Indiana Jones: Top Ten Future Indys

By: Andy Hunsaker
Fancast Movies

Indiana Jones is a legend, and no one else but Harrison Ford could have made him the household name he is today (although Tom Selleck might disagree with that assessment, as he had to turn down the role thanks to a writer’s strike monkeying with his Magnum P.I. schedule). But one only needs to look around at the constant stream of remakes, relaunches and reimagineerings that Hollywood churns out to realize that someday, some way, they’re going to do the same with Indiana Jones.

Ford was nearly 40 years old when he first busted out the bullwhip, so perhaps we should take a look at young Hollywood today and speculate wildly as to who might just have the chops to take up the mantle in a decade or two’s time. It’s going to happen eventually, so perhaps we should prepare now. So here’s a Top 10 list of young actors who might be considered to slip into that jacket and punch some bad guys with swashbuckling bravado once the current Indy regime has faded away.

1. Shia LaBeouf
The odds-on favorite, considering his junior role in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but they’d either have to change the title to Mutt Williams and the Palace of Ominous Forboding or make sure it’s a complete relaunch. Transformers showed he can play that ‘making this up as I go’ kind of frenetic action, and reports are that his role in Indy 4 isn’t quite the Jar-Jar that it was feared to be, so he might be able to step into that hat eventually without too much strife. With George Lucas recently spouting off that he has an idea already for a fifth Indy movie starring Shia, this may happen sooner than we think.

2. Emile Hirsch
He can do rugged, as evidenced in his sadly not Oscar-nominated performance in Into the Wild, and he was fairly charismatic in Speed Racer. He’s got some weight to him that he can play up or play down as necessary. I’d buy this guy in anything, and he has yet to prove me wrong. Give him another decade or two and I could even buy him as Indiana Jones. Or at least Han Solo.

3. Joseph Gordon-Levitt
He’s played a soldier in Stop-Loss and he’s playing Cobra Commander in the G.I. Joe movie, so he does have action chops. He’s also done some really gritty independent movies, so he’s certainly no lightweight. He’s not completely standard-issue handsome, but uniquely so - much like Ford’s off-kilter nose and general demeanor that makes him look like he’s been in more than his share of fights. Plus, he’s actually pretty funny when he needs to be.

4. Chris Pine
It would fit the pattern - casting the roguish spaceship captain from a popular sci-fi franchise as Indiana Jones - but it remains to be seen just how successful Pine will be in getting his Trek on. If he brings the right kind of easy charm to Captain Kirk that Ford brought to Captain Solo, it might bring him to the front of the pack.

5. James McAvoy
His action cred will be tested in this summer’s Wanted, but he’s got that instant magnetism and gravitas that was on display in Atonement. The war scenes showed that manly side of him as well as being able to play the period. He’s even a Scotsman, and thus a believable descendant of Sean Connery.

6. Ryan Gosling
Heath Ledger’s name would have been on this list, although he probably could’ve played Indy now if cruel fate hadn’t intervened. But Gosling is in that category of young (although pushing 30) actor who has already proven himself repeatedly - as a romantic lead in The Notebook, as an Oscar-nominee in Half Nelson, even as an action guy in the Young Hercules series. He needs a bit more of that crucial mileage on him before he could really take a crack at it.

7. Ben Foster
His role in 3:10 to Yuma opened a lot of eyes about just how butch and badass Foster could be, although he’d certainly have to dye his hair darker to play Indy. Indy can’t be blond. It’s just a rule. True, since we’re breaking the rule that Indy can only be Harrison Ford, we could break that one in speculation as well, but not all rules are made to be broken. Some rules are made to keep you from screwing up.

8. Michael Cera
Not anyone’s up-front choice, but then again, take a look at early Robert Downey Jr. and ask yourself if he could’ve ever played Iron Man? Cera’s a guy who could very conceivably mature from the nebbish and sensitive dweeb-like dweeb-type of guy into someone women kick themselves for not dating in high school. The kind of guy who relishes his newfound studliness and uses it at every opportunity to bed-and-breakfast dames like Willie Scott whenever he damn well pleases, but there’s just enough of that sweet guy we all remember from Juno to keep him vulnerable.

9. Ellen Page
“What,” you say? “A female Indiana Jones? My brain is leaking out my ears!” Hear me out. If we’re going with Cera, hell, we can go with Juno, too. She’s got the quick wit, the down-to-earth charm, and she has experience fighting off giant burly juggernauts trying to kill her, which is something Indy always tends to find himself doing. Put a decade or two on her to help her lose the ‘oh, you’re so adorable’ cuteness and she’ll have it all. And she’d look great in a fedora brandishing a whip.

10. Some Carpenter Somewhere.
Harrison Ford was working as a carpenter when George Lucas hired him to build cabinets for his home, then decided to cast him in his star-making role as Han Solo. No one who makes it big in their teens and 20s is going to have that grounded, gritty real-guyness that Ford had unless they actually had to do something like teach themselves to be a carpenter to support the family. Whoever directs the Indy relaunch of the future may need to cast an unknown in the lead to make it or break it, because nobody we know right now is perfect for the part.