Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull focus on the "Star Wars" prequels. In 2000, Spielberg's son asked when the next "Indiana Jones" film would be released, which made him interested in reviving the project. The same year, Ford, Lucas, Spielberg, Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy met during the American Film Institute's tribute to Ford, and decided they wanted to enjoy the experience of making an "Indiana Jones" film again. Spielberg also found returning to the series a respite from his many dark films during this period, such as "A.I. Artificial Intelligence", "Minority Report", and "Munich". Lucas convinced Spielberg to use aliens in the plot by saying
Indiana Jones films involving archaeologists, they were portrayed as victims who would need to be rescued by a more masculine or heroic figure. Following 1981, the stereotypical archaeologist is thought of as a male bullwhip-wielding adventurer and professor. The stereotypical image of an archaeologist is also portrayed as an individual usually out doing fieldwork, which is not always the case. Archeologist Anne Pyburn described the influence of Indiana Jones as elitist and sexist, and argued that the Indiana Jones films have caused new discoveries in the field of archaeology to become oversimplified and overhyped in an attempt to gain public interest, which