We're constantly bombarded with trailers, posters, and concept art for franchise films,
but there are a few big sequels coming out that have stayed under the radar.
From indie comedies to Biblical epics, let's take a look at some of the sequels you didn't
know were being made.
The Pirates of the Caribbean films have continued to rake in money at the box office, but after
five movies, their appeal among audiences and critics has been waning.
The latest installment, 2017's Dead Men Tell No Tales, sits at an abysmal 30% on Rotten
Tomatoes.
It raises the question of whether more Pirates sequels are warranted, but it looks like Disney
has decided to test the waters by dusting off the franchise for at least one more outing.
Ted Elliott, co-writer of the first four Pirates movies, has been tapped to help come up with
a new adventure alongside Chernobyl scribe Craig Mazin.
Although this new Pirates film has been referred to as a reboot, the writers and studio reportedly
haven't yet settled on a direction for the sixth film.
Among the questions still up in the air: whether or not it will include Johnny Depp's swaggering,
hard-drinking character, Captain Jack Sparrow.
"Well, today's your lucky day.
'Cause I just happen to be Captain Jack Sparrow."
Despite Captain Jack's popularity, Johnny Depp's Hollywood appeal has been on the decline
in recent years, bringing uncertainty as to whether the studio will want to risk hanging
a fresh new Pirates tale on his shoulders, or whether they'll opt to move on to a new
star.
We'll have to wait to see whether the sixth Pirates of the Caribbean is a sequel, reboot,
or something in between.
Until then, drink up me hearties, yo ho.
Although producer Phil Lord has said that the team behind the Jump Street movies is
putting a pin in 23 Jump Street, which would mark the third outing for 21 and 22 Jump Street
stars Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill, the studio is moving forward with a spinoff of the comedy
franchise, this time focusing on a female duo.
The first two Jump Street films followed a pair of male cops who went undercover at educational
institutions in order to ferret out elusive drug suppliers.
Presumably, the plot of 24 Jump Street would be much in the same vein, and would exist
in the same universe as the existing Jump Street films, functioning as a continuation
of the story started by officers Morton Schmidt and Greg Jenko in the first movie.
This time, the stars at the center of the Jump Street tale will reportedly be Tiffany
Haddish and Zendaya, whom we assume will both be playing undercover narcotics officers,
similar to Tatum and Hill's characters in the first two movies.
After directing the first two Jump Street films, Chris Miller and Phil Lord will be
stepping aside for this third outing, and Rodney Rothman is coming aboard to helm the
spinoff, collaborating on the script with Bob's Burgers writers Lizzie and Wendy Molyneux.
Rothman previously helped write the screenplay for 22 Jump Street, and co-directed Lord and
Miller's acclaimed animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
No word yet on what the plot will entail, or whether Schmidt or Jenko will make an appearance.
Start your engines, because it sounds like a sequel to 2017's motor-tastic heist hit
Baby Driver may eventually be zooming its way into production.
According to Ansel Elgort, the star of the first film, not only is writer/director Edgar
Wright eager to make a sequel, but he has in fact already penned the script, and Elgort
has read it.
"Yes, I think it's going to happen.
I think there will be a Baby Driver 2.
It has a different title, actually."
As for what the plot of a Baby Driver sequel would look like, Wright told Empire in 2017:
"[With] most sequels, you have to contrive something so they go back to square one, unless
there's somewhere deeper for them to go.
I think with Baby Driver there's more that you can do in that realm, and I sort of have
an idea that if you did another one you would subvert his involvement in the crime in a
different way so he's not kind of the apprentice anymore."
Due to Elgort's and Wright's existing commitments, it could still be a while before Baby Driver
2 moves into production, but it sounds like once things do move ahead with the high-speed
sequel, it'll be worth checking out.
Coming off of the runaway success of 2018's Crazy Rich Asians, it would have been surprising
if the opulent film didn't earn a sequel.
In fact, it's getting two.
Based on Kevin Kwan's books of the same names, China Rich Girlfriend and Rich People Problems
are both moving ahead at Warner Bros., although it may be a while before we get to see them.
Due to the busy schedules of the franchise's A-list cast and director Jon M. Chu, who is
currently working on adapting Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical In the Heights for the big screen,
there may be a wait before everyone can get together again for the next two installments
in the Crazy Rich Asians saga.
However, producer Nina Jacobson says that the plan is to shoot both sequels back-to-back,
so that fans aren't waiting years between the second and third films.
Jacobson promises:
"We'll make it up to them on the back end by shooting two films together."
As for when this back-to-back shooting might happen, it could still be a ways off.
According to actress Gemma Chan, who portrayed polished socialite Astrid Leong, filming on
China Rich Girlfriend and Rich People Problems will begin sometime in, quote, "2020 at the
earliest," making the soonest we can expect China Rich Girlfriend late 2021, or possibly
even later.
While Quentin Tarantino continues to circle his own eventual R-rated Star Trek spin-off,
Noah Hawley will be reportedly be continuing the story that began with J.J. Abrams' 2009
outing, centered around Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise NCC-1701.
Hawley, who is best known for the acclaimed TV series Fargo and Legion, has been tapped
to write and direct a fourth film in the rebooted Star Trek franchise, continuing the adventures
of Kirk, Spock, Uhura [oo-HOO-ruh], Scotty, Sulu, and Bones.
"You have any idea how ridiculous it is to hide a starship on the bottom of the ocean?
We've been down here since last night."
Sadly missing from the cast lineup for the fourth Star Trek film is Anton Yelchin, who
played ship's navigator Pavel Chekov in the first three rebooted Star Trek films.
