The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles Indiana Jones feature films, the cast and crew frequently questioned creator George Lucas about the Indiana Jones character's life growing up. During the concept stages of "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade", Lucas and director Steven Spielberg decided to reveal some of this backstory in the film's opening scenes. For these scenes, Lucas chose River Phoenix to portray the character, as Harrison Ford believed that Phoenix most resembled Ford as a young man (Phoenix had appeared as Ford's son in "The Mosquito Coast"). This decision to reveal an adventure of a young Indiana led Lucas and crew to the idea
Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix was featured as a central villain. After this game, LucasArts briefly considered making a game named "Spear of Destiny" (involving the spear of Longinus). They eventually abandoned the idea of creating a classical adventure game in the "Indiana Jones" series, instead focusing on "Tomb Raider"-style 3D action games. Thus, ending it with the release of "Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine", followed by "Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb" and "Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings". Since the game, "Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix" was canceled, Dark Horse Comics released a four-part comic book series based upon it.