Despite rumors to the contrary, Disney has repeatedly assured fans that they have no (current) plans to reboot Indiana Jones or replace Harrison Ford in the iconic role anytime soon — well, at least not in Indiana Jones 5, which re-teams Ford with series director Steven Spielberg for one more outing. According to Disney chief Bob Iger, however, the forthcoming sequel won’t be the last of the Indy franchise, and it definitely sounds like they do have plans to reboot the series — to some extent — after all.

THR sat down with Iger to discuss the studio’s plans for Indiana Jones, and from what he says, it seems that Disney isn’t necessarily rebooting the franchise (though that word is thrown around a bit), nor are they planning anything similar to Star Wars — instead, it sounds like they’re making a Legacyquel:

Not like Star Wars, but we hope… right now, we’re focused on a reboot, or a continuum and then a reboot of some sort. Well, we’ll bring him back, then we have to figure out what comes next. That’s what I mean. It’s not really a reboot, it’s a boot — a reboot. I don’t know. We [got] Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones in the film. But then what’s the direction? I’ve had discussions about what the direction is, [but] I don’t want to get into it. I don’t think it reaches the scale of the universe of Star Wars, but I see making more. It won’t be just a one-off.

That’s the approach that makes the most sense, and what we’ve been assuming Disney would do if they wanted to continue the franchise after the fifth installment. No offense to Ford, but the actor is getting a bit on in years, and it seems unlikely that he’d stick around for another three Indy films.

By introducing a new, younger character and passing the torch, Disney could feasibly extend the life of the franchise — but it depends on who they cast. The studio sort of attempted this before with Shia LaBeouf as the terribly-named Mutt Williams in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and as you’ll recall, it didn’t work out so well. But there were rumors for a time that Disney was eyeing Chris Pratt for an Indy reboot, and although he seems like the predictable pick, sometimes the obvious choice is the best one.

Indiana Jones 5 hits theaters on July 19, 2019.

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