What forgotten 2000s thriller starring Kevin Costner was actually designed to be a trilogy?
Which of Liam Neeson's action flicks would he like to take another crack at?
How come the girls from Girls Trip never went on a second trip?
Keep watching for the frustrating truth.
By now, the reputation of the unproduced Hellboy 3 is almost as enormous as the movies that
actually got made.
The story for this potential feature was teased in 2008's Hellboy II: The Golden Army, as
the titular superhero would've become an apocalyptic threat to Earth.
Since then, the project has been discussed actively by the Hellboy creatives, but it's
never materialized, despite especially constant encouragement from leading man Ron Perlman.
In June 2013, Perlman reaffirmed his commitment by noting how enthusiastic he was about director
Guillermo del Toro's vision for how Hellboy's story would wrap up.
The expansive scope of a potential Hellboy 3 may have excited Perlman and del Toro, but
it didn't do much to convince potential financiers.
In 2017, del Toro officially confirmed that it was no longer happening, with the focus
instead shifting onto a whole new Hellboy reboot that didn't involve any of the creative
participants of the first two films.
Though Perlman has continued to beat the drum for Hellboy 3 at least as recently as 2019,
it doesn't appear to be enough to actually get anything off the ground.
After years and years of dead ends, Will Ferrell and director Adam McKay finally delivered
a second Anchorman movie to the world in December 2013.
Considering that they managed to turn one seemingly impossible comedy sequel into a
reality once, it's not inconceivable that they could do it again with 2008's Step Brothers.
And that movie's other leading man, John C. Reilly, has been very open about the fact
that he's down for more immature antics.
In November 2018, he told Good Morning America that there was a concept for a second Step
Brothers and that he was hoping that it would materialize.
"I mean, it requires the cooperation of a few other people, but I would love to do another
one of those, yeah."
This initially seemed like a promising sign, but in the years since, there's been no more
word on this potential follow-up.
In an even more discouraging sign, Reilly himself has downplayed the idea of it ever
becoming a reality in more recent interviews.
Part of the problem is simply the busy schedules of everyone involved, especially McKay, who's
moved away from bro-comedies to more Oscar-nominated dramas.
And John C. Reilly has even more important characters to play.
"Hi, I'm Dr. Steve Brule."
Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote several novels chronicling the exploits of John Carter of
Mars back in the day.
So it would make sense that he could also spawn multiple big-screen adventures.
2012's John Carter aimed to do just that.
Years later, director Andrew Stanton evern revealed the logos and titles for two sequels
he'd once planned to helm.
And he wasn't the only one who harbored ambitions for more, as leading man Taylor Kitsch has
also been eager to head back to the red planet.
A few weeks after John Carter launched in theaters, Kitsch made it clear that he desperately
wanted to make another movie in this universe.
His excitement for a sequel was also stoked by the screenplay for the proposed production.
Unfortunately, larger forces beyond his control would ultimately make this an impossibility.
John Carter became a legendary box office bomb, as it lost hundreds of millions of dollars
for Walt Disney Pictures.
Any notions of a second film were quickly scrapped despite Kitsch's enthusiasm.
So unlike the original literary character, the cinematic incarnation of John Carter will
not go on to have endless adventures.
The world of Speed Racer is bursting with colors and so many visual details that are
pretty much tailor-made to be explored across multiple movies.
And the actors in the 2008 big screen adaptation were quite aware of this.
According to Christina Ricci, who played Speed's girlfriend Trixie, the entire cast was yearning
to go for another spin before the movie even hit theaters.
As she told ComingSoon.net in 2008,
"[The Wachowskis] created a world that they love and created characters that they loved
and are attached to.
When we were all leaving, we were like 'write the sequel!'
'We want to come back'.
And they were like, 'I know.
I know.
We're going to.
Don't worry.'
They were as sad for it to be over as we were."
Ricci has maintained that commitment towards a potential sequel well after the movie's
release.
In 2018, she reaffirmed to CinemaBlend both her affection for the Wachowskis and her continued
desire to appear in a Speed Racer follow-up.
But when the film zoomed into theaters back in May 2008, moviegoers at large didn't share
Ricci's enthusiasm.
The movie was a box office dud, as it lost enough money to ensure that no Warner Bros.
executive would ever shout "Go Speed Racer go!"
again anytime soon.
Will Smith hasn't packed his entire career with endless sequels, but he has turned the
likes of Bad Boys and Men in Black into successful franchises.
His 2008 starring vehicle Hancock seemed poised to be his latest hit to land a lucrative follow-up.
After all, movies about superheroes get sequelized all the time.
True, it may have been an original story not based on a pre-existing comic book, but it
did star Will Smith, so why should it be any different?
By the end of 2008, Smith expressed excitement about what future Hancock movies could deliver,
and there seemed to be plenty of potential in the ongoing adventures of this tormented
hero.
The following year, it looked like things were heading in the right direction as director
Peter Berg revealed to MTV News concrete details about the plot, which would be partially a
prequel.
Alas, a slew of factors began to prevent Hancock 2 from ever coming to life.
This included Smith's busy schedule, which saw him concentrating on other projects like
After Earth and Men in Black 3.
