The Young Indy Chroniclers are back, this time chatting with one of the most important producers in the history of Lucasfilm – Rick McCallum – as he discusses Young Indiana Jones, Star Wars Underworld, and plenty more besides in this fascinating 3 hour long interview.
Star Wars and Young Indiana Jones producer Rick McCallum rarely gives interviews — but when he sat down with the Young Indy Chroniclers podcast, he held nothing back. This is the complete three-part conversation, compiled into a single watch and available on YouTube for the first time.
Over nearly four hours, McCallum reveals the unfiltered story behind one of the most under-appreciated eras in George Lucas’s career: the early days of Young Indiana Jones, what it actually took to bring feature-level filmmaking to television, the first meeting between McCallum and Lucas, the challenges of dealing with ABC and Paramount, how showrunner John Wells (The Pitt, The West Wing) helped shape the writing of the series, and what Catherine Zeta-Jones thought about having a body double used in additional scenes for Daredevils of the Desert.
The conversation then turns to the latter days of Lucasfilm — including the original plans for Star Wars: Underworld, the live-action television series that never made it to screen.
Originally released as a three-part audio podcast in early 2025, this is the first time the full conversation is presented uninterrupted.
Following the release of this interview, we launched George Lucas: The Lost Golden Age — a feature documentary arguing that the decade spanning Young Indiana Jones, the Star Wars Special Editions, and the lead-up to the prequels was the crucible of modern digital cinema. The film premieres in Los Angeles in April 2027. Pre-orders are available now via late pledges on Kickstarter:
George Lucas: The Lost Golden Age by Chroniclers, LLC — Kickstarter
⏱ CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro
05:00 John Frankenheimer & AFI
08:20 Dennis Potter & the British Years
19:14 George Lucas & Starting Young Indy
37:08 The Birth of Digital
42:44 Hiring the Writers
49:40 John Wells & the Hollywood Factory
58:26 The Power of Photoshop
01:02:29 The Great Directors
01:09:47 Rick’s Philosophy of Filmmaking
01:32:44 The Trenches from Hell
01:36:39 Nothing Was Going to Stop Us
01:41:14 Meeting Dino DeLaurentiis
01:46:17 We Had Money Leftover
01:56:32 Trouble in Turkey
02:01:25 Casting the Series
02:10:35 Expanding Beersheba with Catherine Zeta-Jones
02:15:01 Pernilla August & the Other Guest Stars
02:25:00 Nick Roeg & Carrie Fisher
02:29:45 Harrison Ford, River Phoenix & Steven Spielberg
02:35:43 The Bookcase
02:38:59 Star Wars Special Editions & Prequels
02:51:45 The Death of Film
02:59:24 Leaving for Europe
03:02:37 Make Your Own Film
03:11:04 The Birth of Digital Cameras
03:17:01 The Star Wars Underworld Conversation
03:34:04 The Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
03:38:07 Conclusion
You can read our interview with Rick here.
