10 Comic Book Movies That Set Up Sequels That Never Happened

It’s no secret that Comic book movies Thrive away from sequels and franchises, but not every plan for a major franchise, even in the superhero space, manages to come to fruition. Since the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films, Blockbusters have been keener than ever to hastily set up similar movie franchises in hopes of keeping audiences hooked for a long time.. Unfortunately, not every comic book movie attempt to do this has aged well.

Many films have cliffhangers meant to set up sequels that simply never come to pass. Sometimes the follow-ups fail due to studio differences and creative conflicts, but more often than not, it is simply a question of funding, with the original film simply not hitting the numbers necessary to generate a sequel. For better or worse, some comic book movies infamously failed to continue their franchise despite some obvious setup for another film.

11

The Dark Knight 4

Christopher Nolan’s Robin setup isn’t going anywhere

One of the strangest cases of a franchise that had the potential to continue but didn’t is Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy. At first glance, The Dark Knight Rises Seems like the perfect ending to the story of Batman in Nolan’s unique take on the DC universesaw him retire the persona while fleeing to Europe to live happily with Selina Kyle.

However, the denouement that shows Joseph Gordon-Levitts Robin discovering the batcave seemed to imply that more adventures might have been on the table.

In fact, Nolan never planned for a 4th Batman film, much to the chagrin of fans who were disappointed with the final entry in the Dark Knight Trilogy. This makes it all the stranger that the acclaimed director would choose to include the Robin scene in the first placeOr even writing in Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character in general. Perhaps if the series had premiered after the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe truly became as clear as it is today, it would have been a different story.

10

Green Lantern 2

Wasted his one best scene

Few superhero movies are as infamous as 2011’s Green Lantern. Starring Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan, the film was met with no end of harsh criticism over its terrible CGIAwkward writing, and forgettable story. Reynolds himself has made no secret of his disdain for the film, openly mocking it on press tours and even openly criticizing his decision to accept the role in a Deadpool 2 Meta joke.

Ironically, one of the film’s strongest parts was actually its bold attempt at setting up a sequel. A beautiful mid-credits scene shows Sinestro donning the Yellow Lantern ring wordlessly to become the new symbol of fear.Officially complete his fall from grace to become one of Green Lantern’s single most famous villains.

Unfortunately, the abysmal critical reception and lack of commercial success ensured that the scene would forever remain a hypothetical, Despite Warner Bros. original plans for the film to start a new trilogy.

9

Justice League 2

Couldn’t manifest before the DCEU collapsed

The filmography of the DCEU has been uneven at best, with the moderate success of standouts like Man of Steel And Wonder Woman Constantly undermined by the critical failures of films like Suicide Squad And Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. The series’ saddest unfulfilled promise is definitely the follow-up to its first and only major team-up movie, Justice Leaguewhich teased the arrival of the infamous alien warlord Darkseid to serve as the DCEU’s equivalent to Thanos.

Unfortunately, Warner Bros. return on investment for the DCEU gradually got worse and worse, With the absolute box office bomb that was The bottle Being the final nail in the coffin.

In the end, the series came to a close unceremoniously with the release of Aquaman: The Lost KingdomLLeave the very real plans for a Justice League follow-up with Darkseid and the Legion of Doom forever on the cutting room floor.

8

The Amazing Spider-Man 3

Andrew Garfield never saw his evil six

The original The Amazing Spider-Man was a shaky start to Sony’s new Spider-Man series after the Sam Raimi films, but the sequel quickly came to a close with the poorly received The Amazing Spider-Man 2. curious enough, Much of the criticism of the film stems from the fact that it spends far too much of its runtime trying to set up The Amazing Spider-Man 3.

Because of this, Sony gave Spider-Man to Disney for use in the MCU, Be stuck making solo films revolving around more villainous or villainous Spider-Man characters instead.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Awkward tried to pack in a redundant setup for a Sinister Six movie, introducing Spider-Man’s famous team of villains by teasing Vulture’s wings and Doc Ock’s arms. As if that wasn’t enough, the odd espionage subplot about Peter Parker’s parents, Who were shockingly revealed to have survived their fateful plane crash, only making matters more confusing. today, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is a sad time capsule of planned sequels that were never meant to be.

7

Dread 2

Can’t bring back a complete Judge Anderson

Of the many attempts to create a Judge Dredd movie, 2012’s Dread is easily the best. This makes it all the more disappointing that Karl Urban’s star vehicle never got the chance to make good on its promises for a sequel.

The film sees Judge Dredd take on a mentorship role, Take the rookie apprentice Anderson on a dangerous mission to capture a Slam Lord. Over the course of the film, Anderson learns to be as brutal and ruthless as a judge needs to be, setting up a sequel in which she officially steps into the title.

Concrete plans for a sequel have never been formulated, despite the end of the film implying that a new adventure with official Judge Anderson could be on the table. While fans protested with grass-roots petition campaigns, the film was simply too niche to warrant getting another crack.. It doesn’t seem like fans can expect to return to the populous mega-city any time soon.

