# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425/21 "2025-05-16T14:21:33Z")
> [@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? “Wolverine and Deadpool” has Wolverine coming back after he died at the end of the movie, “The Wolverine”. In fact, the former begins with Deadpool by the grave of the dead Wolverine but, because of the miraculous multiverse, we got an alternate Wolverine instead. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425/22 "2025-05-16T14:41:36Z")
> [@Quondam\_Mechanic](#): > > 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?_ This scene was lovingly taken from something that had actually happened on _As The World Turns_, in which the young heroine, Shannon O’Hara, had her head removed and shrunken…yet managed a comeback on the show a few years later. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425/23 "2025-05-16T14:45:02Z")
There was an actual funeral scene for the title character in _John Wick 4_, and yet they are making _John Wick 5_. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425/24 "2025-05-16T14:46:42Z")
Do clones or alternate universes count in this thread? You are not exactly bringing back the same character. ---
**Author:** ![teelabrown](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/teelabrown/32/8412_2.png) [@teelabrown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teelabrown)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425/25 "2025-05-16T15:02:03Z")
Since I never watched any of the sequels to the original _Pirates of the Caribbean_ movie, maybe there’s something I don’t know. But I see in clips that Barbossa is in the sequels. Didn’t he die at the end of the first movie? ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425/26 "2025-05-16T15:17:27Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Do clones or alternate universes count in this thread? You are not exactly bringing back the same character. Then, Terminator doesn’t count either. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425/27 "2025-05-16T15:27:15Z")
Harry Hart (Colin Firth) in **Kingsmen: The Secret Service** was killed off, and brought back through advanced technology for the sequel. Phil Coulson was killed off by Loki in **The Avengers** but came back from Tahiti (technology, alien blood) for _Agents of SHIELD_ TV show. He was then killed off there and came back in a way too complicated to explain, was killed off a third time and came back as a Life Model Decoy (LMD), Marvels way to get around any character death. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425/28 "2025-05-16T15:35:04Z")
> [@teelabrown](#): > > Since I never watched any of the sequels to the original _Pirates of the Caribbean_ movie, maybe there’s something I don’t know. But I see in clips that Barbossa is in the sequels. Didn’t he die at the end of the first movie? Tia Dalma performed some magic of an unknown nature to bring him back, offscreen. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425/29 "2025-05-16T15:39:03Z")
I thought stories written after **The Final Problem** were set chronologically before it, but I am far from a SH expert. There are too many comic book examples “no one, except maybe Uncle Ben, is ever permanently dead”. Doesn’t matter if they were dismembered, cremated, soaked in acid, and thrown into a volcano / the sun they can come back. Brian ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425/30 "2025-05-16T16:16:08Z")
Spock was killed of in **Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan**. The next film is **Star Trek III: The Search for Spock** which is entirely about bring back Spock from the “dead”. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425/31 "2025-05-16T16:34:46Z")
> [@N9IWP](#): > > I thought stories written after **The Final Problem** were set chronologically before it, but I am far from a SH expert. Nope, I distinctly remember reading one in which Sherlock explains to Watson that he didn’t actually die in the Reichenbach Falls, but he faked his death to better infiltrate Moriarty’s organization or something like that. ---
**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 17, 2025, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425/32 "2025-05-17T03:33:37Z")
Correct. The first story set after Holmes’ “death” is [The Adventure of the Empty House](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventure_of_the_Empty_House) When a collection of post-reappearance stories was published, it was unambiguously titled [The Return of Sherlock Holmes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Return_of_Sherlock_Holmes). ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2025, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425/33 "2025-05-17T03:59:32Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > > [@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? > > “Wolverine and Deadpool” has Wolverine coming back after he died at the end of the movie, “The Wolverine”. In fact, the former begins with Deadpool by the grave of the dead Wolverine but, because of the miraculous multiverse, we got an alternate Wolverine instead. He died at the end of _Logan._ Loki is killed by Thanos. He comes back as a variant in the Loki TV show. Lots of characters come back after the snap. In _City Slickers_ Curly dies. In _City Slicker 2_ Jack Palance is now Duke, Curley’s long lost twin. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2025, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425/34 "2025-05-17T06:54:12Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > Harry Hart (Colin Firth) in **Kingsmen: The Secret Service** was killed off, and brought back through advanced technology for the sequel. Yeah, how did that happen? I never saw the second Kingsman movie, but I know Firth was back. He was shot in the head at close range with what? A Glock? (I don’t know shit about guns, but shouldn’t his brains be splattered all over the pavement?) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2025, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425/35 "2025-05-17T08:19:30Z")
Does Bobby Ewing on _ **Dallas** _ count? They tried to bring Jock back from the dead too, but audiences didn’t like it. He was allowed to vanish at the end of the season, never to be heard from again. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2025, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425/36 "2025-05-17T10:46:58Z")
Oh my God, they killed Kenny! ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2025, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425/37 "2025-05-17T12:06:59Z")
If we’re getting into TV shows, a lot of people who died in LOST managed to find ways to come back. ---
**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 17, 2025, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425/38 "2025-05-17T13:02:55Z")
In **The Increasingly Poor Decisions of a Todd Margaret** , they found a way to bring back all the characters for a third season after Todd detonated a North Korean nuke and killed off all life on Earth at the end of Season 2. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2025, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425/39 "2025-05-17T13:07:29Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > …sfter Todd detonated a North Korean nuke and killed off all life on Earth at the end of Season 2. Not only should he have been dead, it’s kinda hard to aee how his decisions could get “increasingly poor” in the next season. ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2025, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425/40 "2025-05-17T13:14:34Z")
> [@N9IWP](#): > > There are too many comic book examples “no one, except maybe Uncle Ben, is ever permanently dead”. I’m old enough to remember when it was “nobody stays dead except Uncle Ben and Bucky”. And look where we are now. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-from-the-dead-for-a-sequel/1018425.md?page=3)