Todd Howard First Pitched an Indiana Jones Game to LucasArts in 2009

Bethesda announced earlier this year that an Indiana Jones game is being developed by MachineGames, the developers of the Wolfenstein series, with Todd Howard of The Elder Scrolls and Fallout fame serving as executive producer on the project. For Howard, it seems, this is a project that has been a long time coming, and something he’s wanted to work on for a while.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Howard revealed that he originally first pitched an Indiana Jones game to LucasArts back in 2009, over a decade ago. Speaking of the current project, meanwhile, he declared MachineGames “the best team in the world” to work on Indiana Jones, saying that they’re doing a “phenomenal job” with it.

“I think I originally pitched Lucas in 2009 and I’ve been trying to find a way to make that [since],” Howard said. “And I think the work MachineGames have done, they’re just phenomenal developers and storytellers. And when I started talking to them about it, it was a good fit. And we got to the opportunity to talk to Lucas and Disney about it and they were super excited.

“I really like Indiana Jones but never thought I’d have the opportunity to make a game. And you’ll hear about more of that in the future. But the team at MachineGames are the best team in the world to pull this game off and they’re doing a phenomenal job.”

Assurances have previously been given that Todd Howard’s involvement with Indiana Jones isn’t going to impact the development of Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6, both of which he is directing (though The Elder Scrolls 6 is still probably quite a ways off).

Bethesda’s SVP of PR and marketing Pete Hines recently said that MachineGames’ Indiana Jones game is in the “very, very, very early stages” of production. Meanwhile, Hines also says that even though nothing has been announced so far, fans shouldn’t be worried about the future of Wolfenstein.