6

Hellboy 3

Guillermo del Toro’s masterpiece duology deserves to be a trilogy

After the original HellboyCreature feature icon Guillermo Del Toro returns to prove his proficiency with the character in Hellboy II: The Golden Army. To this day, some fans prefer the sequel to the original, but there wouldn’t be another Hellboy film until David Harbour’s terrifying reboot in 2019. The end of Hellboy II: The Golden Army was on something of a hopeful note, with Liz and Hellboy retiring from the BPRD after finding out they would soon be parents.

Del Toro expressed interest in completing the Hellboy Films with a third installment, promising a riveting tale around Hellboy coming face-to-face with his destiny as a weapon of the apocalypse, just like in the comics. Unfortunately, the project was hit after root, and eventually officially dropped in early 2017.

Another spin-off centered on the lovable fish-man Ape Sapien is also in development at one point, But this project was also scrapped after the announcement of the reboot.

Could not manifest after the first almost sank the career of Sean Connery

Of all the film adaptations of Alan Moore’s work, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is perhaps the single most critical phenomenon. Just like the comic series it is based on, The film stars various public domain characters from classic literature, such as Captain Nemo, Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, and Alan Quatermain All assembling to help prevent an existential threat to the British Empire.

Unfortunately, the film fell short of its source material by almost every metric, Making unnecessary character changes and fumbling the straightforward action adventure story.

At the end of the film there was an obvious attempt to bait a sequel, with the seemingly deceased Quatermain implied to have been brought back to life by ancient African magic. Fortunately for fans of the original series, the terrible reception of the film was enough to ensure that a follow-up was never even developed.Making the scene completely irrelevant. Perhaps the upcoming Disney reboot on Hulu can finally do the comic book justice.

4

Black Adam vs Superman

The hierarchy of the DC universe remained the same

There was a time when DC was pushing the success of Black Adam Incredibly difficult. Although the Shazam villain has never been a majorly popular character, the involvement of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson seemed to make the DCEU think it was all-in for marketing. Black Adamwho promised to “Change the hierarchy of power in the DC universe“, was the franchise’s best bet to live to see another quarter.

The film seemed to set up a confrontation between Johnson’s Black Adam and Henry Cavill’s Superman.

It’s true that Johnson pitched a multi-year plan for DC centered around Black Adam, which saw a spike in marketing for the character even outside his debut live action film. Unfortunately for the superstar actor, Black Adam was one of the biggest flops of the DCEU at the timeAlthough it has since been outdone in failure by the likes of The bottle. Regardless, the DCEU crumbled earlier Black Adam Can hope to waver against the man of steel himself.

3

Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 4

Some fans are still hopeful for Sam Raimi’s missing film

Despite concluding with a neat trilogy, many audiences are still clamoring for the release of Sam Raimi’s Fable Spider-Man 4. Although Spider-Man 3 ended in a neatly-wrapped return to the status quo, Tobey Maguire’s beloved take on Spider-Man still has the very real possibility of coming back for a Spider-Man 4 Directed by Raimi.

Indeed, plans for such were well under way before Raimi pulled out. Leaving due to creative differences he felt constrained by.

The planned fourth entry would see John Malkovich as the Vulture and Anne Hathaway as Black Cat, with the possibility of more villains on the table. Dr. Curt Connors’ transformation into the Lizard was one of the few bits of unsatisfied setup from the original films, And the reptilian antagonist was also in the conversation for Spider-Man 4.

Since Tobey Maguire’s appearance in Spider-Man: No Way Home, Interest in Spider-Man 4 has left Making it not an impossible prospect despite Raimi’s reluctance.

2

X-Men: Dark Phoenix 2

Fox handed over control of the X-Men to the MCU

It says something that Fox managed to fumble one of the X-Men’s most important comic storylines not once, but twice. X-Men: Dark Phoenix was Fox Films’ second attempt to adapt the Dark Phoenix saga yet X-Men: The Last StandThis time with the younger version of the cast starring Sophia Turner of Game of Thrones Celebrity like Jean Grey. The film ends with Professor X and Magneto in one of their famous friendly chess games as an ominous flaming phoenix appears in the sky above them..

Sure enough, this teaser was meant to set up a whole trilogy of new films branching off from X-Men: Dark Phoenix With the rebooted core cast. The planned sequels are meant to explore the cosmic connections the Phoenix entity has in the X-Men universeBrought the foreign hair empire into the fold.

When Disney acquired Fox Studios to officially incorporate the X-Men into the MCU, all hopes of a follow-up to this particular Comic book movie are destroyed.

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Key background

• A film’s financial success does not always ensure a sequel; Critics and audience reception have a strong impact on studio decisions.

• Internal conflicts, such as creative disagreements and contractual issues, often prevent sequels from moving forward.

• Studios often shift focus to new projects, leaving promised sequels in development limbo.

Source: Box Office Mojo via IMDb