Ke Huy Quan would absolutely do a Short Round spin-off

Tonight marked the Hollywood premiere of Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny, Harrison Ford’s final outing as the globe-trotting adventurer. (At least, that’s what he keeps saying, in that charmingly grumpy Harrison Ford sort of way.) As such, numerous stars with long histories with the franchise showed up for the red carpet, including one who didn’t appear in the film himself: Oscar-winner Ke Huy Quan, showing up to once again lend support to his old castmate Ford.

Still, given the Everything Everywhere All At Once co-star’s re-emergence into the world of Hollywood acting, and the noted absence of a star for future Indiana Jones movies on deck, Quan did end up fielding what might be something of an inevitable question from Variety’s Marc Malkin: Would he ever do a spin-off film centered on his Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom character Short Round? “That is a great question that you need to ask Steven [Spielberg], Kathy [Kennedy], George [Lucas],” Quan answered. When Malkin pressed him on whether he’d do it, Quan didn’t mince words: “Are you kidding me? I love Short Round. What a great character…I would like to think he’s following in Indiana Jones’ footsteps.” (He said something similar last year, during a Reddit AMA as the EEAAO enthusiasm train was just building up steam.)

Of course, Malkin didn’t confine such questions to Quan: He posed a similar question to Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who co-stars in Dial. Her response: “If it’s anything like this adventure, hell yeah.” And director James Mangold fielded a question about a whole other performer who was once set up as Indy’s potential successor: Shia LaBeouf. Mangold didn’t go in-depth on LaBeouf, but did clarify his intent with the new movie: “When I came on, I wanted to capture that wonderful energy between Indy and an intrepid female character. So that was my first goal. And there’s only so many people you can kind of edge into a picture.”

So, yeah: No lack of potential new Indys in the world once Ford finally hangs up the iconic hat.