# Were there any sequel movies before Star Wars?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-sequel-movies-before-star-wars/716628
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [April 2, 2015, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-sequel-movies-before-star-wars/716628 "2015-04-02T16:04:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2015, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-sequel-movies-before-star-wars/716628/21 "2015-04-02T17:14:48Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#):
>
> My mind’s going. I swear I never saw that post before.
I just thought your post was a sequel.
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### Author:  [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2015, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-sequel-movies-before-star-wars/716628/22 "2015-04-02T17:27:53Z")
> [@kunilou](#):
>
> There was a 1957 movie called Amazing Colossal Man. There was a 1958 movie called Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. Different production companies, but the same screenwriter. Does that count as a sequel?
No, but 1958’s \*War of the Colossal Beast \*certainly does. _50 Foot Woman_ is more like \*Orca \*popping up after the success of _Jaws_.
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### Author:  [@JoshuaSD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoshuaSD)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2015, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-sequel-movies-before-star-wars/716628/23 "2015-04-02T17:29:12Z")
And this is why I come to the SD.
Three of us who are not movie people and rarely if ever watch older movies could not come up with a single example. In about a hour the SD “voice” has answered the question with examples to spare.
No money was running on this but Im sure Im going to be the one to return with the most examples tonight.
Thanks to all of you!
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### Author:  [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2015, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-sequel-movies-before-star-wars/716628/24 "2015-04-02T17:43:31Z")
There does feel like a trend in success of sequels. [This](https://static.shortoftheweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Loss-of-Originality-STATS8.gif) is the only graphic I could find but it could be that the years were cherry picked.
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### Author:  [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2015, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-sequel-movies-before-star-wars/716628/25 "2015-04-02T17:47:36Z")
Let’s see…
You mean besides Planet of the Apes or Godfather?
Hmmm…
Planet of the Godfather Apes
.
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### Author:  [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2015, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-sequel-movies-before-star-wars/716628/26 "2015-04-02T17:52:07Z")
> [@Hermitian](#):
>
> There does feel like a trend in success of sequels. [This](https://static.shortoftheweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Loss-of-Originality-STATS8.gif) is the only graphic I could find but it could be that the years were cherry picked.
It’s certainly inaccurate. Harry Potter and Twilight should be adaptations, not sequels. So was For Your Eyes Only (sort of). Not much of the original story in the film, but still.
Also, Oceans 11 was a remake. They could have had a separate colour code for remakes, but if not, count it as an adaptation.
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### Author:  [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2015, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-sequel-movies-before-star-wars/716628/27 "2015-04-02T19:12:39Z")
There were 16 Andy Hardy movies. Many of the early ones were quite popular, helping make Mickey Rooney a top box draw.
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### Author:  [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2015, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-sequel-movies-before-star-wars/716628/28 "2015-04-02T19:20:28Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#):
>
> _[The Fall of a Nation](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0006664/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)_, 1916, sequel to _Birth of a Nation._
Sequel in name only (like “Halloween 3: Season of the Witch”). Dixon was trying to cash in on the name recognition of “Birth.” It’s a futuristic novel that deals with a European invasion of the US.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2015, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-sequel-movies-before-star-wars/716628/29 "2015-04-02T19:53:28Z")
Rudolph Valentino did **The Sheik** in 1921 and **Son of the Sheik** in 1926.
John Bunny was doing short film sequels in 1909. His first two films were _Cohen at Coney Island_ and _Cohen’s Dream_
Max Linder was doing movies portraying the same character starting in 1907.
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### Author:  [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2015, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-sequel-movies-before-star-wars/716628/30 "2015-04-02T20:11:31Z")
_The Robe_, then _Demetrius and the Gladiator_
There’s the joke about the Hollywood exec saying, “That last movie we made was so popular, we’re going to do a _Life of Christ 2_”
Don’t forget anything Disney - Son of Flubber, anything Herbie, etc.
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### Author:  [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2015, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-sequel-movies-before-star-wars/716628/31 "2015-04-02T20:31:41Z")
> [@md2000](#):
>
> There’s the joke about the Hollywood exec saying, “That last movie we made was so popular, we’re going to do a _Life of Christ 2_”
Cool. When are they doing the sequel to _Titanic_? That movie was pretty good and made a boatload [heh] of money.
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### Author:  [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2015, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-sequel-movies-before-star-wars/716628/32 "2015-04-02T20:57:30Z")
Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall, among others, played the Dead End Kids for DECADES, well into Gorcey’s adulthood; if memory serves, he finally quit when his father, who played a minor role in many of these films, died. Movie series are NOTHING new.
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### Author:  [@BeeGee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeeGee)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2015, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-sequel-movies-before-star-wars/716628/33 "2015-04-02T21:07:27Z")
I see us talking about two different things. Thin Man, Blondie, Chan, those series were more like television sitcom episodes. Same characters, same back ground, but different stories to be told each time so that it doesn’t much matter which order you see them. Oh, sure, if it’s a long running series it can be disconcerting to see Alexander in one movie and someone named Baby in the other and figure out it’s the same character.
Serials like Hazards of Helen or Flash Gordon usually have a cliff hanger at the end of each episode which is resolved in the next episode. The individual episodes have their own story which is mostly told within that reel, but there is a hero and his sidekicks being persued by the evil mastermind on their way to The Big Reward.
