Lucasfilm Head Says They Would Never Make an Indiana Jones Film Without Harrison Ford

While some have wondered what the Indiana Jones franchise would look like without Harrison Ford, Kathleen Kennedy says it will never happen. Kennedy spoke with Vanity Fair for a new featured piece and talked about how filming the forthcoming Indiana Jones 5 reinforced the idea that they would never find another actor to take on the role.

“There should be moments along the way when you learn things. [Solo] may have certainly been a learning moment,” Kennedy said. “Some people have talked about how, well, maybe Solo should have been a TV show. But even doing Solo as a TV show without Harrison Ford as Han Solo … It’s the same thinking. Maybe I should have recognized this before. 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.'”

She continued, “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. You get excited by these things, and you want to revisit things you want. You want to have that feeling again, and you’re trying to resurrect that. I think that’s what we do even with our new characters. With Star Wars, everybody talks about a ‘feeling’ they have about Star Wars. That’s that intangible idea that you’re looking for.”

While LaBeouf might not have stepped into the shoes of Indiana, Lucasfilm did previously attempt to channel the charm and the charisma of the character with the TV series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. Regardless of what the studio might have explored in the past, it seems as though, while we can’t rule out a new character emerging that honors the spirit of Indiana, we shouldn’t ever expect anyone to be tasked with offering their own take on the figure.

Indiana Jones 5 is currently set for release on June 30th, 2023.