Why Old Indy Was Cut From The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles ReReleases

Why Old Indy Was Cut From The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles Re-Releases

The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones is on Paramount+ without the footage of George Hall’s Old Indy. Here are the reasons why those scenes were cut.

You Are Reading :[thien_display_title]

Why Old Indy Was Cut From The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles ReReleases

Old Indy (George Hall) was cut from the re-releases o The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, among numerous other changes made by series creator George Lucas. Also known as Young Indy, the series originally aired on ABC for two seasons in the early 1990s before it was renamed The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones for its television re-airings in 1999 and subsequent home video releases. Young Indy is now available to stream on Paramount+.

Young Indy was inspired by the positive reception to the prologue of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, where River Phoenix played Young Indy. With the movie trilogy completed, Lucas wanted to create an educational TV series where Young Indy would cross paths with notable historical figures in the early 20th century en route to becoming the world-famous archaeologist seen in the films. Corey Carrier played Young Indy aged 9-10, Sean Patrick Flanery played the role aged 16-21, while George Hall portrayed Old Indy aged 92-93 in bookend segments. In addition, Harrison Ford made one appearance, reprising his role as Indy, aged 51, in the bookends for “Young Indiana Jones and the Mystery of the Blues”.

For the rerelease of the series as The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones on TV and VHS, Lucas made major alterations, most notably cutting every bookend of Hall’s Old Indy and Sean Patrick Flanery’s teenage Indy. The only bookend scenes Lucas retained were the ones starring Harrison Ford as Indy in “Mystery of the Blues” – for obvious reasons. Excising Hall meant losing his version of Old Indy, who wore an eyepatch for reasons that were never explained. However, despite removing Hall’s performance, each chapter still ends with Old Indy closing his diary. Lucas also re-edited the series from its original 40-minute episodes into 22 feature-length TV movies and added new footage to connect the separate storylines of each set of two Young Indy episodes into a full-length movie.

See also  Ranking Every Apartment On The Circle

While the Old Indy bookends were cut to support this new TV movie format, it’s also possible Lucas got rid of them to support the fourth Indiana Jones movie he was planning, which finally materialized as 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The George Hall Old Indy bookends not only established the legendary archaeologist lost an eye but that he also had a daughter and grandchildren, which haven’t been mentioned at all in the films. Lucas likely wanted to preserve the movies as the primary way to establish Indiana Jones’ canon and there was no mention of Indy having a daughter in Crystal Skull, which is set in 1957 and instead introduced his grown son, Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf).

George Lucas is infamous for endlessly tinkering with his work, as he did with Star Wars until he sold Lucasfilm to Disney. As Lucas’ plans for Indiana Jones evolved throughout the 1990s and 2000s, which included wanting to make a fourth entry, the easiest solution to potential continuity issues was to excise aspects of Young Indy that contradicted his new ideas. It’s notable, however, that Lucas intended to introduce Indy’s daughter in Indiana Jones 4 but director Steven Spielberg preferred that Indy had a son instead.

Cutting George Hall’s Old Indy scenes also helps frees up director James Mangold, who took over directing duties from Spielberg. Now, Mangold doesn’t have to concern himself with or adhere to the canon established by The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, a relatively little-seen TV show from the 1990s, as he mounts Indiana Jones 5 with Harrison Ford reprising the role once more. And, admittedly, there is no better Old Indy than Ford himself.

See also  Ginny & Georgia 5 Times Ginny Was A Good Friend (& 5 She Dropped The Ball)

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/young-indiana-jones-chronicles-old-indy-cut-reason-canon/

Movies -