An actual sequal would be where all the main surviving characters would be shown with their story lines lifted into the next movie. More of a serial, but not like a series. So I’d condsider Godfather II a sequal, but not American Graffitti II or Airplane II.
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### Author:  [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2015, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-sequel-movies-before-star-wars/716628/34 "2015-04-02T21:14:00Z")
> [@AncientHumanoid](#):
>
> Let’s see…
>
> You mean besides Planet of the Apes or Godfather?
> Hmmm…
>
> Planet of the Godfather Apes
> .
“I’m gonna give him a banana he can’t refuse.”
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### Author:  [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2015, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-sequel-movies-before-star-wars/716628/35 "2015-04-02T21:14:57Z")
> [@BeeGee](#):
>
> I see us talking about two different things. Thin Man, Blondie, Chan, those series were more like television sitcom episodes. Same characters, same back ground, but different stories to be told each time so that it doesn’t much matter which order you see them. Oh, sure, if it’s a long running series it can be disconcerting to see Alexander in one movie and someone named Baby in the other and figure out it’s the same character.
>
> Serials like Hazards of Helen or Flash Gordon usually have a cliff hanger at the end of each episode which is resolved in the next episode. The individual episodes have their own story which is mostly told within that reel, but there is a hero and his sidekicks being persued by the evil mastermind on their way to The Big Reward.
>
> An actual sequal would be where all the main surviving characters would be shown with their story lines lifted into the next movie. More of a serial, but not like a series. So I’d condsider Godfather II a sequal, but not American Graffitti II or Airplane II.
So what you’re saying is that a “series” film always ends with the situation resetting to Status Quo, and you can watch the films pretty much in any order? The Blondie films and the Andy Hardy movies were much like this, as well as the Bowery Boys, Dead End Kids, and a lot of the detective movies.
On the other hand, so are the James Bond movies. Godfather II, on the other hand, is a prequel to its predecessor, while 3 is a continuation of Michael Corleone’s story. So… GF 2 and 3 are sequels, whereas the Andy Hardy films aren’t?
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2015, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-sequel-movies-before-star-wars/716628/36 "2015-04-02T21:42:36Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#):
>
> In fairness, the first Flash Gordon serial was followed years later by a second Flash Gordon serial, followed years later by a third Flash Gordon serial – each condensed into a separate feature-length film. (And, likewise, Johnny Weissmuller did a Tarzan movie, followed years later by another Tarzan movie, followed years later by another Tarzan movie, followed years later by _Tarzan Finds A Son!_)
Yeah but the Tarzan movies, like the books, had individual story arcs. That kind of sequel was super common at the time, since given that all the actors were under contract doing yet another movie in the series was simple and even economical, given that the sets existed already.
The first two SW sequels were all part of the same arc. Certainly the first one ended at a good place, in case no others got made, but Empire flowed naturally from the events in a New Hope.
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2015, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-sequel-movies-before-star-wars/716628/37 "2015-04-02T21:46:53Z")
> [@kunilou](#):
>
> Jaws 2 came out in 1978. Empire Strikes Back didn’t arrive until 1980.
>
> Shakespeare wrote sequels, Dickens wrote sequels. If you want to nitpick, the Acts of the Apostles can be considered a “sequel” to the Gospel of Luke.
The history plays about the War of the Roses are a good example of the type of sequel I was looking for. Kind of cheating since they aren’t that made up, but they tell of a single conflict with characters often shared across plays.
Merry Wives of Windsor, on the other hand, is an example of the other type of sequel, using a familiar character but not having anything much to do with the main story arc.
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2015, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-sequel-movies-before-star-wars/716628/38 "2015-04-02T21:52:40Z")
> [@Master\_Wang-Ka](#):
>
> So what you’re saying is that a “series” film always ends with the situation resetting to Status Quo, and you can watch the films pretty much in any order? The Blondie films and the Andy Hardy movies were much like this, as well as the Bowery Boys, Dead End Kids, and a lot of the detective movies.
>
> On the other hand, so are the James Bond movies. Godfather II, on the other hand, is a prequel to its predecessor, while 3 is a continuation of Michael Corleone’s story. So… GF 2 and 3 are sequels, whereas the Andy Hardy films aren’t?
Since I was trying to say the same thing, you got it. TV is now showing the difference also. ST-TOS can be viewed in any order, the only exception being that Trouble with Tribbles depends slightly on Errand of Mercy. On the other hand, when I was watching TNG in order (I had seen episodes randomly before) there was a lot of stuff I got that I didn’t get before. Old TV had individual episodes, modern TV has story arcs.
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### Author:  [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2015, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-sequel-movies-before-star-wars/716628/39 "2015-04-02T22:06:19Z")
Let us not forget \*[Bonzo Goes to College\*](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonzo_Goes_to_College), the stirring and epic sequel to _Bedtime for Bonzo_.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2015, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-sequel-movies-before-star-wars/716628/40 "2015-04-02T22:08:09Z")
> [@kunilou](#):
>
> Dickens wrote sequels.
Such as? Some 19th century authors wrote sequels (perhaps most famously, Carroll’s _Through the Looking Glass_ and Twain’s _Huckleberry Finn_), but I can’t think of any Dickens sequels.
Going back further, _The Pilgrim’s Progress_ had a sequel (or “second part”). And one could argue that _The Odyssey_ counts as a sequel to _The Iliad_.
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