed by Steven Spielberg’s interest in the swashbuckling sequel, many believed Disney and Lucasfilm would look to recast the titular maverick and archaeologist, with Chris Pratt frequently cropping up in conversation. But according to producer Frank Marshall, it is Ford who will once again be picking up the whip and fedora for the follow-up, as the House of Mouse has no initial plans to “do the Bond thing” and pass on the torch.
In an interview with Den of Geek, here’s what Marshall had to share on the matter at hand.
There are a lot of rumors. We haven’t even sat down to talk about Indy yet… at some point we’ll sit down. But there’s a bunch of people who could probably take the baton. [But we are] not doing the Bond thing where we’re going to call somebody else Indiana Jones… we have to figure this out.
In the wake of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the Indiana Jones brand as a whole isn’t necessarily in the best of shape. By casting Shia LaBeouf as Dr. Jones’ son, it was clear that Disney had hopped to tee up the franchise for bright future, but the actor simply isn’t a bankable lead given recent off-screen events.
That leaves Indiana Jones 5 in search of a genuine sense of direction. Recalling Harrison Ford back for another crack of the whip reads like a short-term answer to a long-term problem, and it’s likely the studio will have to seed some form of transition by casting another young protege for Jones to coach in the fine art of treasure-hunting. How exactly that will pan out will ultimately be told in time, and currently the sequel has been tentatively slated for a release in 2018.