Star Wars Andor referenced Spielberg’s ‘most-hated’ Indiana Jones film

Last week the Disney Plus TV show Andor released its latest episode, The Axe Forgets. The Star Wars spin-off series is slowly but surely detailing how Cassian Andor went from criminal runaway to freedom fighter. But in the newest instalment of the show, eagle-eyed viewers spotted something in the background of Luthen’s store that made new references to another Lucasfilm property: Indiana Jones.

Star Wars creator George Lucas teamed up with Steven Spielberg in 1980 to kickstart the new film series starring Han Solo actor Harrison Ford. Together, they have released four movies to date: Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Temple of Doom, The Last Crusade and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

So then, it is no surprise that some hints from Star Wars and Indiana Jones have bled into the opposite franchises from time to time. And Andor’s latest episode is the latest in a long line of references from over the years.

The moment came in one of the final scenes of the episode involving Stellan Skarsgard’s character, Luthen Rael. The hugely wealthy businessman was shown in his store pacing about the mission he knew the rebels were about to embark on.

In the background of his store, fans spotted a trio of Indiana Jones artefacts amongst the various antiques embedded within the scene: The Sankara Stones.

The Sankara Stones were the main artefacts Indiana was hunting down in 1984’s The Temple of Doom.

The signature objects could be identified by the striking marks across a brown stone, certifying that these were absolutely a reference to the sister franchise of Lucasfilm.

However, these objects come straight from the film that Spielberg is the least happy with out of the franchise.

Raiders of the Lost Ark was supremely successful at the box office. The movie not only made a staggering $389 million at the box office, but it catapulted the franchise into fame and kickstarted the beginning of a long-running series.

When The Temple of Doom was released, however, Spielberg did not enjoy how everything turned out in the final cut of the movie.

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Spielberg later called The Temple of Doom “too dark” and even “too horrific”. This is no real surprise if you have seen the movie, considering it includes some gruesome scenes, including a heart being pulled from a chest, a monkey’s brain being eaten, and millions of creepy crawlies covering tomb walls.

He said: “I wasn’t happy with the second film at all. It was too dark, too subterranean, and much too horrific. I thought it out-poltered Poltergeist.”

The Oscar-winning director even went so far as to say: “There’s not an ounce of my own personal feeling in Temple of Doom.”

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Spielberg later spoke candidly about the difficulties of following up on such an incredibly well-received movie as Raiders of the Lost Ark.

“The danger in making a sequel is that you can never satisfy everyone,” he revealed. “If you give people the same movie with different scenes, they say: ‘Why weren’t you more original?’ But if you give them the same character in another fantastic adventure, but with a different tone, you risk disappointing the other half of the audience who just wanted a carbon copy of the first film with a different girl and a different bad guy. So you win, and you lose both ways.”

Interestingly enough, the opening scenes of The Temple of Doom reference Star Wars directly – as well as James Bond.

The first few scenes show Indiana gambling in a casino in a white tuxedo. This outfit was a direct copy of one worn by Sean Connery in Goldfinger.

The backstory of this reference is that Spielberg previously optioned to direct a Bond movie, but the franchise owners wouldn’t allow it. So, instead, he placed Ford in the iconic white tuxedo and filmed his own Bond sequence.

During the latter part of this scene, Indiana ran out of the casino while being chased by gangsters. At this moment, the casino’s name was shown in bright lights.

The casino was titled: “Club Obi Wan” in a reference to the legendary Jedi Knight, Obi-Wan Kenobi.

The Star Wars series, and Andor, are available to watch on Disney Plus now.

The Indiana Jones films are available to stream on NOW.

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