Lucasfilm quietly explored a new direction for one of its most iconic franchises — and then walked away from it.
According to The Wrap, the studio developed an animated Indiana Jones series before ultimately canceling the project without any public announcement. Codenamed “Reggie” after pilot Jock Lindsay’s pet snake in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), the show was envisioned as a serialized set of adventures unfolding between the events of the films.
The project never advanced to production.
Indiana Jones, Reimagined for Animation
The animated series was being developed under the Lucasfilm banner with Rodrigo Blaas, best known to audiences for his work on Star Wars: Visions.
The concept reportedly leaned into episodic storytelling, allowing Indiana Jones to travel the globe in standalone adventures that filled in narrative gaps across the franchise timeline.
Animation offered a practical solution to a long-standing challenge. Harrison Ford’s portrayal of Indy is inseparable from the character, yet the actor has repeatedly stated that he has hung up his whip. An animated format would have allowed Lucasfilm to continue telling Indiana Jones stories without recasting Ford in live action.
Despite that flexibility, the project stalled and was ultimately axed.
Lucasfilm also dropped a live-action series developed in 2022 that would have followed Abner Ravenwood, Indiana Jones’ mentor and the father of love interest Marion Ravenwood.
The Shadow of ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’
The news comes in the wake of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023), a film that closed the book on the franchise’s theatrical run with muted impact.
Directed by James Mangold, the movie followed an aging Indy drawn into a time-bending plot involving Archimedes’ Antikythera, a device capable of altering history.
The story ultimately sent Indy into the past, culminating in a controversial third-act twist that split audiences. While some appreciated the attempt to grapple with legacy and mortality, others felt the film leaned too heavily on nostalgia without recapturing the spirit of earlier entries.
Critically, the response was mixed. Commercially, the film underperformed relative to expectations, taking home $384 million and losing Disney roughly $130 million. The lukewarm reception reinforced concerns that Indiana Jones may have reached a natural endpoint for mainstream audiences.
That likely played a role in the decision to axe the animated Indiana Jones series. This would have required long-term commitment at a moment when Lucasfilm was reassessing its output across franchises.
In recent years, the studio has earned a reputation for greenlighting ambitious projects — particularly within Star Wars — only to quietly abandon them as priorities shift.
But with Kathleen Kennedy exiting as president and Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan stepping in as co-presidents, Lucasfilm may now look to accelerate its development pipeline. The odds of this pipeline including Indiana Jones projects, however, seem slim.
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