He was still pitching new ideas for a Hancock sequel as recently as January 2012, but there
haven't been any further developments since then.
There's no shortage of adventures that the four members of The A-Team could get into
in their days as TV superstars.
So the 2010 big screen adaptation appeared like it was also made to spawn a franchise.
One of its stars was Liam Neeson, and considering that he returned for multiple Taken installments,
it should come as no surprise that he was open to the prospect of signing up multiple
follow-ups to The A-Team as well.
As he told Contact Music in December 2010,
"Myself, Bradley [Cooper], Rampage [Jackson] and Sharlto are very, very keen to do it.
New York would [be] cool.
And a couple of other countries too maybe."
The cast may have been ready to go, but The A-Team property turned out to be less popular
with moviegoers than it was with TV viewers.
In early 2011, Neeson revealed to Digital Spy that he was still eager to do another
movie with the original film's cast and that 20th Century Fox hadn't explicitly said no
to the prospect of a follow-up.
However, he also noted that he had a hunch that the box office results weren't enough
to justify financing a sequel.
He turned out to be right on the money.
A few years later, director Joe Carnahan officially confirmed that there would be no sequel to
The A-Team, no matter how jazzed Neeson may have been.
Judge Dredd dished out some brutal R-rated justice in the 2012 film Dredd, which managed
to become a cult classic and also helped kickstart the career of Alex Garland, who would go on
to direct Ex Machina and Annihilation.
Despite such notable accomplishments, Dredd was still a major box office disappointment,
thus rendering any notion of a sequel quite unlikely.
But the Judge Dredd character has overcome significant odds before in the comics, so
it's hardly surprising that the actor who played him, Karl Urban, was game to tackle
the seemingly impossible task of willing a sequel into existence.
In May 2013, Urban made his passion apparent while also encouraging fans to make their
voices heard.
So while there was a significant social media response to make a Dredd sequel a reality,
another movie never materialized.
The closest fans ever got was an announcement of a TV show that Urban was once in talks
to headline, but that also never came to pass.
With years of radio silence on the prospect of a Dredd 2, not to mention Urban now being
busy starring in Amazon's The Boys, we don't imagine justice will be served again anytime
soon.
"I am the law."
The Candyman franchise has featured a trio of sequels, each of them involving Tony Todd
reprising his role as the eponymous urban legend in some capacity.
His enduring presence is a testament to how much passion Todd has for this character.
And at one point, the actor was thoroughly committed to executing a new kind of Candyman
sequel that would've chronicled the title character trying to make a go at life as a
normal civilian.
In a 2021 interview with Bloody Disgusting, Todd shared details about this sequel that
he was hoping to get off the ground.
It would feature Candyman trying to suppress his violent urges while working as a professor
at a New England women's college.
Living in an environment full of women would've been a challenge for the character, and the
story would've also included a tragedy that triggered the revival of his old bee-covered
form.
Todd was excited for the project, particularly the striking visuals that were proposed at
the time.
Issues having to do with which studio owned the rights to the property and who would get
what amount of profits halted the film from ever moving forward.
Those issues turned out to be too insurmountable to overcome, as this particular sequel never
became a reality.
"We shall never be separated again."
Many successful comedies have gotten sequels.
Everything from Caddyshack to The Hangover and even smaller moneymakers like Hot Tub
Time Machine have been granted follow-ups.
Considering this phenomenon, it's puzzling how 2017's box office hit Girls Trip has never
managed to score a sequel.
Making this extra puzzling is how Tiffany Haddish has constantly talked about her excitement
on the prospect of taking another trip.
In a 2020 interview with Huffington Post, the actress revealed that she and her fellow
leading ladies were dying to reunite for a sequel, but obstacles kept getting in the
way.
Initially, the problem was the lack of a screenplay, before the primary issue then evolved into
disputes over the salaries for the leads.
At the time of the interview, Haddish said that she was still so excited to do the sequel
and that she was preparing to pen a draft of the screenplay herself.
There's clearly a lot of effort invested in turning this project into a reality, but it
remains to be seen if that will be enough to overcome the problems that have been encountered
thus far.
Considering that it wasn't a massive box office hit, there's a good chance you've never seen,
or even heard of, the 2007 Kevin Costner serial killer thriller Mr. Brooks.
Nevertheless, Costner was game to continue to explore the film's macabre world across
future adventures, as Mr. Brooks was designed to spawn not just one sequel, but two.
As the actor revealed to Entertainment Weekly,
"This was written with the idea that we would do a couple others.
When the writers first presented the notion to me, I said, 'Oh, bulls---!
I haven't done Tin Cup 2, or Bull Durham 2, or Open Range: The Early Years, so you don't
have to try to hook me with that.'
But when they told me their idea, the hair on the back of my neck stood up.
We're hoping this little movie develops a following so we can play this story out the
way it should."
Costner may have been willing, but the box office returns were weak.
That lack of receipts and the eventual financial problems faced by distributor MGM ensured
that Mr. Brooks would not be getting a sequel, let alone a trilogy.
Maybe it's more likely that Tin Cup 2 will eventually tee off.
"Well, then do it.
Quit f—' around."
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