According to Empire, Indy’s new adventure in “Dial of Destiny” takes place in 1969 right in the middle of the space race. If Quan were to appear in the fifth entry, what would his character Short Round be up to? Would he be an astronaut that Indy runs into at the Apollo 11 ticker-tape parade? During a conversation on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, Quan talked about the possibility of dusting off Short Round’s New York Yankees ball cap and returning to the character that made him kid famous. “I love the character of Short Round,” Quan said according to Variety. “He’s funny and courageous and saves Indy’s ass.”
Short Round was Quan’s first acting role, which is a hard bar to set for a young actor. Now that Quan is also an established stunt coordinator, if Indy’s sidekick does come back in some form, there’s no way he’ll be standing on the sidelines. It’s purely wishful thinking at this point, but Quan is definitely on board if and when the call comes, stating “If Disney or Lucasfilm ever come to me and say, ‘We want to do a Short Round spinoff,’ I’m there man! I love that character so much and it would just be incredible to revisit so many years later.”
If a return were to happen, what profession would Short Round have chosen to pursue? “Your guess is as good as mine,” Quan said. “Just because he looks after Indy so much, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was an archeologist.” That’s a good suggestion, even if I like my idea that he’s an astronaut a little bit better. The main takeaway from all this conjecture is to highlight the fact that Short Round and Quan can be or do anything they want.