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 Solo's skeleton and the realization that a rumored nearby Sasquatch is in fact Chewbacca. Indy also appears in a series of Marvel Comics. The four Indiana Jones film scripts were novelized and published in the time-frame of the films' initial releases. "Raiders of the Lost Ark" was novelized by Campbell Black based on the script by Lawrence Kasdan that was based on the story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman and published in April 1981 by Ballantine Books; "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" was novelized by James Kahn and based on the script by Willard Huyck & Gloria