After completing his work on Star Trek: Beyond, Yelchin was tragically killed in a 2016 freak
accident in his own driveway, at only 27 years old.
Since Beyond was already close to release at the time of his death, Yelchin's storyline
didn't lay any groundwork for him to exit the franchise, and the film was released largely
unaltered, save for a card at the end that read simply, "For Anton."
Producer J.J. Abrams has said that the role of Chekov will not be recast for future Star
Trek films, which means that if and when Hawley's Star Trek moves into production, it will have
to reckon with the absence of a character who ended the third film with every intent
of returning.
We appear to be in the midst of an Eddie Murphy renaissance.
After gradually fading from the spotlight since his heyday in the '80s and early '90s,
Murphy is suddenly back in a big way, giving a critically acclaimed performance in 2019's
Dolemite Is My Name, making a triumphant return to Saturday Night Live as a host, lining up
new standup comedy specials for Netflix, and announcing sequels to two of his biggest hits
from the '80s, Coming to America and Beverly Hills Cop.
Marking the fourth installment in the Beverly Hills Cop franchise, this newest sequel will
also be a collaboration between Murphy and Netflix, after Paramount previously pulled
the plug on a planned Beverly Hills Cop 4 back in 2016.
Murphy will be reprising his role as Axel Foley, the Detroit cop who repeatedly finds
himself traveling to Beverly Hills to investigate various crimes.
The first Beverly Hills Cop was a smash success at the box office in 1984, rising to become
one of the highest-grossing comedies of all time, although the sequels in 1987 and 1994
brought in diminishing returns.
There's no word yet on when Beverly Hills Cop 4 will move into production at Netflix,
but considering how fast Murphy's star is once again rising, we wouldn't be surprised
if the streaming giant decides to strike while the iron is hot.
After six successful installments in the found-footage horror franchise, Paranormal Activity is coming
back with a seventh film, which will once again partner Paramount Studios with horror
mega-producer Jason Blum.
Although Paranormal Activity 7 has yet to settle on a director, cast, or title, the
studio has managed to peg down a release date: March 19, 2021.
The studio is also keeping the story details under wraps, but with six existing films already
in the franchise, we can take some educated guesses about what a seventh Paranormal Activity
might look like.
After the first film focused on newlyweds Katie and Micah, every subsequent installment
has tied back to Katie and her family in one way or another.
Some provide information on Katie and her sister Kristi's childhood encounters with
a demon, while others detail what happened to Katie following the events of the first
movie.
However, the Paranormal Activity sequels most frequently focus on new characters that happen
to encounter Katie and her demonic companion, Tobi, enabling the franchise to tell wider
and more intricately intertwined stories.
"Hi Tobi."
We expect Paranormal Activity 7 to continue this trend in some way, introducing a new
group of characters doomed to have their lives ruined by crossing paths with Katie or her
family.
Keeping with the style of the first six films, we also anticipate the seventh Paranormal
Activity to be presented as found footage recorded via security cameras, mobile devices,
and other household recording equipment.
Nearly a quarter century after the first Scream slashed its way into theaters, a fifth installment
in the deliciously self-aware horror franchise is in the early stages of development at Spyglass
Media Group.
The original Scream, released in 1996, was the brainchild of horror visionary Wes Craven,
who passed away in 2015, and Dawson's Creek scribe Kevin Williamson.
The screenplay is a near-perfect blend of meta humor and genuine scares, with its cast
of horror movie aficionados frequently contrasting how characters in a horror movie would act
versus how they should act.
"There are certain rules that one must abide by in order to successfully survive a horror
movie."
The film has since spawned three sequels, with the most recent, Scream 4, releasing
in 2011.
Although Spyglass hasn't announced any details about the fifth Scream film other than that
it's happening, chances seem high that the cast would include original stars Neve Campbell,
Courteney Cox, and David Arquette, who have appeared in all four previous Scream installments.
Up until now, every Scream movie has centered around Campbell's character, Sidney Prescott,
who has the terrible luck of being repeatedly targeted by a rotating carousel of killers
donning Ghostface masks.
While it's possible Scream 5 could move away from Sidney and focus on someone new, we'd
hope that Campbell would be involved in at least some capacity, along with some of the
other familiar faces from the previous Scream movies.
Fans of the gibberish-speaking, banana-loving henchmen of the Despicable Me movies, rejoice!
A sequel to 2015's spinoff film Minions, centered on the adventures of the tiny terrors, is
set to arrive in theaters on July 3, 2020.
This one will be called Minions: The Rise of Gru, suggesting that we may be getting
an origin story for the Steve Carell-voiced protagonist of the Despicable Me movies, from
the perspective of his most loyal accomplices.
Minions, of course, provided audiences with the backstory for the minions themselves,
and first introduced them to Gru as a child, so it would make sense for the sequel to pick
up where that film left off, tracing Gru's path to supervillainy.
Returning for The Rise of Gru is director Kyle Balda, who previously co-directed both
Minions and Despicable Me 3.
However, Pierre Coffin, who co-directed every previous Despicable Me film on top of voicing
all the minions, will be stepping away from the co-directorial chair for Rise of Gru,
and will be replaced by Brad Ableson.
Never fear, though, Coffin will still be providing the distinctive voices for the film's beloved
yellow characters.
Steve Carell will likely also be returning, given the Gru-centric title, but less clear
is whether Sandra Bullock and Jon Hamm will be reprising their villainous roles from Minions.
We hope so.
Even if they're not the main focus, it would be fun to check in with the Overkills and
see what dastardly things they're up to.
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