The original Indiana Jones trilogy that ran from 1981 to 1989 is without a doubt one of the most entertaining, well-written and greatly-executed works of cinema ever. With its incredible set pieces, direction, iconic sequences and brilliant Harrison Ford performance, the original trilogy effectively told a story like no other. In 2008, a fourth Indiana Jones movie was finally made called Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull with Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas all involved once again. There was a lot of excitement around Indy's return even if the film itself didn't live up to expectations.

What some fans may not realize is that there were plans to continue the Indiana Jones series in the 1990s after Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in 1989. The planned sequels would have looked to continue Indy's story after the events of The Last Crusade and possibly explore other periods of his life prior to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. However, fans instead got a 19-year hiatus from Harrison Ford's Indiana Jones, and when he finally returned it wasn't quite the same. There's a reason the films didn't continue in the '90s, but maybe they should have.

The Indiana Jones movies are the brainchild of a very specific three-headed dragon that crafted an original character and lore like no other when each of these filmmakers was in their prime. While Steven Spielberg brought the perfect directorial vision to the films, Lawrence Kasdan deserves an immense amount of credit for writing one of the best screenplays of all time with Raiders of the Lost Ark. The third and equally important head of the dragon was George Lucas, who came up with the original idea, characters and story for Indiana Jones. As a producer, Lucas completed a brilliant trifecta that brought Indy to life. Since Lucas came up with all the key storylines for the films, he was always the first to approach a new Indiana Jones film before it got written and directed by others.

After Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, George Lucas began developing new ideas for a fourth Indiana Jones movie but wasn't satisfied with the direction he was going. Unwilling to hand it over to other minds, Lucas decided instead that he didn't want to make another film. Both Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford were excited about making another sequel, but once they learned Lucas wanted to stop, they didn't want to move forward without him. Furthermore, any time George Lucas had ideas for Indiana Jones, it involved stories of Indy's youth. This led to Lucas developing The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles for TV instead. The project was underwhelming, to say the least, and didn't last long. Both Lucas and Spielberg had great runs in the '90s as they turned their attention to other projects, including Jurassic Park, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan and, of course, the Star Wars prequels. This continued into the 2000s until, eventually, both of them were compelled to return to the franchise.

Early ideas George Lucas had for the next Indiana Jones movie included having the film take place in the 1950s with Russians as the villains, Indy getting married, Henry Jones returning, and aliens. If this sounds familiar to anyone, it's because many of these ideas were eventually used in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. 19 years after both Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford resisted these early ideas from Lucas, they ended up making the movie with all of those elements. Even one of Lucas' early ideas to have Indy survive a nuclear blast inside a refrigerator made it into Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Spielberg and Ford returned to these ideas 19 years later because, chronologically, it made sense. However, the film didn't work, and their initial hesitations proved to be right.

If Spielberg had applied his own input back in 1990, there could have been a version of Lucas' story that made more sense and worked better as an Indiana Jones sequel. If Indiana Jones continued in the '90s, there's a chance they would have been great and better than Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. With a young Harrison Ford still in his prime and possibly spreading out some of Lucas' ideas over multiple films, the '90s Indiana Jones trilogy that never happened might have been fantastic. However, if Spielberg and Lucas decided to spend time on more Indiana Jones movies, they would have had less time to work on iconic projects that are some of people's favorite films. Everything works out the way it should and even though the two most recent Indiana Jones movies didn't live up to expectations, the original trilogy will always be one of the best trilogies in cinema history.