One George Lucas Decision Changed The Indiana Jones Franchise's Legacy Forever

Three years after "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" was released in theaters, franchise co-creator George Lucas developed the ABC TV series, "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles." The '92 series went on for two seasons and four TV movies; it was considered a success and is still generally well-regarded by the hardcore "Indiana Jones" fans. The episodic format allowed young Indy to go through dozens of smaller adventures, constantly interacting with historical figures like Leo Tolstoy and John Ford. 

One episode idea Lucas had for the show will sound familiar to modern fans: "One of the scripts we were working on was about a crystal skull. I became fascinated with it there," Lucas said in a 2007 interview. Although he was captivated by an Indiana Jones story where Jones looks for a crystal skull, the concept ultimately never made it into the series. On the bright side for Lucas, he was able to use the old idea for the fourth film in the franchise, "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." When Lucas finally got the chance to do his crystal skull idea justice, it was a feature-length story with Harrison Ford reprising the main role. 

Lucas insisted in 2007 that the fourth movie was shaping up to be the best "Indy" movie since "Raiders," and told reporters about the movie's titular McGuffin, "I think this is actually better, it's up there with the Ark of the Covenant [...] Sankara Stones and the Holy Grail were a little tough, but I think this time we've really got a great one."

Unfortunately, viewers thought otherwise. Today, "Crystal Skull" is the only movie in the franchise with a rotten audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It's widely considered a step below the first three movies, and has cemented those first three films as the only "true" movies in the franchise worth watching. While many fans are willing to defend "Dial of Destiny," far fewer have been willing to jump to that fourth movie's defense. As far as many fans are concerned, we would've been better off if Lucas had used the crystal skull concept for the TV show. 

Probably the biggest impact of "Crystal Skull" is the way it seemingly muted the audience excitement for "Dial of Destiny" 15 years later. That movie should have been a hit, but it failed to turn a profit at the box office despite being markedly better than the movie that came before it. A common theory is that viewers no longer trusted the "Indiana Jones" brand. Whereas "Indiana Jones" movies were once a guaranteed great time, "Crystal Skull" taught viewers that this was no longer the case. 

The only issue with this theory is that the franchise's second film, "The Temple of Doom," was and is pretty controversial, too. It's been criticized for being easily the most mean-spirited movie in the franchise, especially with its treatment of love interest Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw). For a lot of viewers, "Temple of Doom" was their first moment of disappointment with the franchise, but the movie's issues didn't stop viewers from going out to see "The Last Crusade" in droves a few years later. 

Perhaps the real reason "Dial of Destiny" did so poorly is that "Crystal Skull" already felt like a final chapter. The movie featured an older Indy meeting the young Mutt (Shia LaBeouf), who's seemingly being set up as a replacement lead for the franchise going forward. The fact that the "Indiana Jones" had already basically said farewell to audiences — doing a bad job at it in the process — likely doomed the next movie a decade before its production even started.