Chris Pratt once seemed like a shoo-in to become the next Indiana Jones after Harrison Ford left the role. Shia LaBeouf had the honor of being teased as the heir during the fourth installment of the franchise, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but that never came to fruition. After appearing in Jurassic World and cutting an Indiana Jones pose or two, Pratt became the next rumored heir to Ford’s role.
With the fifth Jones film coming soon and Ford still playing the part, you have to wonder what happened to the rumored replacements in the future? Pratt stopped by the Happy Sad Confused podcast to talk about The Terminal List and Jurassic World Dominion but ended up fielding a question about a 2015 meeting with Steven Spielberg.
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“I don’t even know who Steven Spielberg is. Who? Steven Who?” Pratt joked. “No, aren’t they doing Indiana Jones with Harrison Ford? All I know is I once saw a quote from Harrison Ford-and I don’t even know if it was really him, but it was enough to scare me-that was like, ‘When I die, Indiana Jones dies.’ And I’m like, am I gonna get haunted by the ghost of Harrison Ford one day when he dies if I play…?”
“Don’t you get it? I’m Indiana Jones. When I’m gone, he’s gone. It’s easy,” Ford’s actual quote says. That’s enough to scare away a guy who motorcycles with dinosaurs and got half the universe dusted thanks to his “feelings.” It also helps that Ford is still playing the role and will likely take the rights with him to whatever tomb they put him in with his plane.
Besides, Pratt continues to be very busy with a slew of voice roles and other high-profile gigs, including being a new father once again. He’ll be voicing the new Garfield in the upcoming films based on Jim Davis’ pop culture cat, and he’ll be the new voice for Mario in the upcoming Super Mario animated film. Neither has left fans feeling warm and fuzzy, but the final product hasn’t been revealed just yet.
As for Disney and Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy has made clear that after Solo, no original characters will be getting the reboot, and replacement process again in the future. “We would never make Indiana Jones without Harrison Ford. Having just finished the fifth movie, I can tell you, there wasn’t a day I wasn’t on set where I wasn’t like, ‘Yes-this is Indiana Jones,’” Kennedy said. “Maybe I’m closer to the DNA of Indy, and always have been, than I was when I came into Star Wars, because now it does seem so abundantly clear that we can’t do that.”
