How to watch the Indiana Jones Franchise? Easy Watch Order Guide

First hitting theaters over 40 years ago in the summer of 1981, the “Indiana Jones” franchise has practically become nothing short of a pop culture phenomenon since its debut. A joint effort between famed filmmakers Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, the films also gave series star and legendary actor Harrison Ford, who at the time was coming off of Lucas’s “The Empire Strikes Back,” a franchise to call his very own.

At first glance, the question of how to best watch the “Indiana Jones” franchise may seem simple enough, but it doesn’t quite begin and end with the five feature films audiences know and love.

We can watch the entire Indiana Jones Franchise in two main ways:

• Release Order
• Chronological Order

1. Indiana Jones Franchise as per Release Order

• Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
• The Temple of Doom (1984)
• The Last Crusade (1989)
• The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (TV series: 1992–1996)
• Young Indiana Jones and the Hollywood Follies (1994)
• Young Indiana Jones and the Attack of the Hawkmen(1995)
• Young Indiana Jones and the Treasure of the Peacock’s Eye(1995)
• Young Indiana Jones: Travels with Father(1996)
• The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
• The Dial of Destiny (2023)

2. Indiana Jones Franchise as per Chronological Order

A. The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles

Though nonessential to the Indiana Jones film saga, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles is the canonical starting point.

The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles stars four iterations of the intrepid adventurer:

• The child (played by Corey Carrier)
• The teen/young adult (Sean Patrick Flanery)
• The middle-aged man (played in a single episode by Harrison Ford)
• The elder (George Hall)

The series primarily follows Flanery’s teenage/young adult Indy adventuring around the world, encountering and working with real-life historical figures, including former U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt, writer Leo Tolstoy, artist Pablo Picasso, infamous gangster Al Capone, famed jazz musician Louis Armstrong, and neurologist Sigmund Freud, among others.

The series also explores Indy’s background, notably his relationship with his father.

B. Young Indiana Jones: Travels With Father

We know your impatience to jump to the high-profile Indiana Jones movies, but we’re not quite there yet if we choose to go chronologically.

Though the television series received an untimely end little more than a year after its debut, young Indy continued his adventuring in the form of direct-to-TV films well into the mid-’90s.

As the name suggests, it follows Indiana and his father, Henry Jones Sr. (Lloyd Owen), who are in the Russian Empire just a few years before the Russian Revolution. After a conflict with his father causes Indy to flee, he winds up crossing paths with the famed Russian writer Leo Tolstoy in the twilight years of his life.

Later, after being reunited with his father, the pair wind up in Greece, where other squabbles plant the seeds for the rift between father and son that’d still be remembered by both of them decades later in “The Last Crusade.”

C. Young Indiana Jones and the Attack of the Hawkmen

The second film on our list skips forward a few years from our last entry, and Indy, now a young man, is once again in the throes of World War I. Instead of duking it out in the brutal trenches on the ground as in the television series, he takes to the skies, where he does his part as an aerial photographer embedded with the French Air Force.

Now more than halfway through the young adventures of Indiana Jones, there’s still a lot to cover before we reach the thrill-seeker-turned-professor’s prime.

D. Young Indiana Jones and the Treasure of the Peacock’s Eye

Set shortly after the previous title, it’s late 1918, and the First World War is moments from drawing to a close. The effects of one of the deadliest conflicts of the century will set in motion new events that are just as dangerous for our hero.

“Treasure of the Peacock’s Eye” is a title that most fans of the franchise will feel right at home diving into, as the bulk of this one leaves the grittier tales of death-defying combat in war-torn Europe behind for something much closer to a classic Indy adventure.

E. Young Indiana Jones and the Hollywood Follies

We’re still working on Flanery’s time as the whip-cracking adventurer. Now halfway through the franchise, and after numerous escapades spanning from one corner of the world to the other, the last of the young Indiana Jones stories we’ll be watching took a decidedly more grounded turn than previous installments.

