Back to the Future 4 It may never be made, but there is an official sequel to the original Back to the future trilogy that made Christopher Lloyd's Doc Brown the star of the franchise. Robert Zemeckis has made it perfectly clear that he is not interested in continuing the Back to the future series with a fourth film, and he won't let any other filmmaker or greedy studio do it for him. It's probably for the best – these legacy sequels rarely work – but it's a shame this story is over.
It would have been a joy to see Doc and Marty McFly sharing the screen one last time for one last time travel adventure. The franchise continued in the form of video games and a stage musicalbut it's not the same as what a fourth film would have been. There was only one Back to the future project that officially kept the story going beyond the end of Back to the Future, Part III - and that made Doc the main character.
The Back to the Future animated series was set after Part III and focused on Doc Brown's family
Doc and his family moved to a farm in Hill Valley in the early 1990s
At the end of Back to the Future, Part IIIthe DeLorean is destroyed, Marty returns to his original timeline and the future is unwritten, so his story is over. But then, Doc appears on a time-traveling steam locomotive with his wife Clara and their two sons, Jules and Verne. After staying in the Wild West, he has transformed a train into a time machine and plans to embark on time travel adventures with his family. This didn't lead to a sequel, but it did lead to an animated series.
From 1991 to 1992, Back to the Future: The Animated Series lasted two seasons of 13 episodes each on CBS. Marty and Jennifer occasionally appeared on the show, but the main focus was on the Brown family. The show revealed that after the events of Part III, the Browns settled on a farm in Hill Valley in the early 1990s. Doc rebuilt the DeLorean, now with fewer flaws, and the show sent him to historical eras such as the Middle Ages, the American Civil War, Ancient Egypt, and prehistoric times.
Christopher Lloyd reprized his role as Doc Brown in the animated show (but in live action)
Lloyd appeared in the live-action segments that opened and closed each episode
In the animated segments of Back to the future TV series, Doc was voiced by Dan Castellaneta, best known as the voice of Homer Simpson. But in the live-action segments that opened and closed each episode, Lloyd reprized his role as Doc. Bill Nye appeared as Doc's lab assistant in these live-action sequences, which eventually led to Nye getting his own show. This series is probably the closest thing Back to the future fans will get a fourth film.