History of Indiana Jones Timeline

Set in 1935, Indiana Jones travels to India and attempts to free enslaved children and the three Sankara stones from the bloodthirsty Thuggee cult in this prequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark.

In his first screen adventure, Indiana Jones, a tenured professor of archaeology and native of Princeton, New Jersey, is pitted against Nazis commissioned by Hitler to recover artifacts of great power from the Old Testament.

Image source: Raiders of the Lost Ark

The third film returned to the formula of the original, reintroducing characters such as Sallah and Marcus Brody, a scene from Professor Jones' classroom at Barnett College, multiple locations, and Nazi mystics searching for the Holy Grail.

Archimedes' Dial, a relic Jones and Basil Shaw retrieved, was taken from the Nazis in 1944 during the Allied liberation of Europe in World War II.

Image source: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Set in 1957, nineteen years after the third film, it pits an older, wiser Indiana Jones against Soviet KGB agents bent on harnessing the power of an extraterrestrial device discovered in South America.

Set in 1969, twelve years after the fourth film, Jones teaches at Hunter College in New York City with plans to retire until goddaughter Helena Shaw arrives seeking Archimedes' Dial while Nazi-turned-NASA scientist Jürgen Voller pursues them.

The character first appeared in the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark, introducing Indiana Jones as a tenured professor of archaeology facing Nazis in search of biblical artifacts.

The second film in the series was released in 1984 as a prequel set in 1935, following Jones to India where he battles the Thuggee cult.

Image source: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

The third film was released in June 1989, returning to the formula of the original and sending Jones in pursuit of the Holy Grail alongside Nazi mystics.

The fourth film in the series, released in 2008, pitted an older Indiana Jones against Soviet KGB agents seeking the power of an extraterrestrial device discovered in South America.

The fifth and final film in the series was released in 2023, following Jones in 1969 as he faces Jürgen Voller, a Nazi-turned-NASA scientist who wants to exploit Archimedes' Dial to change the outcome of World War II.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle features a standalone narrative taking place in Italy during 1937, placing it between the events of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Image source: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures was released in 2008 and follows the plots of the first three films.

Image source: Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures

Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues was released in late 2009, following the success of the first Lego Indiana Jones game.

Image source: Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues

Social gaming company Zynga introduced Indiana Jones to their Adventure World game in late 2011.

Image source: Adventure (1980 video game)

An original Indiana Jones game developed by MachineGames and published by Bethesda Softworks for Windows and Xbox Series X/S, with Troy Baker providing the voice and motion capture for the character.

Raiders of the Lost Ark was novelized by Campbell Black based on Lawrence Kasdan's script and published in April 1981 by Ballantine Books.

Following the Raiders of the Lost Ark adaptation, Marvel published The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones from 1983 to 1986.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was novelized by James Kahn based on Willard Huyck & Gloria Katz's script and published May 1984 by Ballantine Books.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was novelized by Rob MacGregor based on Jeffrey Boam's script and published June 1989 by Ballantine Books.

From February 1991 through February 1999, twelve original Indiana Jones-themed adult novels were licensed by Lucasfilm Ltd., beginning with Indiana Jones and the Peril at Delphi (Feb 1991), followed by titles such as Dance of the Giants (June 1991), Seven Veils (Dec 1991), Genesis Deluge (Feb 1992), Unicorn's Legacy (Sep 1992), Interior World (Dec 1992), Sky Pirates (Dec 1993), White Witch (Apr 1994), Philosopher's Stone (May 1995), Dinosaur Eggs (Mar 1996), Hollow Earth (Mar 1997), and Secret of the Sphinx (Feb 1999).

From 1992 to 1996, following its Fate of Atlantis adaptation, Dark Horse published seven limited series as well as comics based on The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles television series.

In 2004, Indiana Jones appeared in the non-canon story "Into the Great Unknown", first published in Star Wars Tales #19, crossing over with Star Wars.

Image source: Into the Great Unknown

With the franchise's revival in 2008, Dark Horse published an adaptation of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, plus the additional limited series Indiana Jones and the Tomb of the Gods, published from 2008 to 2009.

Nearly 20 years after the last novelization, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was novelized by James Rollins and published in May 2008 by Ballantine Books. Scholastic Books also published juvenile novelizations of all four scripts by Ryder Windham, Suzanne Weyn, Ryder Windham, and James Luceno.

Image source: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Indiana Jones and the Army of the Dead, the thirteenth original adult novel, was published by Ballantine Books in September 2009; unlike the first twelve, which were published by Bantam Books, this final one came from Ballantine Books.

Image source: Indiana Jones

The Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular! has been presented at Disney's Hollywood Studios with few changes since the park's 1989 opening, when it was known as Disney-MGM Studios.

Image source: Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular!

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril is a looping roller coaster engineered by Intamin, designed by Walt Disney Imagineering, and opened in 1993.

Image source: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril

Ford was approached to reprise his role as Indiana Jones for the Disney attractions, but negotiations to secure Ford's participation broke down in December 1994 for unknown reasons.

The attractions, some of the most expensive of their kind at the time, opened in 1995 and 2001 respectively, with sole design credit attributed to Walt Disney Imagineering.

Stunt performer Anislav Varbanov was fatally injured in August 2009 while rehearsing the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular! show.

From 1992 to 1996, George Lucas wrote and executive-produced The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, a television series aimed mainly at teenagers and children showing important early 20th-century events and historical figures through the prism of Jones' life.

In 1999, Lucas removed the episode introductions and epilogues by George Hall for the VHS and DVD releases and re-edited the episodes into chronologically ordered feature-length stories.