The lights dim, and the crowd’s chatter dies down to a quiet hush. The opening sequence shows a man in a distinctive fedora running through an ancient temple, and the audience cheers as Harrison Ford performs death-defying stunts as Indiana Jones. Now, 42 years after the first release, the actor wraps up filming the fifth “Indiana Jones” movie, and fans are beginning to wonder if Ford is too old to play such an active character. 

“I think Harrison Ford is a pretty great actor that should be able to play Indiana Jones if he is still passionate about the role. Most of the time, when people decide to replace the original actors in a well-liked movie series, it does not go over well. So, in my opinion, I feel like he is not too old for the role as long as he believes he can do it,” Katie Young, senior, said. 

In 1981, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, the series’ producers, released “Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark,” the first of what would become one of the most popular movie franchises in Hollywood. Thanks to Lucas’s success in his “Star Wars” movies, the two friends had cast Harrison Ford, who played Han Solo in the space fantasy films, as the title character, and the series took off. The biggest appeals in the movies were the action shots and stunts, most of which the then 39-year-old performed himself. 

“Harrison Ford loves his character too much to just merely quit the character due to his age; at D23 [Disney’s yearly events and announcements], he was way too emotional to just give [it] up (…) His age will not affect his role, and even if [it did], (…) it would be significantly better than a role replacement or removing Indiana Jones,” Lawson Brashear, junior, said. 

Spielberg began filming the fourth movie, “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” in 2007, when Ford was 64 years old, and the film suffered because of it. Stunt shooting was limited to either closeups of Ford’s face or wide shots from far enough away that the stunt double could pass as the actor. Then, while preparing for a scene in the upcoming “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” film, Ford injured his shoulder, and production stopped completely for 10 weeks to allow him to recover. 

“As much as I love Harrison Ford, he is 80 [years old] now, so I think he just needs to retire and enjoy the rest of his life,” Lauren Drosakis, freshman, said. 

Whether one thinks Harrison Ford should keep playing Indiana Jones or retire, one can see “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” when it releases in theaters on June 30, 2023.