Chris Pratt Won’t Play Indiana Jones Despite Rumors: Harrison Ford Scared Me Off
Samantha Bergeson
Chris Pratt won’t be donning Indy’s hat and whip anytime soon.
Despite rumors back in 2019 of the “Guardians of the Galaxy” actor leading an “Indiana Jones” reboot franchise, Pratt shut down speculation during a July 14 appearance on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast. In fact, it’s Indiana Jones himself, played by Harrison Ford, who intimated the idea of even revamping the series ahead of the upcoming “Indiana Jones 5.”
“I don’t even know who Steven Spielberg is. Who? Steven Who?” Pratt joked on the podcast, before saying, “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 going to get haunted by the ghost of Harrison Ford one day when he dies if I play…?”
Ford, who recently turned 80, previously said on the “Today” show in 2019 that the iconic adventurer character begins and ends solely in his performance. “Don’t you get it? I’m Indiana Jones,” Ford said at the time. “When I’m gone, he’s gone. It’s easy.”
The fifth and final “Indiana Jones” film is directed by James Mangold, written by Jez and John-Henry Butterworth, and released June 30, 2023. This is the first film not helmed by co-creator Spielberg. However, Spielberg will still serve as an executive producer. Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, Boyd Holbrook, Toby Jones and Antonio Banderas co-star in the follow-up to 2008’s “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.”
Star Mikkelsen praised “Logan” director Mangold’s “same vision” for the franchise, saying the movie “felt like a Spielberg film” that “oozed that golden period of serials from the 1940s.” Mikkelsen added, “They’re going heavily back to the first and second film and getting that original feel, the original Indy, something dense and epic.”
Ford’s performance, per Mikkelsen, is also one for the books.
“Not just as an actor, but physically. I remember the first day we were shooting, it was a night shoot, then we stopped at 5 a.m. — and then he got on his mountain bike and went biking for 50 kilometers,” Mikkelsen gushed. “Harrison is a monster of a man, a very nice monster.”
I’m no body language expert but watch this video and tell me Chris Pratt did not talk to Steven Spielberg about taking over Indiana Jones in some capacity. pic.twitter.com/bqOdebFHla
— Josh Horowitz (@joshuahorowitz) July 14, 2022
