I firmly believe that Indiana Jones can work in the same structural mold as James Bond: that is, different actors portraying the same character, with each film serving as a self-contained adventure tale. They could pretty much jump around any time between, say, 1930 and the year of Crystal Skull (1957 I think?) and tell a multitude of stories.

Just a great entry Andrew. I too love the way the early Indy influences the later Indy. When looking at these events in chronological order, you shed new light onto something I never really explicated all that much. Thanks for that.

I wonder if the new film is a huge hit and exceeds its expectations (a weighty feat that will be) if they will attempt to do the new thing with hallowed trilogies: the prequel.

A Young Indiana Jones movie would be interesting (I liked the show too) and it would be interesting to get a Indiana Jones Epic in the vein of The Godfather Epic where they would edit the films in chronological order. I think your observations would become clearer to more people if they released a certain version of the films that way.

Anyway…great post.