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The subject of this article was cancelled.
This article covers an Indiana Jones medium that was cancelled or replaced by another product. Cancelled material is not usually canon; however, aspects of such material sometimes find their way into later products and thus become canon.
This article is about the shelved video game. You may be looking for the comic book series.

Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix was a shelved video game follow-up to Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis.

Set in 1947, the story saw a group of ex-Nazis hiding in Bolivia led by German Doctor Matthias Jäger attempting to resurrect former Nazi leader Adolf Hitler from his ashes in the aftermath of World War II with the Philosopher's Stone, and so Indiana Jones and Soviet Major Nadia Kirov are forced to join forces in order to defeat them.[1]

The Fate of Atlantis end credits had a teaser for the players assuring them that they could "look for Indy's return in an all-new adventure perhaps as a much younger man". This advertisement was for a planned video game tie-in to The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles television series that was abandoned. Former LucasArts personnel have referred to both an IBM video game and Young Indiana Jones at the World's Fair by Brian Moriarty for Lucas Learning, neither of which saw a release but it's unclear if the projects were one and the same. Afterwards, LucasArts decided to follow up their most recent Indy title with another based around their SCUMM engine.[1]

Development for the game started as early in 1993. Its original title was Indiana Jones and the Philosopher's Stone, but Mike Stemmle suggested a change to reference the Nazis' Iron Cross. The character design was reminiscent of the Art Deco-influenced animation style of Batman: The Animated Series but the show was not a direct influence.[1] As had been the case with Fate of Atlantis, a comic book adaptation of Iron Phoenix was commissioned through Dark Horse Comics which LucasArts had intended as a tie-in to the video game. Lee Marrs was hired to write the adaptation's script, though her efforts were often frustrated by the need to reflect the ever-changing game story such as moving a setting in Germany to take place in Ireland instead; alterations that were irritating to the point that she demanded and received a 10% contingency fee.[2]

The Iron Phoenix production team was formed by project leader Joe Pinney, background artist William Stoneham and lead animator Anson Jew. Fate of Atlantis project leader/writer Hal Barwood opted to focus on other projects, but nevertheless supported the game as a story consultant. Barwood and Pinney were the ones who conceived of the 1947 post-war setting with an older Indy, the Soviet presence, the Philosopher's Stone as the MacGuffin, and a finale taking place in South America. However, problems started with Pinney's sudden departure from the project, which placed veteran employee Aric Wilmunder behind the leadership reins as several of the company's other experienced employees were unavailable either because they had similarly left LucasArts or were busy leading projects of their own. Bill Stoneham also joined the project with Wilmunder to design the backgrounds.[1]

Wilmunder's participation was then threatened after the reassigned Moriarty left the development of The Dig, as company management insisted on his availability for that project. With the company's ties with Ubisoft Montreal severed, Wilmunder was forced to join The Dig, but hearing about the animation issues of Iron Phoenix, amidst the rumors Jew heard that rotoscoping could be used for the animations as had been done with Fate of Atlantis, Wilmunder suggested the use of live-action performances for cutscenes. This led Tamlynn Niglio to hold a casting session and shot some scenes with live actors that Stoneham and Wilmunder thought could be inserted into the Stoneham-designed backgrounds. Wilmunder believes his idea was partly the reason LucasArts employed this technique in the Star Wars video game Rebel Assault II: The Hidden Empire, which was released one year later.[1]

The production team was fifteen months into production when they found out at ECTS, the European Computer Trade Show, that depictions of post-war revivals of Nazis were illegal in Germany.[3] After the war, the country had enacted strict laws that banned all display of Nazi imagery, such as the swastika, both in merchandise or in public unless they were depictions of historical contexts or artistic works. The first three Indy films hadn't been affected due to being "art", but as video games count like toys, they were considered merchandise that needed to be subjected to the ban. Unlike Fate of Atlantis, in which LucasArts just swapped the swastikas for iron crosses, the story dealt so much with the Third Reich's attempted return that it was impossible to censor so many plot points.[1] As LucasArts wouldn't be able to recuperate the loss from not selling the game there due to Germany being one of their biggest markets, the game was shelved.[3]

Its plot did, however, form the basis for the Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix comic produced by Dark Horse just as originally intended. Even Marrs herself, due to her experiences with video games, had devised that the game wasn't gonna be made.[2] As a result, LucasArts was thanked in the comic's credits. However, according to Aric Wilmunder, only the first three issues of the comic book were based on his designs for the game, while the fourth and final issue involving the failed Nazi resurrection was completely altered, hence why he wasn't a fond fan of the adaptation.[3] Similarly, Barwood dismissed the Iron Phoenix comic as "incoherent and toned down".[1]

Notes and references[]

External links[]

Indiana Jones video games
Adaptations
Raiders of the Lost Ark · Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Action Game · The Graphic Adventure · Taito game
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: Mobile game · Didj game
Film series: Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventures · Cancelled trilogy adaptation
Young Indiana Jones
Chronicles · Revolution · Special Delivery · Hunting for Treasure · Cancelled IBM game
LEGO Indiana Jones
Console: The Original Adventures · The Adventure Continues
Desktop: Indiana Jones Adventures · Shanghai Chase
Mobile Adventure
Original stories
Indiana Jones in the Lost Kingdom · Indiana Jones in Revenge of the Ancients
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis: The Action Game · The Graphic Adventure
Instruments of Chaos starring Young Indiana Jones · Indiana Jones and his Desktop Adventures
Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine · Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb
Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings (Scavenger Hunt) · Indiana Jones and the Lost Puzzles
Indiana Jones Adventure World · The Gifts of Mara
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Cancelled: Young Indiana Jones at the World's Fair · Iron Phoenix · Spear of Destiny
Tie-ins and crossovers
Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction · Pinball FX/Pinball FX3/Williams Pinball · Fortnite
Disney
Disney Magic Kingdoms · Disney Emoji Blitz
Star Wars
Yoda Stories · Republic Heroes · Galactic Spy
LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga · The Clone Wars · The Force Awakens
Related
Timeline of video games
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