Indiana Jones (franchise) in mid-2021. The series was created by George Lucas, and its films are directed by Steven Spielberg and star Harrison Ford as the title character. The Walt Disney Company has owned the "Indiana Jones" intellectual property since its acquisition of Lucasfilm, the series' production company, in 2012. Paramount retains the distribution rights to the first four films and television series. The franchise expanded to television in 1992 with the release of "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles", a series featuring adventures the character had as a child as he traveled around the world with his father. Marvel Comics began publishing "The
Indiana Jones (franchise) Further Adventures of Indiana Jones" in 1983, and Dark Horse Comics earned the comic book rights to the character in 1991. Novelizations of the films have been published, as well as many novels with original adventures, including a series of German novels by Wolfgang Hohlbein, twelve novels set before the films published by Bantam Books, and a series set during the character's childhood inspired by the television show. Numerous "Indiana Jones" video games have been released since 1982. The first film, "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981) is set in 1936. Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is hired by government agents