Continuing a rather great run of scoops of late, The Hot Mic’s Jeff Sneider added another one today.
This time it relates to the upcoming “Indiana Jones” TV series, the news about it breaking in the trades on Tuesday this week with Disney and Lucasfilm reportedly looking for a writer to take on the project.
What wasn’t clear is what kind of series it will be. A prequel akin to “The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles” series? A spin-off of an existing character, a work that ties into the upcoming fifth film, or a full-on reboot?
According to Sneider, it’s going to be a prequel to “Raiders of the Lost Ark”. He indicates Abner Ravenwood will be the protagonist, the character serving as an off-screen mentor to Jones in the series with his disappearance helping kick off the story of the original film.
In the lore, Abner was an Egyptologist and archaeologist. He fathered Marion Ravenwood in 1909, around the same time he met a young boy named Henry Jones Jr. (born 1899). Should the report prove accurate, it would suggest a setting not really later than the 1920s, which would get around the Ford casting issue.
The previous “Young Indiana Jones Chronicles” series unfolded mostly across 1916-1918 with some stories set between 1908-1910. The ‘Last Crusade’ flashback with River Phoenix as Indy takes place in 1912.
As the initial reports indicated, it’s still very early days in terms of the show’s development so take this with a grain of salt for now.
