Sequels have long been an important part of the movie industry, but it seems that now, more than ever, there are increasingly more films dedicated solely to producing them. The advent of time-honored series like Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings already proved how lucrative intentional film franchises can be, but the advent of cinematic universes brought the power of sequels to new heights altogether. Thus, more and more modern films seem to be produced solely to set up future films, with little story to stand on their own.
Occasionally, these gambles can pay off, kickstarting long-running series that make the money investment of a sequel-forward film more than worth it. However, more often than not, movie franchises fail to materialize out of obvious attempts to set them up, not allowing sequels to happen organically and forcing their existence with cliffhangers or audacious calls to future events. This can leave a sequel-focused film feeling like a silly waste of time, standing alone in a series that never came to be.
10
Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice
Tried Playing Catch-Up to The MCU
Considering the movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe were the first to truly succeed and run with the idea of a shared storyline between multiple different characters, it’s no wonder superhero movies have become the most sequel-focused genre around. The DCEU was Warner Brothers’ answer to the MCU, burdened with the issue of playing catch-up considering Iron Man‘s 5-year headstart over Man of Steel. Their solution was to cram Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, only the DCEU’s second film, with the seeds of various sequels.
Having Batman and Superman spend their first live-action movie together duking it out would have been more than enough for an exciting second entry in the franchise. But the DCEU was eager to cram in teases for the Justice League’s formation, time travel, and even an adaptation of the infamous The Death of Superman comic storyline featuring the monstrous villain Doomsday. While Warner Brothers had the money and time to make good on these promises, the film certainly suffered for them.
9
Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse
Ends on a Notorious Cliffhanger
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
9/10
- Release Date
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June 2, 2023
- Runtime
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140 Minutes
- Director
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Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson
- Writers
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Dave Callaham, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
Of course, the DCEU is far from the only superhero franchise to be guilty of gambling on success for a given part of the whole to make any sense at all. Enter Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, the long-awaited sequel to Sony’s animated gem Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Whereas the original worked well enough on its own to still be an enjoyably self-contained story that still manages to plug a sequel at the end, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is heavily reliant on another film coming out to make sense.
This is thanks solely due to the cliffhanger ending Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse falls one, with its main antagonist dipping out halfway through the movie and the hero left stranded in a strange new reality. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is simply impossible to judge on its own as an unfinished story. While what parts of the overarching narrative audiences do get to see in it are quite strong, judgment will need to be reserved for the release of Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse.
8
The Mummy
A Disastrous Attempt For The Dark Universe
- Release Date
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June 6, 2017
- Runtime
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110 minutes
- Director
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Alex Kurtzman
- Writers
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Christopher McQuarrie, David Koepp
- Producers
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Chris Morgan, Roberto Orci, Sarah Bradshaw, Sean Daniel
-
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Annabelle Wallis
Jennifer Halsey
For a long time, Universal Pictures has been attempting to revitalize the image of their classic movie monsters like Dracula, The Wolf Man, and The Creature from the Black Lagoon with the so-called “Dark Universe”. The Dark Universe was first attempted in the 2014 film Dracula Untold, which ended in an audacious tease for a sequel that would never come. Only 3 years later, the franchise had another shot at coming to life with Tom Cruise’s The Mummy.
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The Mummy 2017 Ending Explained
The ending of Tom Cruise’s 2017 The Mummy was supposed to kick off Universal’s Dark Universe of monster movies before it bombed at the box office.
For a film called The Mummy, an absurd amount of time in the plot is spent setting up other classic universal monsters. The setting attempts to establish a connective tissue similar to the MCU’s S.H.I.E.L.D. or the Monsterverse’s Monarch with the secret society Prodigium, dedicated to supernatural threats. Sadly, the film’s own weak plot involving an ancient Egyptian princess failed to stand on its own as a worthy entry in its own hypothetical franchise, leading to yet another canceled Dark Universe sequel.
7
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Tried to Fast-Track Andrew Garfield’s Franchise
Of all the live-action cinematic Spider-Men, few have had a more tragic story than Andrew Garfield. While Garfield himself is great as the role of Peter Parker, the first film surrounding him was shaky at best. If he was to make it to a full trilogy, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 needed to be a phenomenal film. Sadly, this didn’t end up being the case, thanks largely in part to the sequel’s aggressive posturing for a third movie.
Too much time in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is spent setting up the presence of the Sinister Six, a cabal of Spider-Man’s most famous villains, with bold shots of Vulture’s wings and Doc Ock’s tentacles spurring on a third movie. That’s not even to mention the bizarre conspiracy sub-plot surrounding Peter Parker’s parents the film ends on, teasing a strange storyline with no comic precedent. Unable to stand on its own, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 would be one sequel-centric superhero movie whose efforts were all for nought.
6
Mortal Kombat
Never Even Got to The Titular Tournament
7/10
- Release Date
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April 23, 2021
- Runtime
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110 minutes
- Director
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Simon McQuoid
- Writers
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Dave Callaham, Greg Russo
Video games have come a long way from the kiss of death they were once thought to be for live-action adaptations, from the blatant success of the Sonic the Hedgehog movies to acclaimed TV shows like The Last of Us and Fallout. Making an action franchise out of the fighting game sensation Mortal Kombat is more than worth another attempt after the lovably cheesy 90s movies, especially when acquiescing to an R-rating this time around. 2021’s Mortal Kombat is a gory good time, but it doesn’t get much of a chance to be its own story.
