Steven Spielberg Open to Making Indiana Jones a Woman in Future Installments
Photos by Mike Coppola/Getty, Kevin Winter/Getty Movies News Steven Spielberg
Ladies and gentlemen, get ready to meet Indiana Joan. Two-time Academy Award-winning director Steven Spielberg is ready to make a change to our favorite archaeologist and explorer. Speaking to The Sun, the director revealed he is open to making Indiana Jones a woman in forthcoming installments. “We’d have to change the name from Jones to Joan. And there would be nothing wrong with that,” Spielberg said. He also acknowledged there may be severe fan uproar at this decision but the Ready Player One director believes it’s time for Jones to take “a different form.”
The 71-year-old has been a huge advocate for the #TimesUp and #MeToo movements, and has been quite vocal about ensuring pay equality for men and women. The director insisted upon both Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks being paid the same for their leading roles in last year’s The Post and he confirmed that both Tye Sheridan and Olivia Cooke of Ready Player One were paid equally, too. The director stated, “I have been very lucky to be influenced by women, several of whom I have just loved madly—my mom and my wife.” Spielberg’s mother died just last year at the age of 97—the director has been married to actress Kate Capshaw since 1991.
We will not see a woman playing the iconic character in the newest Indiana Jones film, though. Instead, Harrison Ford will play Jones for his fifth and final time. “This will be Harrison Ford’s last Indiana Jones movie, I am pretty sure, but it will certainly continue after that,” Spielberg said. Production is set to begin in April of 2019, so we definitely have a long time before we’ll see Ms. Indiana Joan, but there’s no reason we can’t start a healthy list of potential replacements. Just spitballing here, but: Tessa Thompson, Brie Larson, Rosamund Pike, Gal Gadot, Zoe Kravitz, Amanda Seyfried and Evangeline Lilly would all make excellent lady Indianas. We would also say Alicia Vikander, but that could be complicated if she continues to make more Tomb Raider films.