# Sequels that are better known than the original
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequels-that-are-better-known-than-the-original/840798
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [September 25, 2019, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequels-that-are-better-known-than-the-original/840798 "2019-09-25T10:43:21Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2019, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequels-that-are-better-known-than-the-original/840798/1 "2019-09-25T10:43:21Z")
So we’ve already got a thread for collecting [sequels that are _better_ than the original](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=314533), as well as one for [parodies that are _better known_ than the original](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=784475). How about we make a list of **sequels that are better known than the original**? (I know that there’s a current thread where people are talking about [movie series where they’ve seen only the sequel](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=882624), but I didn’t want to hijack it with this different interpretation of the topic.)
I’ll start with a couple literary examples:
[ul]
[li]_Last of the Mohicans_ is the _second_ book of James Fenimore Cooper’s _Leatherstocking Tales_ series. Nowadays almost no one remembers the others, including the first in the series, _The Pioneers_.[/li][li]_Little House on the Prairie_ is the _third_ in the _Little House_ series, following _Little House in the Big Woods_ and _Farmer Boy_. These predecessors are not widely known today, even though narratively _Prairie_ is a direct continuation of _Big Woods_.[/li][/ul]
To the above one might add _The Da Vinci Code_ and _The Silence of the Lambs_, which were both the second books in their respective series. But their sequelhood is much better known now that their predecessors have got their own films (_Angels & Demons_ and _Red Dragon_, respectively).
Can anyone think of any other examples, maybe from TV or cinema?
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### Author:  [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2019, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequels-that-are-better-known-than-the-original/840798/2 "2019-09-25T10:51:57Z")
Mentioned by a couple people in the ‘only seen the sequel’ thread…
Mad Max - The Road Warrior and Beyond Thunderdome are both, IME, much better known than the original (at least in North America), and are _certainly_ far more influential.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2019, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequels-that-are-better-known-than-the-original/840798/3 "2019-09-25T11:56:49Z")
As I remarked in another thread, I suspect **Rambo: First Blood Part II** is better known than **First Blood** , despite that being in its title.
**Silence of the Labs** is certainly better known than the film **Manhunter**. That’s a bit tricky, because, although SotL is based on the book that’s the sequel to the source of _Manhunter_ (Thomas Harris’ _Red Dragon_), the one film isn’t meant to be the sequel to the other, being made by different folks entirely.
If you want everything to be kep[t neat and tidy, though, the film **Red Dragon** , based on the same book, and made by the people who made SotL, is less well-known that _Silence of the Lambs._
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### Author:  [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2019, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequels-that-are-better-known-than-the-original/840798/4 "2019-09-25T11:58:34Z")
Arguably, The Lord of the Rings
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### Author:  [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2019, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequels-that-are-better-known-than-the-original/840798/5 "2019-09-25T11:59:20Z")
Does it count when the sequel takes over the series name, the way _Rambo_ took over from _First Blood_? ETA: Dang, ninjaed.
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### Author:  [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2019, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequels-that-are-better-known-than-the-original/840798/6 "2019-09-25T12:04:59Z")
Oh, I just thought of another example, this time from the world of computer gaming. _ **Wolfenstein 3D** _, which in 1992 almost singlehandedly popularized the first-person shooter genre, is much better known than 1981’s _ **Castle Wolfenstein** _ and 1984’s _ **Beyond Castle Wolfenstein** _. _3D_ isn’t strictly a sequel (though it was initially conceived of that way) but it retains the name and many aspects of the plot and gameplay, and so can be seen as a sort of spiritual successor.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2019, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequels-that-are-better-known-than-the-original/840798/7 "2019-09-25T12:06:05Z")
When Disney made an animated movie from the Prydain books, they named the movie after the second one, _The Black Cauldron_, not the first, _The Book of Three_ (though the movie includes elements of both). So people who know of the books only from the movie will know the sequel better than the original.
_The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_ _might_ be better known than _The Adventures of Tom Sawyer_, though most folks know of both.
And both _Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn_ and _Army of Darkness_ have had a lot more impact on the popular consciousness than the original _Evil Dead_. Anyone who’s actually seen the later movies probably knows they’re sequels, but plenty of folks reference them without having seen them.
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### Author:  [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2019, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequels-that-are-better-known-than-the-original/840798/8 "2019-09-25T12:09:09Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#):
>
> Arguably, The Lord of the Rings
If you’re comparing it to _The Hobbit_, then I’d say probably not; most people who know of one probably know of the other, especially now that both have been adapted into major live-action motion pictures… But if you’re counting it as a sequel to _The Silmarillion_ (which was written before _Lord of the Rings_ but published after), then I’d say you’re spot on.
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### Author:  [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2019, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequels-that-are-better-known-than-the-original/840798/9 "2019-09-25T12:10:23Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> When Disney made an animated movie from the Prydain books, they named the movie after the second one, _The Black Cauldron_, not the first, _The Book of Three_ (though the movie includes elements of both). So people who know of the books only from the movie will know the sequel better than the original.
