# Back from the dead for a sequel **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [May 16, 2025, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425 "2025-05-16T00:39:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quondam\_Mechanic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quondam_mechanic/32/3404_2.png) [@Quondam\_Mechanic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quondam_Mechanic)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425/1 "2025-05-16T00:39:51Z")
Somewhat inspired by the thread [What is the WORST immediate sequel to a great film?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-immediate-sequel-to-a-great-film/1018246): You may recall _Hallowe’en Resurrection_, an (inferior) sequel to the (not-great) _Hallowe’en H20_. Michael Myers being decapitated in _H20_ didn’t stop them from making the sequel – oh, they decapitated the wrong guy! Easy-peasy. It made me think of Whoopi Goldberg’s line in _Soapdish_ when Kevin Kline wants back into his soap opera role, and Whoopi reminds him that his character was killed off: _a tractor trailer came along and decapitated him. You know what that means? It means he doesn’t have a head. How am I supposed to write for a guy who doesn’t have a head?_ Rob Zombie _tried_ to kill off his antiheros in _The Devil’s Rejects_ – they die in a hail of bullets in a police ambush – but (one supposes) by popular demand, they somehow come back in _3 From Hell_. (Alas, real life was less kind; one of the 3, Sid Haig, passed away during the filming.) So: Any other examples of a sequel where a main character is killed off at the end of one movie, only to be brought back in the sequel? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425/2 "2025-05-16T00:43:54Z")
Does it have to be an _immediate_ sequel? “Somehow, Palpatine returned!” ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425/3 "2025-05-16T00:49:40Z")
It seems to me that Dr. Malcolm from Jurassic Park is the poster boy for this kind of thing. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425/4 "2025-05-16T00:50:06Z")
Ardath Bey in the Brendan Fraser mummy movies. Jeff Goldblum’s character in the _Jurassic Park_ movies. Dracula in the Hammer Films movies with Christopher Lee. Doctor Frankenstein in several of the Hammer Films movies with Peter Cushing. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425/5 "2025-05-16T00:52:31Z")
For that matter, Frankenstein’s monster in the Universal movies, and Larry Talbot, the Wolf Man, in the Universal monster movies. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425/6 "2025-05-16T00:57:51Z")
It wasn’t at the end, but Juan Sánchez-Villalobos Ramírez was killed in Highlander and inexplicably returned in Highlander II because of plot magic. ---
**Author:** ![Quondam\_Mechanic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quondam_mechanic/32/3404_2.png) [@Quondam\_Mechanic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quondam_Mechanic)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425/7 "2025-05-16T00:58:47Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Does it have to be an _immediate_ sequel? > > “Somehow, Palpatine returned!” Nah, any old time. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425/8 "2025-05-16T01:01:57Z")
> [@Quondam\_Mechanic](#): > > So: Any other examples of a sequel where a main character is killed off at the end of one movie, only to be brought back in the sequel? Pretty much all the slasher series. _Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Child’s Play_, etc. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425/9 "2025-05-16T01:18:27Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > Jeff Goldblum’s character in the _Jurassic Park_ movies Ian didn’t die in the movie though, just the book. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425/10 "2025-05-16T02:03:27Z")
Shredder returned for the second _Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles_ movie despite having been crushed by a trash compactor at the end of the first one. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425/11 "2025-05-16T02:19:12Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Does it have to be an _immediate_ sequel? > > “Somehow, Palpatine returned!” Along the same lines, Darth Maul was cut in half and fell down an endless chute in _The Phantom Menace_, and managed to come back for _Solo_. T’was just a scratch. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425/12 "2025-05-16T03:09:00Z")
Gandalf the Grey. Dies fighting the Balrog, comes back as Gandalf the White. ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425/13 "2025-05-16T07:35:36Z")
Pretty sure this trope was invented by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who sent Sherlock Holmes to his death over a waterfall with Moriarty, in a story that was titled **The Final Problem**. Turns out that it wasn’t as final as expected… ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425/14 "2025-05-16T08:34:16Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > Ian didn’t die in the movie though, just the book. Yes, exactly. I noticed that no one has given Hammond/Attenborough as an example and it was the same for him (dead in book, alive in film). ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425/15 "2025-05-16T08:37:23Z")
Doesn’t quite fit the OP since it’s a book series, but literary James Bond was killed off at the end of _From Russia With Love_, then brought back by Fleming for _Dr No_. ---
**Author:** ![TCMF-2L](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tcmf-2l/32/16553_2.png) [@TCMF-2L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TCMF-2L)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425/16 "2025-05-16T10:37:35Z")
Ripley in the Alien series of films didn’t let dying stop her returning. TCMF-2L ---
**Author:** ![Author\_Balk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425/17 "2025-05-16T10:41:20Z")
In the Worst Immediate Sequel thread I mentioned Arthur 2 On the Rocks. Hobson (John Gielgud) died in the first movie and was in the second movie. He was a ghost, so I don’t know if that counts as “back from the dead”. ---
**Author:** ![TCMF-2L](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tcmf-2l/32/16553_2.png) [@TCMF-2L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TCMF-2L)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425/18 "2025-05-16T10:43:51Z")
Obviously Big Arnie is (initially anyway) a machine in the first Terminator but despite his destruction in the first film he regularly returned changing from bad to good and from machine to human. TCMF-2L ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425/19 "2025-05-16T12:03:57Z")
Chow Yun-Fat’s character, Mark, was killed at the end of _A Better Tomorrow_. He was so popular because of the role that he was cast as Marks previously unmentioned twin brother in the sequel. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425/20 "2025-05-16T13:57:03Z")
The very first case I know of where someone who was undeniably killed in the original nevertheless shows up in a sequel is Ayesha, “She who Must be Obeyed”, from H. Rider Haggard’s **She: A History of Adventure** (1887). There’s no question that she has died of extreme old age at the end of the novel. Nevertheless, she came back, reincarnated, in the sequel **Ayesha: The Return of She** (1905). Since then lots of characters have come back. Forgive me for mention ing those who were mentioned above. **Count Dracula** – staked (discreetly off-camera) in the 1931 film, he comes back (played by John Carradine, with a moustache) in **House of Frankenstein** when the stake is pulled out of his skeleton (This hadn’t occurred before in a Universal movie, but it did in MGM’s _Return of the Vampire_, which starred Lugosi, and was clearly Dracula in everything but name. As fa as I know the concept was introduced by the movies. It had never occurred before). But he gets killed by exposure to sunlight, which reduces him to a bloodless skeleton. But then he inexplicably came back _again_ in **House of Dracula** , and again gets skeletonized by sunlight. And then, of course, he’s back, equally inexplicably, and looking like Lugosi again, in **Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein** Speaking of Universal Horror Movies, Bela Lugosi’s Ygor was pretty clearly killed at the end of **Son of Frankenstein** , but he’s back in **Ghost of Frankenstein** without explanation. Maybe they missed. Lawrence Talbot at The Wolfman dies at the end of **The Wolfman** , but they brought him back – evidently if you expose a dead wolfman to the rays of the moon it revivifies him, the way Varney the Vampyre was revived by moon rays a century earlier – in **Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman**. And he stayed alive through three more movies. As I remarked in the other thread, crime boss Robert G. Durant (played by Larry Drake) was definitely killed in the original **Darkman** , but he was back for **Darkman 2** Moriarty has been mentioned, but I don’t think it was stated that Doyle himself brought him back for **The Valley of Fear** , a novel whose timeline doesn’t appear to allow it to occur during the events of “The Final Problem”. I mean, lots of others have brought Moriarty back, but they can say that Doyle himself had done it. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425.md?page=2)