# Has there ever been a good prequel? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 21, 2010, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-good-prequel/547455 "2010-07-21T12:25:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-good-prequel/547455/1 "2010-07-21T12:25:26Z")
Prompted by the fun being had [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=12708206#post12708206): I started thinking about it and I can’t recall a good prequel. ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-good-prequel/547455/2 "2010-07-21T12:30:04Z")
The Phantom \< **UB** is soundly smacked off the stage\> ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-good-prequel/547455/3 "2010-07-21T12:32:58Z")
Godfather II is a pretty good one. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-good-prequel/547455/4 "2010-07-21T12:42:56Z")
Temple of Doom was entertaining enough. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-good-prequel/547455/5 "2010-07-21T12:43:55Z")
I rather enjoyed **Wicked** , even if it is a pale shadow. Could **Casino Royale** count? Or are reboots off the table? ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-good-prequel/547455/6 "2010-07-21T13:08:06Z")
The second season of _Sledge Hammer_. ---
**Author:** ![MTCicero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@MTCicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MTCicero)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-good-prequel/547455/7 "2010-07-21T13:09:16Z")
Yes. As **Crotalus** mentioned above, **The Godfather, Part II** is pretty much the definitive answer to this question (though, of course, it’s part prequel, part sequel). Of course, if the prequels you’re primarily thinking of are the godawful **Star Wars** prequels, then I can certainly understand why you’d think there was a paucity of good prequels. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-good-prequel/547455/8 "2010-07-21T13:19:15Z")
> [@Crotalus](#): > > Godfather II is a pretty good one. Yeah, but only a small amount of the screen time is devoted to the prequel part. I’m guessing 45 minutes of a long movie. Of course, that part is very good and works as a short prequel to the previous movie. The sequel part, which is much bigger, is excellent too. How long is the prequel portion of the movie? Temple of Doom is a prequel, but it doesn’t make a big deal of being a prequel, meaning they could have made it a sequel, but chose not to for some reason. Why did they do that? So, it’s a prequel, but only because the opening date in the movie shows it to be. In fact, I think a lot of average movie watchers don’t even think of it as a prequel. I wouldn’t count re-boots, either, since they break from continuity. I can’t think of any prequel that was very good, come to mention it. ---
**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:** [July 21, 2010, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-good-prequel/547455/9 "2010-07-21T13:21:56Z")
plenty of good prequel books – C.S. Forester went back and filled in Horatio Hornblower’s past in several books decades after the character first appeared. L/ frank Baum went baclk and explained how the Cowardly Lion happened to be in Oz. I thought Harry Turtledove did a decent prequel to Robert E. Howard’s _Conan_ stories in **Conan of Venarium**. And the opening section of **Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade** was a pretty good Indiana Jones prequel, explaining several of Jones’ features. (I didn’t see the _Indiana Jones Chronicles_, so I can’t speak about those.) ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-good-prequel/547455/10 "2010-07-21T13:26:32Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Temple of Doom is a prequel, but it doesn’t make a big deal of being a prequel, meaning they could have made it a sequel, but chose not to for some reason. Why did they do that? The opening bit is in Shanghai. Maybe they wanted to avoid the Japanese occupation of China? EDIT: Here’s what it says in Wikipedia: “Lucas made the film a prequel as he did not want the Nazis to be the villains once more.” ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-good-prequel/547455/11 "2010-07-21T13:27:13Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > I rather enjoyed **Wicked** , even if it is a pale shadow. [Read the book.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicked:_The_Life_and_Times_of_the_Wicked_Witch_of_the_West) All of Gregory Maguire’s fantasy prequels are amazing works. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-good-prequel/547455/12 "2010-07-21T13:31:23Z")
I love the “Cordelia Naismith meets Aral Vorkosigan” books; Falling Free is also quite interesting although I don’t think it would have turned me into an instant Lois McMaster Bujold fan if it had been the first book I’d read by her (that was Ethan of Athos). All three count as prequels to Miles Vorkosigan’s antics. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-good-prequel/547455/13 "2010-07-21T13:46:46Z")
I heard that \*Temple \*was a prequel because they originally intended to re-use Belloq as an antagonist, although he died in _Raiders_. He was dropped in re-writes, but they still kept the earlier date. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-good-prequel/547455/14 "2010-07-21T13:59:22Z")
_Star Trek: Enterprise._ ---
**Author:** ![snoopygal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b487fb/32.png) [@snoopygal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoopygal)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-good-prequel/547455/15 "2010-07-21T14:19:34Z")
Star Wars Episodes I-III. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-good-prequel/547455/16 "2010-07-21T15:09:25Z")
I liked the Young Indiana Jones show, too. I think a lot of prequels suck because they basically just reiterate an already established back-story rather then exploring some new facet. The Star Wars prequels, Enterprise and the Underworld prequel whose name I can’t remember all fall into this trap. The endings are all predetermined, few new interesting items are introduced, and its basically a lazy rehash. ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-good-prequel/547455/17 "2010-07-21T15:49:01Z")
Xmen origins: wolverine was a pretty forgettable movie, but the did do a good job of covering his back-story. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-good-prequel/547455/18 "2010-07-21T16:15:24Z")
_Batman Begins_ ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-good-prequel/547455/19 "2010-07-21T16:21:32Z")
I forgot about the \*Underworld \*prequel. I actually liked that one a lot. (_Rise of the Lycans_, by the way.) All prequels suffer from the problem of predetermination. Especially if there are characters from the original in the prequel. You just \*know \*he can’t die this time around, or he wouldn’t be there when needed in the original story. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-good-prequel/547455/20 "2010-07-21T16:33:02Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > _Batman Begins_ What’s it a prequel to? I haven’t seen it, but I bet _Tremors 4: The Legend Begins_ (set a century before the events in the first three films, with Michael Gross playing an ancestor of his established Tremors character) has a few laughs in it. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-good-prequel/547455.md?page=2)