Should future Indy films retcon the YIJC?

Raiders90

Well-known member
By this I mean, do you think, if, let's say Indy is continued with a younger actor after Indy V, should the series go back as far as the 1910s/WWI era and give Indy a new pre-TOD background story? Or would you prefer if the YIJC remained canon?
 

Attila the Professor

Moderator
Staff member
I would prefer the YIJC remain canon, because I like internal consistency, but that's not the real reason I don't want to see more adventures in the pre-20s era.

I think the character, at least in his cinematic incarnations, be no younger than he is when he's embarking on his post-graduate studies. Indy is an educated hero; that's as central a part of the character as the fedora and the improvisatory resourcefulness. While as a person, there'd obviously be a time before that, as hero engaged in the sorts of adventures we see in the four Spielberg-directed projects, the fact that he's a professor (or officially on the road to becoming one) is integral.
 

Z dweller

Well-known member
Attila the Professor said:
Indy is an educated hero; that's as central a part of the character as the fedora and the improvisatory resourcefulness. While as a person, there'd obviously be a time before that, as hero engaged in the sorts of adventures we see in the four Spielberg-directed projects, the fact that he's a professor (or officially on the road to becoming one) is integral.
Well said, that man. (y)

You call him Dr. Jones!
 

curmudgeon

Well-known member
I'd like to say they wouldn't overwrite the series, but I suspect that by the time we get a movie about a younger Indy, they probably won't even be staying in continuity with the original films, let alone the Chronicles.
 

Face_Melt

Well-known member
The new Star Wars films acknowledge the Star Wars TV series as canon. The new film is actually bringing in a character from The Clone Wars series. I assume Indy would do the same.
 

Randy_Flagg

Well-known member
I'd be perfectly fine with them retconning YIJ. When I watch that show, I really have a very difficult time seeing the character as a younger version of Harrison's Indy. The personality and attitude is just so completely different. And, I know this may sound like a trivial complaint, but Flannery's voice is completely wrong. Harrison's Indy has a strong, authoritative voice, and Flannery's doesn't. Again, it comes down to the attitude, I guess, since the attitude is reflected in the voice. If we consider the fact that the Indy we saw in TOD is the closest in the timeline to Flannery's Indy, it simply does not line up at all. Totally different character.

So if they can come up with a new Young Indy that feels more connected to the "real" Indy, I say go for it. I'm not saying he needs to be a carbon copy of Harrison's Indy, since people DO change as they go through different experiences, but it needs to feel more believable that the Young Indy we're seeing has the potential to eventually become Harrison's Indy.

(A friend once pointed out that Flannery's Indy seemed more closely related to Michael J Fox than Harrison Ford.)
 

Walecs

Active member
Randy_Flagg said:
When I watch that show, I really have a very difficult time seeing the character as a younger version of Harrison's Indy.
So do I. Still, I wouldn't want to see another actor as Indy in Indiana Jones 5, unless he strongly looks like Harrison Ford and his role is limited to a 15-minute appearance à la River Phoenix in The Last Crusade.
 

IndyBuff

Well-known member
I wouldn't be too bothered by it. I always felt YIJC had potential but the series was so full of contrivances and missed opportunities that I had a hard time getting much enjoyment out of it. The later episodes were better but overall I don't give them too much thought. I appreciate the concept of trying to make it both educational and exciting but it's a blend that didn't work, which is puzzling when you take into consideration that the films did this naturally. Sure, they played with history and changed a few things but the bones of it added to up to something that at least made you want to learn more. I never got that from the TV show.

I'd rather see them do what the novels did and pick up just after Indy finishes college.
 

Grizzlor

Well-known member
I just don't think the YIJC would ever really come into play. The old Indy segments, which Lucas himself canned, established little but that he was still alive at the time, had a daughter and grandchildren, and lost an eye. That being said, there was a mention of Pancho Villa in KOTCS, which of course was a story in the YIJC. So beyond some of the historical run-ins Young Indy had, most of which wouldn't make sense to be in a script but for an in-joke, the main piece was the daughter and grand children. That would easily be explained though, because it was never established in those bookends that this was his biological daughter. May well have been Mutt's future wife, hence daughter-in-law.
 
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