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 (franchise) a writer on the project. There is no writer on Indy." In October 2012, The Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm, thereby granting Disney ownership rights to the "Indiana Jones" intellectual property. However, Paramount Pictures continued to own distribution rights for the film series. On December 6, 2013, Walt Disney Studios purchased the remaining distribution and marketing rights to future "Indiana Jones" films, while Paramount will retain the distribution rights to the first four films, and will receive "financial participation" from any additional films. Although a new film installment was not announced with the deal, Disney CEO Bob Iger has expressed