Movieshave been trying to farm sequels more than ever before, but not all of them end up realizing their hopes for a full-on franchise. Thebest movie sequelshave inspired countless films to be incepted in the hopes of starting a film series from the very beginning, with audacious attempts to set up future films that may never come. From the 2010s onwards, it seems as though these types of bold but failed attempts to create film franchises have been popping up more and more.
It could easily be surmised that the influence of themovies of the Marvel Cinematic Universeare to blame for the sudden uptick in failed sequel attempts. Everyone wants a cinematic universe that’s just as lucrative, but in rushing to establish one, many films that would have been the first in their franchise fall completely flat. It’s still painful to see the endings of certain films knowing that such an opportunity would never come.
10Alita: Battle Angel
The first half of a duology that would never come to pass
The problem with banking so heavily on a sequel is that a given film’s narrative might neglect to provide a satisfying ending on its own, only for it to remain a solo story that doesn’t make sense. This is exactly what happened toAlita: Battle Angel, an ambitious and sprawling science fiction epic based on the manga seriesBattle Angel Alita.The plot concerns a female cyborg, the titular Alita, who wakes up one day with no memories, setting out on a quest to uncover her past and her purpose within a harrowing futuristic world.
The film ends on quite a bleak note, recreating an iconic panel from the manga as Alita climbs the massive cargo tubes to the wealthy and isolationist city of Zalem. When a defense ring kills her romantic interest, Hugo, Alita swears revenge on the city, where a never-before-seen Edward Norton watches ominously as a major antagonist meant for the sequel. Sadly,Alita: Battle Angelhad a mediocre critical and box-office impact that failed to secure the future of a franchise, leaving it as one half of a puzzle that would never see completion.
9Black Adam
Failed to change the hierarchy of the DC Universe
It goes without saying that the superhero genre is the biggest repeat offender when it comes to films teasing sequels that would never see the light of day. As the DCEU began stalling in the early 2020s, it would see more than a few seeds sewn for the future that would never grow. Perhaps the most egregious of them all wasBlack Adam, which featured one of themost bizarre superhero movie endingsto promise a sequel that was doomed not to manifest.
Part of a strange push by DC to have Black Adam be more of a flagship character, the film ended with Black Adam meeting none other than Henry Cavill’s Superman, promising some kind of battle or team-up between the two. Awkwardly, this small denouement would actually be the last time Henry Cavill ever donned the Superman costume, with the shared franchise crumbling only a few films later.Black Adamis living proof that film franchises should never write checks they’ll never be able to cash.
8Independence Day: Resurgence
Put out a distress signal that was never answered
Returning to a 90s cultural touchstone likeIndependence Dayafter so long was certainly an odd choice, but trying to immediately farm a franchise out of the excellent stand-alone disaster movie was a whole new degree of boldness altogether. EnterIndependence Day: Resurgence, a sequel to the original alien invasion movie released exactly 20 years later. Famously sans the talents of Will Smith, the film attempted to imagine a second invasion in a modern day made futuristic by the aliens' technology.
Independence Day: Resurgencefollowed its climax with some kind of interstellar broadcast being unleashed across the galaxy. This implied that an alliance between humans and other extraterrestrial races also attacked by the aliens of the first film, now called Harvesters, would be leading a counterattack offensive rebellion. However, abysmal critical reviews ensured that this future would never come to pass.
7John Carter
Missed the chance to be the next huge space opera
TheBarsoomnovels by Edgar Rice Burroughs certainly could make an intriguing foundation for an expansive science fiction movie franchise, and that’s exactly what 2012’sJohn Carteraspired to do. Taking place on Mars, the film describes American Civil War veteran John Carter’s first adventures on the alien planet after being suddenly transported there by mysterious means. Here, he learns about all the different races of Martians and ends up getting embroiled in the planet’s politics, warfare, and romance.
Tragically,John Carterended up being one ofDisney’s worst financial flopsever, annihilating any hope of the planned sequels getting made. The film ends with John Carter finding a way back to Mars once again, promising future adventures. The film perhaps sends too much time of the framing device detailing John Carter’s return to Earth and back, ironically making the very thing seeding future development for sequels what ensured it wouldn’t get any.
6The Predator
Learned the franchise is at its best when not serialized
The films of thePredatorseries have featured varying degrees of connectivity, usually seeding some small implications that ensured they took place in the same universe while never being outright serialized.The Predatorattempted to change this, sowing the seeds of a future for the franchise that very much told an overarching story. The plot concerns a group of Predators who are attempting to improve themselves by experimenting on humans, using human DNA to further enhance their abilities.
