Sequels are a big business in Hollywood, and every studio loves a franchise.
Still, sometimes a movie just can't pass that initial bar of quality that gets a sequel
greenlit in the first place.
Filmmakers might have grand plans for a franchise, only to have them thwarted before they can
get started because of lousy reviews and low box office receipts.
Here are some planned sequels that were completely abandoned.
Superman Returns Again
Bryan Singer's Superman sequel from 2006 was kind of a bad idea from the start.
It followed up the events of Superman II, ignored Superman III and IV, and two of its
major plot points revolved around Superman super-stalking his former girlfriend, Lois
Lane, as well as a revelation that her son was their secret love child.
Worst of all, the movie didn't really give Superman very much to do in terms of actually
fighting bad guys, which, y'know, is one of the things Superman does best.
Warner Bros. pulled the plug on the possibility of another Singer-helmed sequel, which screenwriter
Michael Dougherty says might've introduced Brainiac and more Kryptonians to the screen.
"Identify."
"Try asking nice."
"Kryptonian…"
Batman Triumphant
George Clooney's first outing as the Caped Crusader in 1997's Batman and Robin was not
supposed to be his last.
In fact, Warner Bros. was gearing up to bring back Clooney and co-stars Chris O'Donnell
and Alicia Silverstone for a sequel titled Batman Triumphant, which would've been directed
by Joel Schumacher.
However, Batman and Robin was a critical joke, summoning more laughs than its campy script
ever intended.
Audiences who'd flocked to watch Val Kilmer in the batsuit just two years before simply
didn't show up to see what Uma Thurman's Poison Ivy and Arnold Schwarzenegger's Mr. Freeze
would be adding to the villainous fold this go-round.
Spoiler alert: They didn't miss much — except for a few terrible puns.
"What killed the dinosaurs?
The ice age!"
"My name is Freeze.
Learn it well for it's the chilling sound of your doom."
Good times.
If Batman Triumphant had happened as planned, it reportedly would've relied on the Scarecrow
and Harley Quinn as the Joker's daughter to play the bad guys.
And they would've been joined by fear-gas induced appearances from the Joker, Penguin,
Catwoman, Two-Face, and The Riddler in an effort to get Bruce Wayne committed to Arkham
Asylum.
Dredd 2
This is probably the most tragic entry on the list, since the first Dredd, starring
Karl Urban, is a legitimately amazing movie.
Unfortunately, it seems that the stink of Sylvester Stallone's 1995 Judge Dredd adaptation
was too strong for moviegoers to ignore, and Dredd failed to find an audience during its
theatrical run.
It's a cult hit, though, so there's still an outside chance Dredd 2 could happen before
we all get old and die.
In fact, in early 2017, producer Adi Shankar vowed to make some sort of follow-up happen
— even if it's animated.
He told Collider, "I'm gonna make it happen at some point.
It may not be live-action, but it's going to happen at some point.
There will be more Judge Dredd at some point."
Fantastic Four 3
The first cinematic outing from 20th Century Fox's adaptation of Marvel's first family
wasn't great — but it did well enough to spawn a sequel, 2007's Rise of the Silver
Surfer.
This one was actually a bit better, featuring a version of Galactus and the Power Cosmic.
But it still wasn't good enough by a long shot.
The franchise ground to a screeching halt after it underperformed at the box office,
and as star Chris Evans later told MTV, no one from the cast ever even got a call from
Fox about coming back for more.
Just goes to show you that signing a three-picture deal doesn't mean as much as you might hope.
"Oh my God, come on!"
Green Lantern 2
The original 2011 Ryan Reynolds vehicle was supposed to kickstart a whole DC superhero
franchise to rival Marvel's ever-expanding cinematic universe.
DC's corporate parent, Warner Bros., bet big on Green Lantern, spending a whopping $200
million on the movie — and it only barely turned a profit.
Between the film's cliffhangers and its efforts to build a big world for Green Lantern to
play in, the movie was considered a failure, and all plans for a sequel were scrapped.
Now Green Lantern's set to be rebooted to fit in with the DC Extended Universe…presumably,
at least the studio hopes, for the final time.
The Mortal Instruments: City of Ashes
By all estimations, the adaptation of Cassandra Clare's Young Adult sensation series The Mortal
Instruments seemed like it'd be the next big hit in the vein of Twilight and The Hunger
Games.
It had all the essential ingredients, including a huge book-loving fanbase that clung to every
moment of the production phase and cast members who engaged in an offscreen romance to mirror
their screen counterparts.
So, naturally, 2013's The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones was expected to launch an entire
franchise that would've capitalized on the craze surrounding its sister series.
The script for City of Ashes had already been drawn up, and the actors and crew already
had a production schedule in place before the results of the first film's release came
through — and put the brakes on everything.
It wasn't the early critical blasts that stymied the sequel — don't forget, scathing reviewers
stung the Twilight Saga, too.
It was the fact that the much-hyped film grossly disappointed at the box office, making just
half of its production budget back in domestic sales, and, according to Cassandra Clare herself,
the sequel to Ashes would've been "unrecognizable" to the book series faithful, thus weakening
audience interest even further.
Ultimately, despite some early signs that the second Mortal Instruments pic might be
retooled and eventually made, the project was abandoned, and the series was instead
relegated to the small screen by way of Freeform's Shadowhunters.
So, it wasn't a total wash.
Twins 2: Triplets
Twins was something of a high-concept comedy that revolves entirely around a single sight
gag: muscle-laden Austrian superman Arnold Schwarzenegger and teeny tiny Brooklynite
Danny DeVito play long-lost twins.
The 1988 hit, directed by Ghostbusters mastermind Ivan Reitman, was a breezy romp in which the
two stars hung out and goofed off under the auspices of their characters getting to know
each other.
"Who are you?"
"I'm Vincent's brudda."
"We're twins."
And because Twins was such a hit, rumors hit almost immediately after its release that
a sequel was coming.
In 1989, a representative for Reitman said that the director was considering making a
movie called...wait for it...Triplets.
The top candidate to play the third long-lost multiple didn't look anything like the others,
which was essential of course, and was the hottest comedy star of the moment: Roseanne
Barr.
That movie never got made of course, but in 2012, there was renewed talk of Triplets,
without Barr, but with Eddie Murphy.
But considering how many years have passed with no more news on that front, Triplets
is probably not gonna happen.
"No, don't start diss!"
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