Indiana Jones Producer Says Franchise Could Continue Without Harrison Ford

Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones returns for his final adventure in Dial of Destiny — but is the long-running franchise destined for TV? Ford has confirmed the upcoming fifth film is “the final film in the series, and this is the last time I’ll play the character,” saying in a recent interview he anticipates Dial of Destiny is “the last time” that the archaeologist adventurer appears in a feature film. But like Star Wars — the other major Lucasfilm IP that also starred Ford, and which also transitioned to small-screen spin-offs — the world of Indiana Jones may have a future as a Disney+ television series.

“It’s Harrison’s last entry. That’s how we look at the Indy franchise,” Lucasfilm president and Dial of Destiny producer Kathleen Kennedy told the Dagobah Dispatch podcast. “I mean, truthfully, right now, if we were to do anything, it might be in series television down the road, but we’re not doing anything to replace Indiana Jones. This is it.”

Kennedy continued: “There are five movies that Harrison Ford did. And Harrison is so specific and so unique to creating this role. We just, Steven [Spielberg] agrees, we just wouldn’t do that.”

Last year, it was reported that a potential franchise expansion was in the works as a series for the Disney+ streaming service. But in March, Disney reportedly scrapped the untitled Indiana Jones spin-off show after cancelling Lucasfilm’s Willow sequel series. According to the report, the series was to be a prequel to 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark and would have focused on Indy’s mentor, Abner Ravenwood, an Egyptologist and archaeologist who has died by the time of the original film’s events in 1936.

When Ford was asked about the rumored series, he told Total Film that he will “not be involved in that, if it does come to fruition.” 15 years after riding off into the sunset a second time in 2008’s Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Ford is hanging up the whip and fedora for good in Dial of Destiny.

“I had been ambitious to do this film for 10 years, and there finallycame a time when we all committed to that. It was a joyous moment forme. I think it’s a rare situation that I find myself in,” Ford told the magazine. “I’vebeen able to deliver amazing films developed by Steven andGeorge [Lucas] over a 40-year period, and to end it not with a whimper,but a bang, has been my greatest ambition for this excursion.”

The first four Indiana Jones films, and the prequel TV series The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, are available to stream on Disney+ starting May 31st. Starring Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, AntonioBanderas, John Rhys-Davies, Shaunette Renee Wilson, Thomas Kretschmann,Toby Jones, Boyd Holbrook, Oliver Richters, Ethann Isidore, and  MadsMikkelsen, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny opens only in theaters June 30th.