Tom Selleck Was Almost Indiana Jones — Why It Never Happened

Here is one of those Hollywood what-ifs that never dies because it is actually true: Tom Selleck was hired to play Indiana Jones, then lost the gig because of a TV contract. Not rumor, not urban legend. He had the job. Then 'Magnum P.I.' locked him down, and the fedora slid over to Harrison Ford. If you have ever wondered how we ended up with Ford cracking the whip instead of TV's favorite mustache, here is the full story, clean and simple.

Why Ford was not the automatic choice

George Lucas had history with Harrison Ford from 'American Graffiti' and then 'Star Wars' in 1977, which made Ford famous overnight. But before that, Ford was the guy doing carpentry between auditions, and Lucas did not love recycling the same actors across his movies. He was actively avoiding building a little repertory company of regulars. That is why a bunch of people were up for Han Solo back in the day, including Kurt Russell. Ford still nailed that audition and got the part.

The post-'Star Wars' glow did not translate into instant box office dominance. Ford toplined a few movies: 'Force 10 from Navarone' (a sequel to 'The Guns of Navarone'), 'The Frisco Kid' with Gene Wilder, and his first true solo star vehicle, 'Hanover Street'. All three tanked. 'The Empire Strikes Back' was on the horizon, but the industry was not convinced that Harrison Ford, Big Movie Star, was going to stick.

Selleck gears up

Meanwhile, Tom Selleck was a good-looking lead with a stack of failed TV pilots to his name. He popped in a small role in 1978's 'Coma' as a doomed patient, where he first wore the now-classic mustache on screen and, yes, took his shirt off. People noticed. He also did a recurring stint on 'The Rockford Files' as a private eye, which put him in the pipeline for a new lead: Thomas Magnum in 'Magnum P.I.' The pilot was shot in Hawaii, and then the project sat while the network decided what to do with it.

Lucas and Spielberg chase a Bond-style plan

When Lucas and Steven Spielberg spun up 'Raiders of the Lost Ark', the idea was to kick off a long-running series with a relatively unknown lead they could build into a star, the way the Bond producers had done. They tested a lot of actors: Harry Hamlin, John Shea, Sam Elliott (imagine that voice under the hat), and Tim Matheson among them. Selleck showed up with the Magnum mustache still on his face and crushed his screen test, especially a screwball scene opposite Marion. Internally, the feeling was: this is the guy. And it was convenient — Selleck's 'Magnum P.I.' option was set to expire in 10 days.

Then CBS noticed

As soon as CBS realized Spielberg and Lucas wanted Selleck, the network made its move. They officially greenlit 'Magnum P.I.' so they would not lose him. If this sounds familiar, NBC did a similar thing years later in 1986 when Pierce Brosnan was hired as James Bond — they yanked him back for 'Remington Steele'. Brosnan eventually got to be 007. Selleck never got to be Indy.

"Look, I made a deal with Magnum and it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I am proud that I lived up to my contract. Some people said, you have got to get into a car and drive into a brick wall and get injured and get out of Magnum and do Raiders. I said, I gotta look my mom and dad in the eye and we do not do that. So I did Magnum... That is not so bad, is it?"

He took the high road. And he has had to answer for it in interviews ever since. Occupational hazard when your near-miss happens to be one of the most beloved characters in movie history.

How it turned out for Ford

Once Selleck was off the board, the 'we do not want to reuse Harrison' stance softened. Ford was already a known quantity by then, so 'Raiders' paid him a seven-figure fee for a one-movie deal. It worked out for everyone. Ford clicked instantly with Spielberg. Spielberg even hired Ford's then-wife, Melissa Mathison, to write 'E.T.' — a home run. Ford himself shot a cameo as Elliott's school principal, which got cut. And Indy? He came back for two more movies before, theoretically, retiring from the role forever. We all know how that went.

What Selleck did instead

'Magnum P.I.' became one of the biggest shows of the 1980s and ran for most of the decade. Selleck parlayed the Indy buzz into two retro adventures — 'High Road to China' and 'Lassiter'. 'High Road' did fine; 'Lassiter' did not, and neither did 1984's 'Runaway'. The movie-star moment finally arrived with 'Three Men and a Baby' in 1987, which ended up being the year's biggest hit. After that, he settled into a sturdy TV career that recently included a long run on 'Blue Bloods' — roughly twice as long as his time on 'Magnum'.

Selleck has stayed pretty zen about the whole Indy thing. In his autobiography, he says he went to see 'Raiders' in theaters in 1981 because he knew it would be great. The second he saw the boulder chase in the opening, it clicked: Harrison Ford was Indiana Jones, and Indiana Jones was Harrison Ford. Fair enough.

The short version

• Lucas did not want to repeat-cast his friends, so Ford was not the default for Indy despite 'Star Wars'.
• Pre-'Raiders', Ford's non-'Star Wars' movies bombed, which did not help his case.
• Selleck aced the Indy test while under an option for 'Magnum P.I.' that was about to lapse.
• CBS fast-tracked 'Magnum P.I.' to keep him, blocking 'Raiders'.
• Ford got the hat, a one-picture seven-figure deal, and a lifelong franchise; Spielberg hired Melissa Mathison to write 'E.T.'; Ford's 'E.T.' cameo got cut.
• Selleck headlined 'Magnum', tried two Indy-adjacent adventures, stumbled with 'Lassiter' and 'Runaway', then scored with 'Three Men and a Baby' and later anchored 'Blue Bloods'.

In the end, both guys won in different lanes: Ford became the face of this franchise, and Selleck became a TV icon with a resume that never really went cold. Could anyone else have played Indy? After you picture that boulder rolling, it is hard to see it any other way.