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 period. Ten years afterward, a thirteenth original novel was added, also written by a popular genre author. The first twelve were published by Bantam Books; the last by Ballantine Books in 2009. (See Indiana Jones (franchise) for broad descriptions of these original adult novels.) The novels are: From 1992 to 1996, George Lucas executive-produced a television series named "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles", aimed mainly at teenagers and children, which showed many of the important events and historical figures of the early 20th century through the prism of Indiana Jones' life. The show initially featured the formula of an elderly