Kathleen Kennedy Is Wrong, Indiana Jones Should Be Recast

screenrant.com:

Despite the statements of Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, the Lucasfilm edict that Indiana Jones should never be recast after Indiana Jones 5 is a fallacy, and the franchise’s own history proves it. Indiana Jones 5 is currently in production and set to hit theaters on June 30, 2023, with Harrison Ford returning to his famed role one last time. Kennedy has suggested that it might be the last Indiana Jones movie altogether, stating, “We would never make Indiana Jones without Harrison Ford.”

While Ford’s performance is Indy is as iconic as it gets, Kennedy’s analysis also misconstrues the Indiana Jones franchise itself. Kennedy’s reasoning was made as a reading of the box office failure of Solo: A Star Wars Story being made without Ford, itself a flawed interpretation of Solo’s disappointment. Telling an Indiana Jones adventure story without Harrison Ford is far from a radical idea, because it’s already been done repeatedly. The most obvious example is the prequel television series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.

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While the Indiana Jones movie sequels focused on Indy in adulthood, the series showed Indy at various points in his youth, with Corey Carrier portraying Indy as a child and Sean Patrick Flanery playing Indy as a young man before the events of Raiders of the Lost Ark. George Hall also portrayed Indy in his elderly years on the series, with Ford himself also making an appearance as well. Not to mention that Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade also saw River Phoenix as a teenage Indy in its opening prologue that set the story in motion.

While Ford is undeniably the man most closely associated with Indiana Jones, Corrier, Flanery, Hall, and