Is the ghost of Harrison Ford casting a spell over the casting process for the Indiana Jones franchise?

That’s what Chris Pratt seems to think.

In a response to a 2015 Deadline article speculating that he was being considered for the role, Pratt told podcaster Josh Horowitz, “I don’t even know who Steven Spielberg is. Who? Steven Who? No, aren’t they doing Indiana Jones with Harrison Ford?”

Pratt added in a semi-lighthearted but semi-serious vein, “All I know is I once saw a quote from Harrison Ford and I don’t even know if it was really him but it was enough to scare me, that was like, ‘When I die, Indiana Jones dies.’ And I’m like, am I gonna get haunted by the ghost of Harrison Ford one day when he dies if I play…’ ?”

The superstition that spooked Pratt may have materialized in 2019, when Ford told a Today Show interviewer: “Don’t you get it? I’m Indiana Jones. When I’m gone, he’s gone. It’s easy.”

But Pratt’s queasiness may be unfounded after all because Ford will be back in action as Indiana Jones for next year’s installment to be directed by James Mangold. It will be the first time a movie in the franchise will not have been directed by Steven Spielberg. The cast, besides Ford, includes Phoebe Walker-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, Boyd Holbrook, Toby Jones, and Antonio Banderas, among others. Disney has set the release date for June 30, 2023.

And there’s no doubt that it will be the flesh-and-blood Harrison Ford—not his ghost—who will be making his apparition in the film now in production.

As Banderas told USA Today: “The first day I arrived, I was in the makeup trailer, and I turned around and there he was in the full Indiana costume with the hat and the whip. Phoebe Waller-Bridge was there with him, too, and it was so cool. I still remember the first time I saw Indiana Jones in a theater and the crowd was crazy about it. I thought, ‘This is like going back to the old adventure in a completely different way.

‘”

Pratt has thrilled moviegoers this summer as the lead in Jurassic World Dominion as well as filling a supporting role in Thor: Love and Thunder. He’s also appearing in The Terminal List, a new action series by Prime Video. And in May 2023, he’ll be seen as Star Lord in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3, directed by James Gunn.