The movie concludes with Army Ranger Quinn finding a “Predator killer” suit meant to even the playing field between Predators and humans, teasing another war to come. ButThe Predator’s clunky story and downright distasteful elements (the Predators see autism as the next form of human evolution) prevented a sequel from ever getting close to manifesting. As proven byPreyand the upcomingPredator: Badlands, thePredatorfranchise works best with standalone stories of survival in different settings.
5Dracula Untold
The first of many attempts at a Dark Universe
In a way, Universal originally had a sort of prototypical version of a cinematic universe thanks to their classic monster movies, includingFrankenstein, The Mummy,andCreature from the Black Lagoon.Dracula Untoldwas the company’s first attempts of many to revitalize these properties as a modern cinematic world, the so-called Dark Universe.Dracula Untoldtells the origin story of how a Transylvanian warlord became the dark vampire prince of legend.
Despite mostly taking place in the age of the Ottoman Empire’s heyday,Dracula Untoldends in the modern day, with Dracula and the original Master Vampire observing a modern version of Mina in London, causing the latter to mutter “Let the games begin”. This was clearly intended to be the Dark Universe’s equivalent to Nick Fury approaching Tony Stark at the end ofIron Man.But as luck would have it,Dracula Untold’s performance left the sequelDark Universe movies canceled.
4The Mummy
One of Tom Cruise’s biggest misses
Dracula Untoldwouldn’t be the only time Universal made a pass at the Dark Universe. EnterThe Mummy,a larger action blockbuster starring Tom Cruise that attempted to go in a more action-adventure direction. Cruise plays a soldier of fortune who stumbles across an Ancient Egyptian princess with demonic powers, unleashing her wrath on the modern day. It’s up to him and a British archaeologist to stop the advance of the Mummy’s curse.
The Mummymakes a bold attempt to quickly establish a Dark Universe with the introduction of Prodigium, an organization that serves as the equivalent to the Monsterverse’s Monarch. Dr. Jekyll, another Universal horror fixture, even makes an appearance mid-way through. Despite ending on an optimistic note featuring Cruise’s newly-empowered hero seeking out a means to cure his curse, the Dark Universe would sputter and fail to take off once again.
3Morbius
Viral for all the wrong reasons
TheSony spin-off Spider-Man universemay have been an ill-conceived idea from the very start, as was evidenced by the franchise’s first attempt at making a film without Tom Hardy’s Venom,Morbius.The film posits Jared Leto as Dr. Michael Morbius, a disabled M.D. who gains vampiric powers. When his blood brother gains the same curse but refuses to attempt to curb his cravings, it’s up to Morbius to take him down.
Famously,Morbiusbecame an ironic internet sensation, tricking Sony into a second theatrical run that failed to make up for the initial run’s box office shortcomings. This meant that the film’s bizarre attempts to set up sequels and even possible crossovers with the MCU, with Michael Keaton’s The Vulture suddenly finding himself in the Sony universe in the post-credits scene, are all the more laughably misinformed. It’s unlikely any form of Morbius will be returning in a new film any time soon.
2The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Rushed into a Sinister Six that would never appear
Amazingly,Morbiuswasn’t the only time Sony tried to hastily establish an interconnected comic book property. EnterThe Amazing Spider-Man 2,Andrew Garfield’s second outing in the red-and-blue spandex of Spider-Man. While the first film did a decent enough job establishing Spider-Man’s origin story once again and giving him a single villain to fight,The Amazing Spider-Man 2was swarming with plot developments, including three different villains to juggle, the death of Gwen Stacy, and a mystery centering on Peter Parker’s parents.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2ended with Harry Osborn’s New Goblin being offered a role into the Sinister Six, a famous cadre from the comics composed of Spider-Man’s most powerful villains. Elements like the Vulture’s wings and Doc Ock’s arms briefly panned over, clearly teasing the appearance of these characters in the future. Of course, the uneven reception toThe Amazing Spider-Man 2and the MCU’s hunger to retrieve the rights for Spider-Man kept the series from developing any further.
1District 9
A three-year wait turned into a lifetime
Not every film that hangs on an obvious sequel is necessarily bad in its own right. Neill Blomkamp’sDistrict 9was a brilliant science fiction film that centered on the arrival of a species of bug-like aliens, called “Prawns”, in South Africa, where they become a marginalized and exploited race. The entire premise is a scathing commentary on the real events the nation experienced with the apartheid era.
The end of the film sees protagonist Wilkus turned into a Prawn himself, left by the noble Christopher as he departs with his son in the mothership, promising to come back after three years. This obviously set the stage for a sequel to finish the story, which went largely unresolved. Yet over 10 years later, the supposedDistrict 10is no closer to a release date, leaving it as one of the most disappointing lingering threads inmoviehistory.
