Summary
IfHarrison Fordhad not turned down a major movie role, cinema may have been changed forever. The iconic actor has appeared in more than four dozen big screen roles over the course of his career.Harrison Ford moviescover a wide variety of genres, ranging from more straightforward dramas and comedies such asAmerican Graffiti,Working Girl,The Fugitive, andWitness(for which he was nominated for an Oscar) to imaginative genre exercises includingBlade RunnerandCowboys & Aliens.
However, he isbest known for playing major characters in some of cinema’s most iconic franchises. This includes his breakout role as Han Solo in theStar Warsmovies, a rakish rogue with a heart of gold who is one of the central characters of what remains the third highest-grossing film franchise in history. He followed that role by playing the intrepid archaeologist Indiana Jones in a similarly popular series of adventure films. He will also be joining the highest-grossing movie series, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, by taking over the role of Thaddeus Ross inCaptain America: Brave New World.
Harrison Ford Played Indiana Jones & Han Solo For The Exact Same Amount Of Time
Indiana Jones and Han Solo are Harrison Ford’s most iconic characters and by a quirk of fate, he played them both for the same length of time.
Harrison Ford Turned Down Jurassic Park
The Star Could Have Played Dr. Alan Grant
One major role that Harrison Ford did not take, however, was the character of Dr. Alan Grant in theJurassic Parkfranchise.The part would eventually go to New Zealand actor Sam Neill, who had previously starred in movies includingOmen III: The Final Conflict,Possession, andDead Calmbefore joining the cast of the original 1993 movie, which was directed by Steven Spielberg, adapting the 1990 Michael Crichton novel of the same name. Neill would go on to reprise the role of the curmudgeonly paleontologist in 2001’sJurassic Park IIIand 2022’sJurassic World Dominion.
The 1989 seafaring thrillerDead Calmsaw Neill perform alongside fellow future stars Nicole Kidman and Billy Zane.
Harrison Ford In Jurassic Park Would Shift The Focus Of Every Movie
Ford’s Star Power Could Have Overwhelmed The Franchise
If he had taken the role of Alan Grant, the films would have become Harrison Ford movies rather thanJurassic Parkmovies.Ford was already a massive blockbuster star before the release of the original movie, having already played Han Solo in the originalStar Warstrilogy and Indiana Jones in Steven Spielberg’s similarly popularIndiana Jonestrilogy. While the leads ofJurassic Parkwere known quantities in certain circles, none had had comparable hits, especially when it came to major franchises. Below, see the most prominent title each star of the original had appeared in before 1993:
Richard Attenborough
A Bridge Too Far(1977)
The fact that the ensemble cast, which also featured up-and-coming stars Samuel L. Jackson and B.D. Wong, was composed of unique character actors rather than blockbuster starsallowed the dinosaurs and the coreJurassic Parkconcept to shine. This is what allowed the franchise to shift and make room for new leads over time, with Julianne Moore and Vince Vaughn joining Goldblum for the first sequelThe Lost World, Téa Leoni and William H. Macy joining Neill for the third movie, and Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard taking over as the leads of theJurassic Worldtrilogy.
The upcomingJurassic World 4is set to star Scarlett Johansson…
A-list movie stars have become a part of the fabric of theJurassic Parkfranchisesince the success of the original movie. In fact, the upcomingJurassic World 4is set to star Scarlett Johansson, a veteran of the Marvel Cinematic Universe who played Black Widow multiple times between 2010’sIron Man 2and 2021’sBlack Widow. However, the star of the franchise is Michael Crichton’s dinosaurs-run-amok universe rather than the A-listers onscreen, which is something that likely would not have been the case had Harrison Fordsaid yes to the role back in the early 1990s.
Harrison Ford Rejecting Jurassic Park Was Probably Good For The Franchise
Jurassic Park Could Have Crashed And Burned
If Dr. Alan Grant had been a Harrison Ford role,theJurassic Parkfranchise may never have survived his absence fromThe Lost Worldand continued to blossom into the robust $6 billion franchise it has become. Replacements for Harrison Ford characters have been roundly rejected by the general public in the past, including Shia LaBeouf’s Mutt, Jones' son, being ousted from theIndiana Jonesfranchise.Solo: A Star Wars Story, which cast Alden Ehrenreich as a young Han Solo, likewise earned the lowest box office gross in the live-action franchise’s history.
At the time of writing, theJurassic Parkfranchise includes six movies, an upcoming seventh movie, two animated shows, two short films, multiple comic books, video games, and more.
Harrison Fordrejecting the role of Alan Grant allowed theJurassic Parkmovies to flourish in many different ways that they could not have if they had been reshaped to accommodate his movie star presence. In turn, they went on to influence decades of cinema to come, both in terms of their groundbreaking special effects and their dynamic summer blockbuster success. With Ford in the role, the first movie would likely have still been a hit, butthe franchise could very well have crashed and burnedwithin one sequel instead of growing to become the behemoth that it is.
Jurassic Park
The Jurassic Park franchise is an action-adventure sci-fi series that began with Michael Crichton’s original novel. The series explores the dramatic repercussions of resurrecting dinosaurs through advanced genetic science. Set primarily in a disastrous theme park, Jurassic Park explores the profound ethical dilemmas about tinkering with the DNA of long ago extinct creatures and the manipulation of the natural world through science.