That’s a good one, and one which I’m ashamed I did not remember to include in my OP, seeing as I just saw the film a few weeks ago and spent a lot of time reading up on its history.
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2019, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequels-that-are-better-known-than-the-original/840798/10 "2019-09-25T13:02:11Z")
It took a while for **The Pink Panther** movies to hit their stride. I don’t know if there’s one film that’s best known, but most of the hallmarks of the series (Clouseau’s bumbling and accent, Dreyfus’s hatred of Clouseau, and Kato’s ambushes) started with _A Shot in the Dark_, which was the first sequel.
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### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2019, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequels-that-are-better-known-than-the-original/840798/11 "2019-09-25T13:25:29Z")
The New Testament vs. The Old Testament. And I think more people have seen Jesus Christ Superstar than its “prequel” Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
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### Author:  [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2019, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequels-that-are-better-known-than-the-original/840798/12 "2019-09-25T13:25:53Z")
Susan Cooper’s “Dark is Rising” series starts with “Over Sea, Under Stone” - “The Dark is Rising” is book 2, but gets to be the series name…
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### Author:  [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2019, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequels-that-are-better-known-than-the-original/840798/13 "2019-09-25T13:39:19Z")
Most Americans associate _The Avengers_ with Emma Peel (played by Diana Rigg).
That was actually the fourth season. Less well-known are the second and third seasons, which had Cathy Gale (played by Honor Blackman) and a couple of others.
Most Americans are unaware of the first season, in which John Steed was the sidekick, and the leading role was David Keel (played by Ian Hendry).
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### Author:  [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2019, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequels-that-are-better-known-than-the-original/840798/14 "2019-09-25T13:52:29Z")
> [@mbh](#):
>
> Most Americans associate _The Avengers_ with Emma Peel (played by Diana Rigg).
>
> That was actually the fourth season. Less well-known are the second and third seasons, which had Cathy Gale (played by Honor Blackman) and a couple of others.
>
> Most Americans are unaware of the first season, in which John Steed was the sidekick, and the leading role was David Keel (played by Ian Hendry).
Iin South Africa, we only got the _New Avengers_, so here it’s Purdy and Gambit and Steed who were best known.
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### Author:  [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2019, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequels-that-are-better-known-than-the-original/840798/15 "2019-09-25T13:53:31Z")
Most people are aware that the 1932 film _The Mummy_, starring Boris Karloff, started the Universal Studios mummy franchise. But most of the tropes in the genre come from the reboot series in the 1940s, with Tom Tyler and Lon Chaney Jr.
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### Author:  [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2019, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequels-that-are-better-known-than-the-original/840798/16 "2019-09-25T13:56:17Z")
> [@mbh](#):
>
> Most Americans associate _The Avengers_ with Emma Peel (played by Diana Rigg).
>
> That was actually the fourth season. Less well-known are the second and third seasons, which had Cathy Gale (played by Honor Blackman) and a couple of others.
>
> Most Americans are unaware of the first season, in which John Steed was the sidekick, and the leading role was David Keel (played by Ian Hendry).
Likewise, up until the revival series, Tom Baker was the best-known Doctor (of Doctor Who) in the US, even though he was the fourth person to play the role in the series.
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### Author:  [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2019, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequels-that-are-better-known-than-the-original/840798/17 "2019-09-25T14:03:03Z")
How about the horror movie _ **Ben** _? I suspect most people who have seen it have never seen (or maybe never even heard about) its predecessor, _ **Willard** _.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2019, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequels-that-are-better-known-than-the-original/840798/18 "2019-09-25T14:16:43Z")
I’m not sure about this one, but I _think_ that the Voltron that was most familiar to American audiences, the one with the five lions, was Voltron 3, and the one with the twenty assorted vehicles was actually Voltron 1. But don’t ask me where I ever heard those numbers attached to them.
And the Ultima computer games became a lot more popular with _Ultima 2: Exodus_ and (especially) _Ultima 3: Quest of the Avatar_, both of which had releases on the NES. I couldn’t even tell you anything about the first one.
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### Author:  [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2019, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequels-that-are-better-known-than-the-original/840798/19 "2019-09-25T14:28:21Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> And the Ultima computer games became a lot more popular with _Ultima 2: Exodus_ and (especially) _Ultima 3: Quest of the Avatar_, both of which had releases on the NES. I couldn’t even tell you anything about the first one.
You’ve got an off-by-one error there. Exodus was the third in the series (originally branded as “Exodus: Ultima III”), and Quest of the Avatar was Ultima IV.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2019, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequels-that-are-better-known-than-the-original/840798/20 "2019-09-25T14:54:43Z")
OK, then, I couldn’t tell you anything about the first two.
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