Lucasfilm confirmed plans to bring back Harrison Ford for Indiana Jones 5 with a new director taking over for Steven Spielberg, but now it sounds like it could be setting up Chris Pratt to take over the hat and whip. Rumors indicated that Pratt would be taking over for Ford so the franchise could continue, but Ford himself has denounced those claims. Producer Frank Marshall even told Den of Geek last month, “There will only be one Indiana Jones and that’s Harrison Ford.” But that might just be a smokescreen for Pratt’s takeover.
According to Daniel Richtman, Lucasfilm is looking at Pratt to play a younger version of the character. He also claims that Indiana Jones 5 is planning to set up multiple spin-off films as well as a Disney+ series and animated show. While Richtman has given good information in the past, we are certainly surprised to see these Pratt rumors resurface after they were previously debunked.
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For now, the only known fact about Indiana Jones 5 is that Steven Spielberg will no longer be directing and that James Mangold is set to take over the position. Mangold most recently helmed Ford V Ferrari, which was nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. The director has also tackled Logan, 3:10 to Yuma, Walk the Line, and more.
“What I’m excited about with Jim [Mangold] is a great story. I think you see that in his movies like Ford Vs Ferrari. It’s all about characters and telling a good story. So I’m excited to see what he comes up with. I haven’t seen [the script] yet so I don’t know what to tell you,” Marshall told Den of Geek.
“I tried a couple different versions with Steven and they all had some good stuff about them and they all had some stuff that didn’t work, which happens,” writer David Koepp detailed to Den of Geek in September. “But it was just very hard to have everybody come together and have all the elements — Steven, Harrison, the script, and Disney — come together at once. And it didn’t.”
He continued, “It’s a gracious time to step out the door because I think the last thing a new director wants is the old director’s writer. I mean, that’s a drag. The last thing you need is some guy sitting around with his arms folded saying, ‘Well, the way Steven would have done it is…’ I had one nice friendly conversation with him and then I’m sure he wanted to be able to move on anyway. Everybody was pretty polite, I thought.”
Do you believe Chris Pratt could be the next Indiana Jones? Tell us in the comments.
Indiana Jones 5 is currently slated to hit theaters on July 29, 2022.
