Even if the first thing you do is of course a director Stephen Spielberg with “Indiana Jones” one should not forget: the legendary adventure saga was created by the creators of “Star Wars”. George Lucas invented – even if he originally intended to baptize his eponymous hero Indiana Smith. And so today it is not surprising that both franchises share some similarities:
Harrison Ford stars in both film series, both repeatedly refer to each other – for example, in the form of the Obi Wan Club in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” – and both became pop culture phenomena under George Lucas, pushing the boundaries of cinema. up in different ways. In addition to different TV productions, in both cases there are also comic universes that sometimes overlap – for example, in the “Star Wars” story “Into The Great Unknown”, in which Indiana Jones is looking for the legendary Sasquatch (actually: Chewbacca) comes the body of Han Solo, who died more than 100 years earlier. However, many people don’t know about the biggest similarity between Chewie and Indy, without which they wouldn’t be who they are:
Indiana Jones and Chewbacca share the same inspiration: George Lucas’ dog!
Indiana: a dog who wrote movie history
When George Lucas was writing the screenplay for “Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope,” he had an Alaskan Malamute sit next to him when he worked on the story. And when he drove his car, the animal – according to Lucas’ statements “about 60 kilograms, taller than a human and very long-haired” – always took place in the passenger seat. With the giant dog in the passenger seat, he came up with the idea of getting Han Solo a big, furry partner: Chewbacca.
But not only the shape of Chewie, but also his name suggests the origin of his dog: This is derived from Russian. “Chudovishye” means monster while “Sobaka” means dog. Accordingly, Chu-baka can be called, so to speak, a “monster dog”.
However, the influence on Harrison Ford’s cult archaeologists is relatively simple: The dog was named Indiana – and was simply Indiana Jones’s namesake (which is also picked up in a way in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, where we learn that Indy owes his nickname to a four-legged friend, even within the movie world).
Easter Eggs in Indiana Jones and the Wheel of Destiny
In addition to the legendary Wilhelm Scream, who can be heard during the opening of “Indiana Jones and the Wheel of Destiny”, By the way, there are also parallels with “Star Wars” in the fifth Indy adventure currently in theaters:
In it, we see that Indy’s full name is Henry Walton Jones Jr. is. Walton is the middle name of George Lucas, which was also given to Galen Erso a few years ago in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. And Erso is embodied by the actor who plays the villain in “Indiana Jones 5”: Mads Mikkelsen.
In addition, there is also a large part of Han Solo in “Indy 5”. For the opening scene, set in the past, Indiana Jones wasn’t just rejuvenated with the help of CGI. Instead, artificial intelligence was used to access all of Ford’s film scenes and archive footage shot under George Lucas’ production company Lucasfilm to use his actual image from the past for the flashback – including some footage from his “Star Wars” days.