10 Movie Sequel Setups That Went Nowhere | ScreenRant
In the age of Marvel, every filmmaker wants their movie to launch a cinematic universe full of sequels, prequels, and spin-offs. But not every movie can launch a Star Wars-sized franchise, and whether or not a movie will be successful enough to kickstart a string of sequels is based on a number of unpredictable factors.
Occasionally, filmmakers have jumped the gun setting up a sequel to a movie that ultimately isn’t successful enough to earn one. As such, these movies have sequel setups that were never paid off.
10 Green Lantern (2011)
Just like pretty much any superhero film, the Ryan Reynolds-starring Green Lantern movie was intended to launch a franchise. During the movie, Hal Jordan asks Sinestro to get a yellow ring forged by the Guardians to defeat Parallax. However, he later decides it’s a bad idea and takes on Parallax without the use of a yellow ring.
In the movie’s final stinger, Sinestro is seen collecting the yellow ring from a secret chamber, setting him up as the villain of the sequel. However, due to the movie’s poor reviews and low box office figures, a Green Lantern sequel was never produced.
9 Godzilla (1998)
While the second Hollywood remake of Godzilla has gone on to launch the MonsterVerse, the first one from 1998 didn’t perform well enough to earn a single sequel. The 1998 movie changed the lore to make Godzilla a female who reproduces asexually. The main conflict of the movie is that she’s laid a bunch of eggs in New York City.
At the end of the movie, when the monster has been defeated and all of her eggs have seemingly been destroyed by the military, we cut back to Madison Square Garden for the revelation that one of the eggs survived – and it just hatched. This teaser set up Godzilla, Jr. for the sequel that never materialized.
8 National Treasure: Book Of Secrets (2007)
Disney’s National Treasure franchise never made Avengers numbers at the box office, but both of its installments performed well financially and audiences warmed to the idea of a series of Nic Cage-starring adventures mixing Indiana Jones with U.S. history.
The second movie, Book of Secrets, seemed to set up a third one as the President told Cage’s character Benjamin Franklin Gates to check out page 47 of the titular book, promising that the information on that page is “life-altering.” Despite Book of Secrets’ $450 million box office haul, the threequel never came to fruition.
7 Flash Gordon (1980)
At the end of Flash Gordon, after Ming has been betrayed by his own magical ring and seemingly disintegrated, a mysterious off-screen character picks up the ring as Ming’s distinctive evil laugh echoes onto the soundtrack. Seemingly, the baddie was set to return in the future.
To really hammer home that the plan was to follow up with a sequel, a question mark is added to the words “The End.” However, the movie was a financial disappointment, despite riding the space opera coattails of Star Wars.
6 The Incredible Hulk (2008)
The MCU’s first and so far only Hulk solo movie, The Incredible Hulk, teased Samuel Sterns’ transformation into super-intelligent villain The Leader.
The story continued with Mark Ruffalo taking the role of Bruce Banner, but there was never an Incredible Hulk sequel, and aside from reintegrating William Hurt’s Thunderbolt Ross (and the upcoming return of Tim Roth’s Abomination), the MCU has avoided any overt connections to The Incredible Hulk, so fans will probably never get to see The Leader on-screen.
5 Austin Powers In Goldmember (2002)
At the end of the third Austin Powers movie, Goldmember, Dr. Evil is redeemed after meeting his biological father, learning he’s Austin’s brother, and leaving his evil ways behind. But a final stinger set up Dr. Evil’s son, Scott, as the new villain.
There have been rumors of a fourth Austin Powers movie for years, but it’s been almost two decades since Goldmember and the James Bond franchise has moved past the outdated tropes that the Austin Powers movies set out to spoof.
4 The Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension (1984)
At the end of the 1984 cult sci-fi hit The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, there’s a title card announcing a sequel titled Buckaroo Banzai vs. the World Crime League.
The movie bombed at the box office, so the studio never commissioned a sequel, but it’s since become a beloved cult classic, so it could eventually get a belated sequel (or reboot).
3 Predators (2010)
The third film in the Predator franchise, 2010’s Predators, took fans to the Predators’ homeworld with a kind of Battle Royale premise. In the threequel’s final moments, the only surviving protagonists – Royce (Adrien Brody) and Isabelle (Alice Braga) – see more unsuspecting people parachuting onto the Predators’ jungle planet.
Based on this setup, it seems like the sequel would’ve followed the same premise, just with a new set of characters. Ultimately, the returns weren’t strong enough to justify a sequel. Instead, Fox rebooted the franchise with 2018’s The Predator, which similarly stumbled at the box office.
2 Super Mario Bros. (1993)
After the villainous King Koopa is defeated at the end of the notorious Super Mario Bros. movie, everything seems to go back to normal.
And then, in the movie’s final scene, Daisy bursts into Mario and Luigi’s apartment holding a giant gun and tells them, “You gotta come with me! I need your help! You’re never gonna believe this!” The movie bombed with critics and audiences alike, so we never got to find out what Daisy was talking about.
1 The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)
Although it ended up bringing Andrew Garfield’s short-lived stint as Peter Parker to a close, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was intended to launch Sony’s own Marvel-based cinematic universe (as well as setting up The Amazing Spider-Man 3). The sequel sets up the Sinister Six for a role in a movie that was never produced.
The box office underperformance of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 led to Sony giving up its efforts to reboot the Spidey movies and instead lending the character out to Marvel Studios to join the MCU.