Any Indiana Jones game is always going to have plenty of challenges to surmount, but probably chief among them would be having to find an actor who could step into the shoes of the legendary Harrison Ford, who embodies the role of Indiana Jones perhaps more than any actor has ever done for a fictional character. With the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, the prolific Troy Baker – known for his roles in The Last of Us, Death Stranding, Uncharted 4, Persona 4, and many, many more – is shouldering that burden, and based on everything that we’ve seen so far, doing a solid job of it- though if things had gone differently, Baker might not have been involved at all.
That’s as per Baker himself, who told GamesRadar in an interview that he was originally not too keen on playing the role of Indiana Jones in MachineGames upcoming first-person action-adventure title, but was urged by performance director Tom Keegan to toss his hat in the ring.
“I originally passed [on the Indiana Jones role] because, truth be told, I was so scared that I would not be able to pull it off,” Baker said. “And fortunately, [voice acting director] Tom Keegan saw past my insecurities and encouraged me to put myself on tape for this still.”
Interestingly, according to Baker, what solidified his interest was the fact that MachineGames wasn’t just looking for someone who could do a perfect Harrison Ford impression, but someone who could authentically portray the character.
“We saw over 1000 people for this role, and so not only am I in competition with all those truly talented people, but I’m also in competition with myself,” he said. “And the beauty of this is that it’s not about ‘can you make a bang-on impression?’, it’s ‘can you help us feel like this is an authentic Indiana Jones?’ Because that’s what the core of all this is: does this feel like it’s an authentic Indiana Jones?”
He added, “And then finally, there was a Zoom call with the MachineGames team, and also Tom Keegan and Todd Howard, and they said ‘we want to walk you through the story’ – and where I was nervous and insecure before, by the time they were done walking me through the story, I was beyond excited. I went from ‘I hope I get this job’ to ‘I really, really wanted it’.”
Funnily enough, Baker revealed that executive producer Todd Howard – who also wrote the initial story concept for the game – was against the idea of having the actor play Indiana Jones.
“My favorite part of that story is how Todd Howard, when they originally brought my name to him, rolled his eyes like, ‘No, I’m not putting Troy Baker in my game.’ And I never thought that I would be [in it either],” he said.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle launches on December 9 for Xbox Series X/S and PC. It’ll release for PS5 next Spring.