Hollywood Is Running Out Of Legacy Sequels
Hollywood studios are incredibly predictable; if something is a hit, everyone else is going to try and recreate it, from the musicals of the 30s and 40s to the glut of Westerns in the 50s to the 90s bringing back old television shows as movies. Today, the trend, going beyond superheroes for a moment, is the legacy sequel, bringing back the cast and crew of an old film everyone loved and doing it all over again. The problem now is that studios have gone into this content vein so fast and so often that there’s nothing left.
Think long and hard on the best movies of the 70s and 80s, and then, try to think of one that hasn’t had a legacy sequel already made. You can, but you’re scrapping the bottom of the barrel because do we really need The Ice Pirates Return?
Legacy Sequels Can Be Amazing
Financially, the most successful legacy sequel has been Top Gun: Maverick, which left fans hanging for over 30 years before taking theaters by storm. Creatively, I’d argue Cobra Kai has been the most successful, turning a guilty-pleasure 80s classic into a must-watch streaming series. When done right, they can be an absolute blast for longtime fans and new viewers alike, but when done poorly, like Independence Day: Resurgence, it can damage the original film.
There’s More Of Them Than You Think
The legacy sequel has been on for well over a decade now, don’t forget about Tron: Legacy, and I find myself wondering what’s still out there to be brought back. Just this year alone, both Beetlejuice and Beverly Hills Cop received new movies, and Gladiator II is on the way. Two years ago, Kevin Smith quietly made Clerks III, and two years before that, Bill and Ted Face the Music brought back our favorite time-travelers. See, once you start thinking about it, there have been more of these than you realize!
Seriously, Where’s Gremlins?
What’s left out of the 80s is basically Gremlins and the long-rumored Goonies sequel, but neither of those is going to happen any time soon. From the 90s, does anyone want to see Cutthroat Island come back, or maybe Waterworld? Even the fun slashers of the decade have already received legacy sequels in Scream and the I Know What You Did Last Summer series because nothing is sacred anymore.
Maybe Edward Scissorhands could be a thing, and honestly, I might talk myself into a Mummy legacy sequel with Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz.
Hollywood Sucks The Fun Out Of Every Trend
Hollywood has to chase a trend; that’s the only way these studios operate and with exploitable legacy sequels on the way out and superheroes going through a downswing, that leaves videogame adaptations as the next big thing. For every Sonic the Hedgehog, there’s a Borderlands, and with the response on social media to the Minecraft trailer, video games may not be the savior that Hollywood needs. Get ready for Liam Neeson to bandage up as Darkman one more time.
Originality Is Dead
The thought of a Darkman legacy sequel is absurd, but that’s the type of film studios will start to consider in the next few years as the cupboards are getting bare. This line of thinking is why dozens of American Pie sequels went straight to DVD, and it’s going to continue to fill theaters with disappointing films, I mean really, who thought rebooting The Crow, in 2024, was a good idea?
The solution is to keep voting with your wallet, and by letting disappointing legacy sequels fall right on their face, maybe, just maybe, Hollywood studios will start to get the picture and go back to producing something new, exciting, and original that we haven’t seen before.
