Is Chris Pratt The Next Indiana Jones?

George Huertas ‘16 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer

Keep in mind, this story is far from confirmed. While coming from a reputable source (Deadline), it is fairly earth-shaking as far as film news goes. This shouldn’t be taken with a simple grain of salt, mind you, but with enough salt to found an entire pretzel factory.
That being said, it was reported yesterday from Deadline that Disney is interested in handing the whip and hat of Indiana Jones over to Chris Pratt.
For the five percent of you who are unaware, Indiana Jones is the widely popular cinematic icon created by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, and played by Harrison Ford in all of his incarnations.
It has been six years since the last Indiana Jones movie, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, appeared on screen. Finally acquiring the rights to Indy from Paramount in mid-2013, Disney has been sitting on the property while giving more precedence to Star Wars.
However, with the Star Wars Universe now in full swing (seemingly taking a similar approach to that of the Marvel Cinematic Universe), it seems that now would be the time for Disney to start making good on that franchise acquisition. After all, Bob Iger did say in December 2014 that, “[they]’d love to make another Indiana Jones movie,” but were pacing themselves by launching Star Wars first.
As for the actor (possibly) selected to play Indy, we’ll have to wait and see. Indiana Jones isn’t like James Bond, replaced with a different actor after a due amount of time has passed. Harrison Ford is Indiana Jones as far as most are concerned. That being said, Chris Pratt has proven he can take on the swashbuckling persona, as Guardians of the Galaxy has indicated. However, is he being truly considered for Indiana Jones? It’s a daunting task to be sure, and while he may be up to it, there’s still a veritable mountain of prestige for him to climb.
Nevertheless, Pratt’s star is undeniably meteoric right now. Between the smashing success of Guardians of the Galaxy, his upcoming star-turning role in Jurassic World, and the rumored Magnificent Seven remake with Denzel Washington, Pratt could very soon find himself reaching international levels of superstardom. With Indiana Jones, you could say that Pratt could be finding the Holy Grail of stardom.