Movie sequels people wanted, but took too long to come out.

Cafe Society
1

No, I don’t mean Indiana Jones 4 and such things. I guess we wanted that sequel, but a lot of folks were quite content with the original three movies. Even Episode VII, which was excellent, was not wanted, especially after the disastrous prequels. It was a blessing, but we were not actually asking for it. And, from announcement to theater, Episode VII was actually quite quickly made.

I have no set idea of what constitutes too long, but what movies did you really want a sequel, but by the time they came out…it had been a bit too long for enough people to care?

If you are curious, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 prompted this. I wasn’t a huge fan, but my wife liked the first movie. Even she said, “Uh…we aren’t anticipating this now. They missed the window on this one.”

For me, it was** Prince Caspian** and Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I mean, the first Narnia movie was very well done and was a pretty big hit. Why did we have to wait 2 1/2 years for its sequel? I thought the sequel was actually superior, but the 2 1/2 years kind of killed the buzz on it. Then, they followed that with another 2 1/2 years before the third one came out.* All adequate movies, but not made with quick enough production. Harry Potter taught us quality books can be rapidly made into quality movies if you hire the right people and spend the money.

I also wish Chronicles of Riddick had been a quicker, smaller sequel to Pitch Black. And yes, they waited even longer and made a third one. Great movies, all of them. Destroyed box-office-wise from the waits, though. Third one was the best of the bunch, too.

*Yes, they are now making Silver Chair. New creative team and new casting of key roles, but an even longer delayed sequel.

2

Boondock Saints 2…even hardcore fans had largely moved on and then the movie wasn’t all that good.

Blues Brothers 2(000) might have worked in the late 80s with the other Belushi but by the time it did come out…nobody wanted it.

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Good examples.

4

I’m still waiting for Spaceballs II: The Search for More Money.

And Airplane III. Because that’s exactly what I’m expecting them to do.

5

I don’t know if there was ever huge demand for a second X-Files movie, but I assume such a movie would have attracted a bigger audience had it not been released a decade after the first movie and six years after the conclusion of the TV series.

6

They really missed the boat by not striking when the metal was hot with Ghost dad 2. Or Leonard part 10.

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Not sure if they count as sequels but Freddy vs Jason and Alien vs Predator where about 20 years too late. And they completely forgot about Robocop vs Terminator.

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By episode 7 don’t you mean episode 4 , version 2?

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I don’t know if people wanted a sequel for “The Sting”. It was a popular movie and critically acclaimed and we were infested with ragtime and Marvin Hamlisch for a while. But when the sequel/continuation or whatever they called it to have Gleason and Mac Davis (?) came out a decade later, it was a flop.

10

Well, we’re still waiting for the Buckaroo Banzai sequel…
I don’t know how eagerly anticipated hey were, but we finally got a sequel to Flesh Gordon. Flesh Gordon Meets the Cosmic Cheerleaders. It only took 16 years, and went straight to video. It had Wiliam Dennis Hunt, the original Evil Emperor Wang, returning as the villain. And the pre-production sketches looked great. There was even stop-motion animation. But it was all a pale shadow of the original (which had some special effects big guns working on it), and it was only rated R.
I’m sure that Sword and the Sorcerer (1982) wasn’t eagerly anticipated by anyone – although it DID steal a march on that summer’s Conan the Barbarian by stealing its best scenes direct from Robert E. Howard’s “Conan” stories. (I still think it has more Howard material in it than any Conan movie I’ve seen). It was incredibly cheesy, though, with Talon the hero’s triple-bladed jet-propelled sword. And it promised a sequel to come – Tales of the Ancient Empire – Coming Soon.

When years went by without the promised sequel, I figured they just forget. But – Wonder of Wonders – in 2010, a mere 28 years later – Tales of an Ancient Empire was actually released. And as a sequel to the original. I’ll bet nobody but True Geeks remembered. And it featured actors we’d actually heard of – Kevin Sorbo, Lee Horsley, Michael Pare. It has the same director as the original – Albert Pyun, but I don’t think it has any actors in common. Sadly, it’s reportedly awful. Rotten Tomatoes gave it an audience score of only 4%.

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I’m still waiting for a sequel to The Last Starfighter, personally.

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If Mom ever goes back to Detroit, I’m not sure the audiences are going to care.

13

Mel Brooks really needs to get started on History of the World Part II.

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What, no interest in another feature-length Wallace and Gromit flick?

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I think Dumb and Dumber Too might be one of the worst. People wanted a sequel for years and years. I think when it was still fresh even within ten years it would have been awesome, but waiting 20 years was just a terrible idea and it just couldn’t recapture the great spirit of the original.

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This was the first movie I thought of when I saw the thread title.

Hint to Hollywood: when the first movie is about a couple getting married and the sequel is about their daughter going off to college, you waited too long to do the sequel.

Another current example: Zoolander 2. Fifteen years is a long time since the original.

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Well, they didn’t really miss it. They made it into a TV show instead. Nia Vardalos’ My Big Fat Greek Wedding came out in 2002. The TV series My Big Fat Greek Life, staring Vardalos, aired the following year. So they were “cashing in” at just the right time, striking while the iron was hot.
I like Vardalos and her stuff, but apparently her later movies and series didn’t do as well. This is a belated attempt to cash in, reviving the concept.

18

I only saw the ad for Greek Wedding 2 last night, but I will confess the thought of seeing the next generation dealing with the family environment was kind on intriguing.

(Although, my first thought was, “Her daughter is getting married? Wasn’t the last movie only 14 years ago? Talk about precocious!”)

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I read in a Cracked article that James Cameron is working on another Avatar movie, long after everyone has stopped caring.

20

I’m guessing they’re not using the now-grown Will Poulter (recently of The Revenant) as Eustace again, which is a damn shame as I’m a fan of his.

There was a prequel in 2003 - Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd - so it’s only been a little over a decade really. But the prequel didn’t star Carrey or Daniels so you can count it or not. It is, by all accounts, terrible.