Star Trek Picard season 3 is reuniting most of the main cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation to tell a new story nearly 30 years later. The Matrix Resurrections did the same after a nearly 20 year gap. Jamie Lee Curtis came back to play her old role for a new Halloween in 2018, 40 years later, and it sounds like she’s going to do it again soon. Several of the actors from the original Star Wars trilogy came back for the sequel trilogy many years later, and now even prequel trilogy actors are reprising their roles in stories set years later.
Merely rebooting a franchise isn’t a new idea. Many franchises have come back around after 20 or more years when folks who grew up watching it are old enough to either make it themselves or be mined for nostalgia money. For instance, 60s and 70s shows like Lost in Space and The Brady Bunch and The Flintstones got reboot movies in the 90s. The difference is when a well-known show comes back, it usually comes back with a new cast reprising the old roles, as well as a new retelling of what is often a familiar story.
I can only think of fairly recent examples that involve the original actors coming back for their original roles. The only one that comes to mind for me is Never Say Never Again, a 1983 movie with Sean Connery coming back to James Bond 12 years after retiring from it. Star Trek the Motion Picture perhaps counts, with only a 10 year gap. Most of the examples I can think of are in the last decade. Is this truly a new phenomenon, or has Hollywood been doing it for years? Is it a cultural shift in how we view older actors as viable stars? Is it a generation unwilling to let go of specific actors in specific roles, or is it because pop culture has become flat and timeless for the last few decades? What are other examples, past and present, of this phenomenon?
And, what’s more, viable action stars. It seems to be a relatively recent phenomenon for actors in their 60s (or older) to still be playing that sort of role, in that sort of movie.
A few more, relatively recent examples:
Terminator: Dark Fate (2019) had Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton return to their 1980s roles as a Terminator, and Sarah Connor, respectively.
Logan (2017) had Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart as Wolverine and Professor X, 17 years after they had first played the roles in the first X-Men movie. Stewart also has a small role as Professor X in this year’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
The Return of the Musketeers, 1989.
Sequel to 1973’s The Three Musketeers and 1974’s The Four Musketeers.
Based on the novel Twenty Years After, Alexandre Dumas’ sequel to The Three Musketeers.
Not only reunited most of the cast (Michael York, Oliver Reed, Richard Chamberlain, Albert Finlay), but also the director (Richard Lester), the screenwriter (George MacDonald Fraser), and many of the supporting actors as well.
Sadly, many of the actors have died, so we won’t get to see their version of The Man in the Iron Mask.
Another example (though honestly not a very good film); Coming 2 America, a 2021 sequel to the 1988 film Coming to America with Eddie Murphy and some others from the first movie.
Charlie Brill played Arne Darvin in “The trouble with Tribbles”, Star Trek TOS 1967. He then came back in 1996 for “Trials and Tribble-ations”, Star Trek DS9.
That 90’s Show will be out on Netflix later this year, and while it will mostly focused on Eric¡s sister and parents, all the original kids will be back in cameos.
In 1976-77, Patrick Macnee reprised his role of John Steed in The New Avengers. The original The Avengers ran 1961-69.
Finally, and let us be perfectly clear, the protagonist of The Prisoner was absolutely not the same character as John Drake of Secret Agent, nosirree. Or was he….
Sort of sideways at it, but on a 2-part episode of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Buster Crabbe plays “Brigadier Gordon,” with the implications left up to the audience.
Gordon: “Relax, Captain. I’ve been doing this since before you were born.”
Buck (with a grin): “Oh, I don’t think so.”
Gordon (with an ever bigger, smugger grin) “Captain. I know so.”
William Powell and Myrna Loy did their first Thin Man movie in 1934 and their last in 1947.
Mickey Rooney first appeared as Andy Hardy in 1937 and made his final appearance as the character in 1958.
And for a character who wasn’t the star, Carl Reiner first showed up as Alan Brady on The Dick Van Dyke Show in 1961, and reprised the character in Mad About You in 1995 (and showed up in a clip show in '96.). That doesn’t even include the DVD reunion movie in 2004.
Nope, those are all excellent examples. They fit well with the recent trend of older actors reprising their roles after a long hiatus, rather than actors that played the same role across an extended series of movies or shows.
Another example (though I have not yet seen it); Top Gun: Maverick, 36 years after the earlier film, and starring Tom Cruise and, I think, Val Kilmer in a minor role.
The Kids In The Hall just released a new season of the same sketch comedy show that ran from 1989-1995. They reprised many of the regular characters from the 90s sketches including Gavin, the Kathies, Head Crusher (Mr. Tyzik), the Cops, the AT & Love boss, Danny Husk and Buddy Cole. Also making an appearance were Don & Marv from the 1996 Brain Candy movie. Oh yeah and Paul Bellini as Paul Bellini.
There’s also another French film that has a sequel 20 years later, but I can’t remember the title. A man has dinner with his lover in a fancy, empty restaurant.
Oh yeah I guess Star Wars counts, with tons of people reprising their 1977-1983 roles in the 2015-2019 films. Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamil, Harrison Ford, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, Frank Oz, Billy Dee Williams and a few others.