With lead roles in two of last year’s highest-grossing movies and several more high-profile projects on the way, Guardians of the Galaxy star Chris Pratt is one of Hollywood’s most prominent rising stars right now — and if recent rumors prove true, he could be in line for his biggest role so far.
Deadline reports that Walt Disney Pictures and Lucasfilm are looking to revive the Indiana Jones franchise that began with 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark and spawned three blockbuster sequels, and are considering Pratt as a potential replacement for franchise star Harrison Ford.
With Disney already kick-starting a revival of the Star Wars franchise with the upcoming Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens, a return to the other big Lucasfilm franchise was inevitable — but with Ford turning 73 this year, the studio is considering a new, younger face for adventuring archeologist Dr. Henry Jones, Jr.
The report indicates that the casting process is at a very early stage at this point, but with Pratt’s schedule filling up with commitments to the Marvel Studios movie-verse as well as the upcoming Jurassic World (and its potential sequels) and Antoine Fuqua’s remake of The Magnificent Seven — in which Pratt will star alongside Denzel Washington — time may be running out to lock the actor in for yet another franchise.
Of course, nothing has been confirmed by the studio or Pratt’s representatives, so this report shouldn’t be considered anything more than an intriguing rumor right now.
Still, it’s hard not to see the appeal of Pratt as the whip-cracking Indiana Jones, as well as the appeal of the iconic adventure franchise going the direction of the James Bond films and casting a new leading man every decade or so.
