We know we're going to get at least one more Indiana Jones movie with Harrison Ford, but what happens after that? It seems highly unlikely that we won't get more Indiana Jones movies in one form or another, but could the lead role be picked up by a woman? Steven Spielberg says he wouldn't have an issue with that. According to the director...
We'd have to change the name from Jones to Joan. And there would be nothing wrong with that.
Steven Spielberg is likely making a bit of a joke, as obviously there's no reason to change the character's last name due to a gender change. For that matter, there isn't a need to change the character's first name. There's no reason Indiana can't be a woman's nickname as well as a man's.
Harrison Ford is currently 75 years old and he'll be 76 when production begins next spring on the fifth Indiana Jones movie. It seems unlikely that he'll be looking to do many more of these films, but it seems equally unlikely that there won't be more of them. Indiana Jones is a still a huge franchise for Lucasfilm and certainly, Disney was buying it as much as it was buying Star Wars when it purchased George Lucas' company. Disney is going to want to get as much out of the brand as it can. Steven Spielberg understands this as he tells The Sun that the franchise "will certainly continue" following the next movie.
But once Harrison Ford is done, how does it continue? Do you try and James Bond the thing and just cast a new actor and move on like nothing happened? It's an idea, although, Indiana Jones has clearly aged over the course of the franchise, so bringing in a younger actor would almost certainly require limiting the franchise in time.
However the franchise continues, there's certainly no issue with bringing in a woman that isn't also an issue with bringing in another man. Continuing Indiana Jones without Harrison Ford is going to be a difficult task regardless of how you try and do it. When the mere hint of doing so was done in _Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, _ it did not go over well.
While women have been given more opportunities of late to be part of major action franchises, things are clearly still lopsided. It would be nice to see a woman given a shot at an existing popular franchise like Indiana Jones, at the end of the day, if Disney finds the right actress and it creates great stories, then the movies will be good, and that's what matters.
