When developing Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, writer and producer George Lucas decided to set the film in 1935, a year before Raiders of the Lost Ark, in order to avoid using Nazis as the villains once again. Lucas and director Steven Spielberg simply wanted to avoid the repetition of having the Nazis be the villains of every Indiana Jones film. Alongside the dangerous cultists that ultimately became the villains of Temple of Doom, a number of other options were floated in the film's development stage.

These potential villains for the second movie included ghosts, with Indiana Jones exploring a haunted castle, but this idea was ultimately shot down as Steven Spielberg had just finished producing Poltergeist. Another idea from Lucas was to use the Chinese mythical figure, the Monkey King or Sun Wukong. Despite initially wanting to avoid repetition, the titular archeologist would once again face off against Nazis in the third installment, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, as well as in the upcoming Indiana Jones 5.