Indiana Jones 5 Concept Art Teases A Huge Battle With Ke Huy Quan's Short Round

Concept art from "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" teases Indy teaming up with Ke Huy Quan's Short Round. 

How cool would it have been if Short Round showed up in "Dial of Destiny"? The James Mangold-directed picture features the octogenarian Jones (Harrison Ford) teaming up with his goddaughter, Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), for one "final" adventure to find Archimedes' complex and mystical Dial. Following the film's release, many wondered why Ke Huy Quan didn't return as Short Round. 

The fan-favorite character, who first debuted in 1984's "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," failed to appear in subsequent sequels. Quan, whose clout in Hollywood has considerably grown since his Oscar-winning appearance in "Everything Everywhere All at Once," would have been a great addition to Indy's farewell flick. Within the context of the film, it certainly would have made sense to have Short Round reunite for Jones. Luckily, Saby Menyhei, an artist at Industrial Light & Magic, has shared concept art of Short Round teaming up with Indy on Instagram.

In the concept art, an adult Short Round is fighting a hoard of otherworldly, zombie-like creatures alongside Indy, who is holding a mysterious artifact. Short Round is seen rocking a baseball cap, a throwback to his "Temple of Doom" getup. Indy, meanwhile, is wearing his traditional garb — fedora and whip included. "Indy and Short Round in action," the caption from the ILM artist reads. "It would have been so cool to see @kehuyquan again in the role one more time!" 

The first film in the "Indiana Jones" franchise to not be directed by Steven Spielberg, "Dial of Destiny" debuted to mostly mixed critical reception. While fans mostly enjoyed the flick, as signaled by its B+ CinemaScore, "Dial of Destiny" failed to post a profit at the box office, emerging as one of 2023's biggest bombs. Though it's difficult to gauge if Ke Huy Quan's inclusion in "Dial of Destiny" would have led to a more prosperous final product, it's fair to say that fans wanted Short Round to return. "THIS is the team up / legacy movie I wanted to see!" wrote Instagram user @insidious_customs on Saby Menyhei's post. 

Details surrounding the concept art are minimal, making it unclear just how interested Lucasfilm was in having Quan back as Short Round. Ultimately, the character never showed up in "Dial of Destiny" — a missed opportunity in the eyes of man. While speaking with IGN, "Dial of Destiny" director and co-writer James Mangold revealed that there were never any plans to have Short Round return for the fifth "Indiana Jones" flick. "I just didn't want another adult along for the ride," Mangold said. The filmmaker went on to say that he wanted to include a female lead in the film to star opposite Harrison Ford.

For Mangold, having Quan appear for the sake of it would have felt cheap. "And at that point, I was thinking of how we could introduce Ke [Huy Quan], I didn't have a space for another adult to come in the movie and have anything that wouldn't be more than kind of the worst kind of cameo," Mangold later said on the "Happy Sad Confused" podcast.