What If?

© by Gerald So | 3:00 PM

The other day I saw the trailer for the upcoming video game INDIANA JONES AND THE GREAT CIRCLE. It made me wonder again what might have been if Tom Selleck had played Indy instead of Harrison Ford.

Ford would still have superstardom thanks to his Star Wars and Jack Ryan movies. Selleck might've done RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK instead of or along with MAGNUM P.I., but the movie might not have been a huge hit with Sean Young instead of Karen Allen playing Marion Ravenwood. Selleck might not have signed for a fourth and fifth Indy movie. As much as he committed to the original Magnum, he declined to appear in the 2018 reboot. Then again, nine years after the ninth Jesse Stone TV movie, he's game to make the tenth.

As it is, Selleck and Ford both got to develop iconic characters of the 1980s, and as much as I like Indy, I find Magnum more down-to-earth and nuanced thanks to eight seasons of weekly television versus Indy's five movies in forty years.