Sean Patrick Flanery has come a very long way from his days as a young actor from the late’80s and early’90s. But that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t visit one of the slogans that he worked on in these early days: Indiana Jones. When we talked with Flanery in promotion of his new jiu-jitsu drama Produced a Champion, we could not help but ask whether he’d like to be involved with the Indiana Jones franchise once again, today that Indiana Jones 5 is along the way.
For those unaware, one of Flanery’s first significant gigs was to step into the iconic eyeglasses of Indiana Jones after the franchise’s first trilogy of films wrapped up. George Lucas devised a TV show to fill in Indiana’s backstory, entitled The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. Flanery was tapped to play the character in his teenaged and young adult years. The series ran for two seasons and many TV films (with the series also being re-edited into a new set of TV movies under the Adventures of Young Indiana Jones banner). It even inspired video games for the Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Genesis.
While Flanery’s time as Indiana doesn’t have the iconic status of Harrison Ford’s run as the personality, it is still an interesting one that lovers of the personality treasure. Together with Indiana Jones 5, Ford’s final movie as the personality, coming in 2022, it could be the perfect time for Flanery to get a nod in the form of a cameo or little function.
We asked Flanery about this potential, wondering whether he would be down to come back to the iconic franchise since it closes this chapter. He had a similar solution to once we inquired about coming to Dexter, the serial killer Showtime show he seemed in 2013. He noted he hadn’t been offered to return, but there is no way he’d say no if given the chance.
“Man, I could probably count on one hand the number of people who wouldn’t want to do something which George Lucas originated,” Flanery said with a laugh. “Being at a Harrison Ford movie, I mean, that falls into the identical Dexter category. But with that said, I mean, to me personally, Harrison Ford is Indiana Jones. Do you understand what I mean? They’ve got my 20 bucks at the theater whenever they put one of these out. Absolutely.”
As previously mentioned, Flanery can now be observed in Born a Champion, which he co-wrote for a love letter to the sport of Brazilian jiu-jitsu. It’s available digitally and physically at major retailers now. You may read our full Q-and-A using Flanery here. Indiana Jones 5 is famous to get a 2022 release, but Harrison Ford is the only cast member publicly attached as of press time.