The characters never even get the chance to fight in the titular Mortal Kombat tournament.
The entire film is essentially one big training arc for original character Cole Young and the champions of Earthrealm as they gain their Arcana powers and learn to use them for the first time. The biggest testament to the film’s existence as pure sequel-bait is the fact that the characters never even get the chance to fight in the titular Mortal Kombat tournament, something that gets to stay an alluring selling point for future movies. That’s not even to mention that fan-favorite characters like Johnny Cage are teased for the sequel alone in Mortal Kombat 2.
5
Avengers: Infinity War
The Most Successful Sequel-Reliant Film Ever
6/10
- Release Date
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April 27, 2018
- Runtime
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149 minutes
- Writers
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Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
Being the ones to popularize the cinematic universe trend, one could argue that every movie of the Marvel Cinematic Universe only exists to set up bigger and better sequels. Nowhere is this more true than in Avengers: Infinity War, the first half of an action-packed climax that was the culmination of years of set-up and teases scattered throughout each MCU film. Avengers: Infinity War proved that films reliant on a sequel to succeed can actually do so with flying colors.
The dour tragic ending that Avengers: Infinity War leaves off on certainly doesn’t work without the assurance of Avengers: Endgame as a true finale, making it a difficult film to judge on its own merits. That being said, some fans still openly prefer Infinity War to Endgame, citing less joke-y dialogue and a great emphasis on the supervillain Thanos as the emotional core of the film. Regardless, there’s no denying that Avengers: Infinity War is only one half of a finished whole.
4
Prometheus
Tried to Take The Alien Franchise in a Bold New Direction
Thanks to Prometheus, the Alien franchise has been left in quite an odd place. Originally advertised as its own science fiction space opera epic, those that watched Prometheus eventually learn that the film is closely tied to the lore of the Alien franchise, with the mysterious forerunner race the Engineers explained to be the creators behind both the Xenomorphs and humanity themselves.
Though taking place in the same canon, Prometheus spent its runtime posing questions about the Engineers that a sequel was meant to answer.
Unfortunately, the divisive audience response to Ridley Scott’s new ideas for the franchise caused future films to veer back harder into Alien territory. Alien: Covenant and especially Alien: Romulus have since moved the horror franchise back in line with the original quadrilogy. As a result, questions posed in Prometheus remain unsolved, including the Engineers’ desire to destroy the human race and their own means of destruction.
3
The Last Airbender
M. Night Shyamalan’s Infamous Disaster
Most people remember M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender as a disastrous adaptation of the beloved Nickelodeon cartoon, but it’s also worth mentioning that the film was quite an obvious attempt to be the first of a trilogy. Avatar: The Last Airbender is split into three seasons, called “books”, with each named after a different fundamental element of the series. The live-action The Last Airbender movie adapts Book 1, Water, clearly leaving off at a place meant to be picked up on in future films.
It was bad enough that The Last Airbender tries to cram an entire season’s worth of brilliant TV into a measly 100 minutes, but the lame special effects, egregious performances, and literal mispronunciations of main character’s names all but sealed its fate in standing alone as a sequel-less monstrosity. Considering the similar negative reaction to Netflix’s live-action TV version of the series, perhaps Avatar: The Last Airbender is better left alone in the world of animation.
2
The Golden Compass
A Controversial Fantasy Story That Ended up Pleasing no One
- Release Date
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December 7, 2007
- Runtime
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113 Minutes
- Director
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Chris Weitz
- Writers
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Chris Weitz
It’s worth remembering that before superheroes took over the grand cinematic stage, the hottest franchises to chase live-action blockbusters of were fantasy series like Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings. The Golden Compass was one such literary adaptation clearly hoping to be the next big thing, telling a very open-ended story that would have been reliant on future films to make any sense of as a cohesive narrative. Sadly, The Golden Compass 2 was never meant to be.
The film only alienated dedicated fans while not appeasing religious objectors enough to show up in theaters.
The His Dark Materials TV series The Golden Compass was based on heavily criticized religious institutions like the Christian church via its storytelling, which put the widespread appeal of a blockbuster adaptation in a difficult position. By toning down these elements, integral to the story, the film only alienated dedicated fans while not appeasing religious objectors enough to show up in theaters. At least the His Dark Materials show is able to do the books justice in live-action.
1
Mortal Engines
An Unwieldy Mess Marching Towards Nothing
Much like The Golden Compass, Mortal Engines is another film that clearly intended to take its book adaptation to the next level with a whole quadrilogy of sequels mirroring the literature its based on, the Mortal Engines Quartet. In the post-apocalyptic steampunk world of the setting, major cities like London have become massive mobile machines that exist by consuming and assimilating other, smaller settlements. Despite being laden with special effects, the film ends on the precipice of a great upheaval in the setting, clearly begging for more elaboration.
Unfortunately, the winding plot the film uses to get there is just as messy and unwieldy as the giant marching cities themselves. Because of its impressive special effects, the film soon became one of the most egregious box office bombs of all time, losing far too much money to ever justify its sequel. That leaves the ramification of a great number of unresolved plot points, like Katherine’s true heritage, unresolved for future movies.
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