If a new report is to be believed, it seems we would have seen Harrison Ford announced as entering the Marvel Cinematic Universe during Disney’s D23 Expo, only for one of Marvel’s fellow family members under the Disney umbrella to put a stop to it for now.
During this last week, rumors began to swirl that Harrison Ford was in consideration to play General Thunderbolt Ross for the upcoming Thunderbolts movie. He would’ve replaced William Hurt after the star’s passing from prostate cancer this past March.
None of this was confirmed, but a new report offers a possible explanation on why this announcement is currently up in the air as, on The Hot Mic podcast, Jeff Sneider claimed that Ford’s rumored casting was coming at this year’s D23 but was stopped by Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy.
Sneider states: “So what I initially heard is that this was a done deal for D23, that they actually wanted to announce him as a cast member in Thunderbolts at D23, but that they didn’t because Kathleen Kennedy put her foot down and said, ‘No, we’re going to keep the focus on Indiana Jones 5 content, I don’t want this to become Harrison Ford joining the MCU, we’re going to keep the focus on Indy 5 right now.”
Lucasfilm is gearing up for Indiana Jones 5, the franchise’s return after the panned Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The fifth entry sees James Mangold step into the director’s chair, and Ford will star alongside Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, and Antonio Banderas.
As Ford is in his early eighties, it’s safe to assume that Lucasfilm would prefer him to focus his energy on the upcoming Indy sequel instead of splitting his attention between that and another huge Disney project. However, as at the time of writing, the rumblings are that Lucasfilm has only delayed the news of Harrison Ford joining the MCU.
Thunderbolts is being directed by Jake Schreier (Paper Towns) from a script by Eric Pearson (Black Widow) and will star Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, Hannah John-Kamen as Ava Starr/Ghost, David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian, Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier, Wyatt Russell as John Walker/US Agent and Olga Kurylenko as Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster.
Are you excited at the possible introduction of Harrison Ford into the MCU? How do you feel about Lucasfilm allegedly delaying the announcement? Let us know on our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
