Harrison Ford has played iconic characters throughout his career, and is, without a doubt, one very important pillar to nerds around the globe. He’s played Rick Deckard in Ridley Scott’s 1982 sci-fi film Blade Runner, Han Solo in the original and latest Star Wars trilogies, and of course, arguably his most recognizable role to-date—Dr. Henry Walton “Indiana” Jones Jr (AKA: “Indy”).

With the fifth installment of Indiana Jones underway, it’s not lost on fans that the beloved actor might be replaced in the future (should a reboot be given the green light). Franchise reboots have been all the rage lately—more recently with slasher films being next in the queue to get the reboot treatment. There’s no doubt that an Indiana Jones reboot has been mentioned and discussed in Hollywood meeting rooms. However, Indiana Jones himself might be the one to stop those talks in their tracks.

Speaking on the Today show, Ford said, “Nobody else is gonna be Indiana Jones. Don’t you get it? I’m Indiana Jones. When I’m gone, he’s gone. It’s easy… This is a hell of a way to tell Chris Pine this. I’m sorry, man.”

Rumors have going around that Guardians of the Galaxy actor Chris Pratt was in line to take on the role for the reboot, not Star Trek actor Chris Pine. With this many actors named “Chris” in the sci-fi and superhero movie realm, it’s not surprising that Ford mistook one for the other.

It’s not as if Ford is unwilling to pass the torch when it comes to his subculture-defining roles. Actor Alden Ehrenreich took on the role of a young Han Solo in the 2018 anthology film, Solo: A Star Wars Story, outlining Han Solo’s beginnings as a smuggler and showing Star Wars fans the famed Kessel Run (that Han Solo managed to do “in less than 12 Parsecs”). Ford has not expanded on why he is more protective over his role as Indiana Jones, but it definitely shows that the character is very close to his heart.

Harrison Ford first entered the scene as Indiana Jones in Steven Spielberg’s 1981 film, Raiders of the Lost Ark, followed by 1984’s Temple of Doom, then rounding out the original trilogy with The Last Crusade in 1989—alongside Sir Sean Connery, who played his father, Dr. Henry Jones Sr.

The franchise was brought back with a fourth film—The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull—in 2008 with Cate Blanchett and Shia LeBeouf joining Indiana Jones OGs Harrison Ford and Karen Allen. The highly anticipated fourth installment of the iconic adventure series was met with disappointed fans and underwhelming reviews.

The fifth film, which is still currently untitled, was originally scheduled to be released in 2020, but was one of the many movies to be pushed back multiple times due to COVID-19, and is now slated for a summer 2023 theater release. Details about this film have been extremely tight-lipped but there are rumors of time travel being a part of the new film’s storyline. Nothing has been confirmed yet, but here’s hoping that they learned from the 2008 flop.

Photos via LucasFilm and Esquire