There was a time in Hollywood where it was taboo to even mention a sequel before the original had hit theaters. No one wanted to assume a film was going to be successful, and run the risk of putting a sequel to a failure into the pipeline ahead of time. In recent years, however, there has been an “entire franchise at once” mentality at work, and extensive lists of movies and their sequels are now being planned far in advance. I mention all of this because Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is going to hit theaters on Friday, and Marvel Studios announced at last weekend’s Comic-Con that a sequel is already planned. Fan buzz is all it takes these days.
Related: Guardians of the Galaxy Review: Super Sounds of the ’70s
This is all well and good for franchises like the Marvel movies, which have been, to date, hugely successful across the board. There was a time when 2011’s Thor was considered a risk, but with all the positive buzz behind it, and onward to something like Guardians of the Galaxy, it looks like Marvel can unearth any of their more obscure characters and still make a bundle. We’ll see how it does.
Other ambitious planners, however, haven’t been so lucky. The whole-franchise-at-once mentality has produced, over the course of film history, a long column of false starts, failed mythbuilding, and end-of-film stingers that never went on to fulfill their promises. I admire the optimism of people who plan out entire film franchises, and, of course, all their ambition. But if the original fails, and those planned sequels get canned, we can only snicker at what could have been.
Here is a list of 13 sequels that were promised to us in some way, but nevertheless, sequels that never happened.
Witney Seibold is a commentator at Nerdist, a contributor to the CraveOnline Film Channel, and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. You can read his weekly Trolling articles here on Crave, and follow him on “Twitter” at @WitneySeibold, where he is slowly losing his mind.
13 Sequels That Never Happened
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The Subtle Knife
Based on the first of three novels by Phillip Pullman, 2007's The Golden Compass was an excellent and original fantasy epic about the souls of children being harvested by an uncaring adult world. Pullman's universe was fully realized, and the first film ended with a determined trek to the North Pole to find the true answers to the film's mysteries. Sadly, the expensive film failed at the box office, and producers were antsy about the future films over religious messages (Pullman is outwardly atheist). The sequel, The Subtle Knife, was intended, but never made.
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The Mortal Instruments: City of Ashes
This one vacillated a bit. The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones was the latest in a string of YA adaptations with built in novelized sequels already behind it. You can blame Harry Potter for all of these movies. When Bones was released to limp reviews and even limper box office returns, the producers decided to scrap their announced plans for The Mortal Instruments: City of Ashes as well as four additional films based on the other books in the series. Then they said they'd make it anyway. Then they said they wouldn't again. We're currently in “no” territory, so it looks like Ashes will not be made.
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John Carter of Mars
I don't need to relate the failure of John Carter to you, now one of the most notorious bombs in film history. It's a good thing Disney owns Marvel's movies, because the failure of John Carter and The Lone Ranger were huge blows. Based on the novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the John Carter series could have continued into the announced franchise the studio wanted. Since John Carter lost so much money, no one will dare even talk about it anymore.
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Real Steel 2
This one is really a pity. The rock-'em-sock-'em-robots movie Real Steel was a bizarre and strangely enjoyable sci-fi sports movie about a man who programmed fighting robots in the future's popular 'bot boxing tourneys. The studio announced a sequel, planning to up the ante, making a bigger and more expensive story. Sadly, the sequel is currently on hold thanks to budgetary concerns and the fact that director Shawn Levy can't find a good script.
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Waldo's Hawaiian Holiday
Alex Cox is perhaps best known for the excellent 1984 punker sci-fi cult oddity Repo Man, one of my new favorite movies. There was a lot of talk for many years about a Repo Man 2, but Cox – who outwardly hates the Hollywood system and people in general – couldn't get anything together. Eventually, he found his script in Waldo's Hawaiian Holiday, which was a just-as-bizarre dystopian sequel wherein Otto returns to Earth with no memory and a new identity. It ended up living in comic book form, and Cox would go on to make the disappointing Repo Chick instead.
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Batman Triumphant
In 1995, Batman was riding high. Batman Forever, while now considered a bad film, was a mega-success, and Batman ideas were being kicked around constantly. One that came close to being made without actually coming to fruition was Batman Triumphant, a film wherein he would square off against The Scarecrow, as well as hallucinations of a resurrected Joker. But after the studio followed Batman Forever with the famous turkey Batman & Robin, plans for a fifth film were kiboshed almost immediately.
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Catwoman
And long before Halle Berry made her disappointing version of Catwoman, there was a definite plan and even a few press releases about the possibility of starring Michelle Pfeiffer's version of Catwoman in her own movie, set in the world of Batman Returns. Why didn't it happen? The studio wanted something brighter and more fun than Returns, and went with Batman Forever instead, which was a world where a fetishistic half-mad Catwoman would have no place.
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Jumper 2
I'm actually surprised that so few studios and filmmakers have, in this current spate of licensed comic book characters, tried to create more film-only superhero characters. In 2008, Doug Liman tried to do just that with Jumper, a film about teleporting criminals. It was a film that ended on a cliffhanger, and was originally announced to be part of a trilogy. When the film failed, so too did the trilogy.
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Ernest the Pirate
The Ernest franchise is actually a longer and more storied one than you'd think. Star Jim Varney was filming Ernest the Pirate when he succumbed to cancer. Footage exists, but it looks like Varney's death will prevent the character from ever returning.
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Police Academy 8
When Starsky & Hutch was adapted for film in 2004, and proved to be something of a hit, Police Academy guru Paul Maslansky decided that it was time to bring back his beloved franchise as well. Most of the actors agreed to return (although Steve Guttenberg was still out and David Graf had died), and a script had been decided on. It was slated for release in 2007. Police Academy 8, however, withered on the vine, and interest wasn't intense enough to warrant actually making it. This hasn't stopped Maslansky. He still plans on rebooting the franchise.
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The Crow 2037: A New World of Gods and Monsters
In 1997, after The Crow: City of Angels was met with mixed reaction from fans, the producers decided to drag the then-untested filmmaker Rob Zombie into the cinematic universe. His idea was to set his film even further in the future than City of Angels, and add a Frankenstein-like edge into the mix. He and the studio fully intended to make this film. They bickered over the script for 18 months, and Zombie quit in a huff. Sorry, Crow fans.
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The Last Airbender 2
The cartoon show on which The Last Airbender was based was a serialized program, allowing one episode to lead into the next. M. Night Shyamalan, when making his now-notorious movie, felt that his film would be successful enough to warrant a similar string of movies, and clearly intended to continue to myth of The Last Airbender into future films. The original not only bombed, but is often considered one of the worst adaptations of the last decade. Shyamalan will not be allowed to explore his world any further.
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Buckaroo Banzai vs. The World Crime League
Just to be complete, I'll mention this now-mythic never-made sequel.