“Hollywood Follies” marks the final chapter of the series in which the character of Jones is portrayed by someone other than Harrison Ford. From here, the series takes the first leap forward among several more to come, some 15 years ahead in the timeline, and into the more recognizable globetrotting treasure hunter we know and love.

Finally, the wait is over; it is time to dive into the Harrison Ford Era.

F. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Temple of Doom is the first Indiana Jones movie chronologically, despite being released after Raiders of the Lost Ark. “Temple of Doom” takes place before some of Jones’s most memorable exploits, making it the first of the feature films you should dive into.

Set a year before its predecessor, Temple of Doom kicks off with Indy surviving an assassination attempt in Shanghai before parachuting out of a cargo plane into northern India.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is the series’ “darkest” movie. The film’s dozens of deaths include a man’s heart being ripped from his chest. At the same time, a grotesque dinner scene features delicacies such as live snakes, giant beetles, eyeball soup, and monkey brains served fresh within their decapitated heads.

Temple of Doom, alongside Gremlins, led to the creation of the MPAA’s PG-13 rating.

G. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Over 40 years ago, Raiders of the Lost Ark kicked off the Indiana Jones franchise. Set in 1936, Raiders of the Lost Ark takes Indy on a globetrotting adventure from South America and the U.S. to Africa and Asia.

His first on-screen adventure pits Indy against Nazi forces, a recurring antagonist in the series. The two parties race to retrieve the Ark of the Covenant, a gold-plated chest believed by Adolf Hitler to house divine power capable of aiding the Nazis in world domination.

H. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

Indy’s next global adventure featured another quest for an ancient artifact: the Holy Grail, a relic said to hold the power of immortality. Indy’s estranged father, Henry (Sean Connery), spent much of his life researching the Grail, eventually going missing in its pursuit.

Guided by his father’s extensive notes, Indy finds his father and the relic, once again racing against the Nazis. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is the last film before the time jump to newer movies.

I. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

After a nearly 20-year hiatus, Indiana Jones returned in 2008 with Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The series’ fourth and most recent entry introduced Shia LaBeouf as Mutt Williams, the son of Indy and Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), who returns for the first time since Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Cate Blanchett stars as the primary villain, a Soviet agent named Irina Spalko.

Kingdom of the Crystal Skull once again sees Indy and his companions racing against a nefarious entity to obtain another artifact of great power: a telepathic crystal skull with which the Soviets plan to control the masses.

In addition to the familiar globetrotting and double-crossing, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull introduces extraterrestrial elements into the series formula.

J. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)

The next and final Indiana Jones movie is Dial of Destiny. Plot details remain under wraps, though actor Mads Mikkelsen, who plays villainous ex-Nazi scientist Jürgen Voller, said, “They’re going heavily back to the first and second film and getting that original feel, the original Indy, something dense and epic.”

Alongside Harrison Ford and Mikkelsen, Dial of Destiny stars Boyd Holbrook, Antonio Banderas, John Rhys-Davies, Toby Jones, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge as Indy’s goddaughter Helena. Dial of Destiny will be the first Indiana Jones movie distributed by Disney following its purchase of Lucasfilm in 2012.

3. Machete Order (to omit a controversial entry):

• Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
• Skip Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
• Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
• The Dial of Destiny (2023)

4. Which is the best order to watch the Indiana Jones Movies and Series?

Although there is no predetermined preferred order watching the movies chronologically will help the viewers understand and enjoy the franchise better. However, since the Young Indiana Jones series is not crucial to the main storyline, people can opt for the release order if they are in a hurry to watch the main movies.

You will enjoy the movies irrespective of the order you choose to watch them.

5. About Indiana Jones Franchise

Indiana Jones is an American media franchise based on the adventures of Dr. Henry Walton “Indiana” Jones, Jr., a fictional professor of archaeology.

The franchise began in 1981 with the film Raiders of the Lost Ark. In 1984, a prequel, The Temple of Doom, was released, and in 1989, a sequel, The Last Crusade. A fourth film followed in 2008, titled The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

A fifth film is in production and is provisionally scheduled to be released on June 30, 2023.