If filmmakers ever score a three-peat, a part four is almost always on the table. Here are
some of the biggest trilogies in movie history, and just why nobody ever made that fourth
film.
Christopher Nolan reinvented Batman, and the superhero movie genre itself, with his Dark
Knight trilogy. The first movie, Batman Begins, showed how Bruce Wayne became a brooding vigilante
fighting crime in the streets of Gotham City. Then, The Dark Knight had Batman facing off
against the psychologically twisted Joker.
"And here we go."
And it all came to a conclusion, with Wayne moving on, in The Dark Knight Rises.
The combination of visionary director and Batman proved irresistible for moviegoers:
The trilogy earned a combined $2.4 billion at the box office for studio Warner Brothers,
and the demand for more Batman by Nolan movies was there. The problem was, Nolan didn't have
an interest. His carefully mapped out trilogy told a complete story. Star Christian Bale
told the Toronto Sun:
"When they inevitably came to us and said, 'How about a No. 4? I said, 'No. We have to
stick to Chris's dream, which was always to, hopefully, do a trilogy. Let's not stretch
too far and become overindulgent and go for a fourth."
In 1998, a decade before the Marvel Cinematic Universe kicked off with Iron Man, one of
the first modern movies based on a Marvel property hit theaters. That film was Blade,
starring Wesley Snipes as Eric Brooks, a.k.a. Blade, a "daywalker" half-vampire who hunts
down and kills bad guy vampires. Comic book movies weren't yet massive moneymakers, but
Blade earned $70 million for New Line Cinema, who let Blade 2 loose in 2002. That was a
hit, too, leading to the third chapter, Blade: Trinity...which earned a relatively paltry
$52 million.
According to /Film, the poor performance of the third Blade led New Line to call off plans
for another sequel, plus a spinoff about the "Nightstalkers," the vampire hunters in Trinity
led by Ryan Reynolds and Jessica Biel. Another nail in the coffin for that film about the
dead: Snipes sued New Line, alleging that the company didn't pay him his contracted
amount.
"Are you outta your damn mind?"
That legal battle went on for so long that New Line's rights to the Blade characters
expired and returned to Marvel, which has a Blade reboot starring Mahershala Ali in
the works.
After years of sitting idle while Superman and Batman got the summer blockbuster treatment,
Spider-Man arrived in 2002, directed by Sam Raimi and starring Tobey Maguire as the teen
photographer turned masked webslinger Peter Parker. After it snagged $821 million at the
world box office, Spider-Man 2 flew along in 2004, earning almost as much and enjoying
widespread acclaim, making it one of the most praised superhero movies ever made.
"I just want to say, I really…I really like what you do. I think it's great."
"Thanks."
Spider-Man 3 hit theaters in 2007, and although it was a little messy and overpopulated with
villains and side characters, it still financially outperformed the other two movies.
Spider-Man 4 was a foregone conclusion to the point where it wasn't just an idea, it
advanced far into production. Maguire negotiated a deal to return, John Malkovich and Anne
Hathaway looked to join as bad guy Vulture and love interest Felicia Hardy, respectively,
and by late 2009, screenwriter Gary Ross had nearly finished a script. Everything was falling
in place for Spider-Man 4 to actually start filming in early March 2010, with a Sony-announced
theatrical release date of May 6, 2011.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! You're serious?"
But in January 2010, Deadline broke the bad news: Raimi, believing that he'd be unable
to make a good movie in that truncated timeframe, quit the project. Sony, in turn, canceled
Spider-Man 4 altogether, and then announced that it would just reboot the whole thing
for the summer of 2012.
There had never been anything quite like The Hangover. The 2009 film was as raunchy as
comedies get, but it was also a buddy movie, and a mystery: three guys wake up in Las Vegas
the morning after the most epic bachelor party of all time, remembering nothing and the groom
gone missing. Director Todd Phillips caught something magic, and audiences loved it: The
Hangover became the highest-grossing R-rated comedy of all time, and elevated stars Bradley
Cooper and Zach Galifianakis to the A-list.
"How the hell does a tiger get in the bathroom? He almost killed me."
"Hey, bro, you mind putting on some pants, I find it a little weird I have to ask twice."
Then Hollywood tried to repeat the formula, not once but twice, as if the events of that
crazy night could ever possibly happen again. The Hangover Part II rehashed the first film
in Thailand, while The Hangover 3 found the gang in Mexico. Audiences distanced themselves
from the franchise. The third movie earned less than half of Part II and was nominated
for the Razzie Award for Worst Remake, Rip-off or Sequel. When asked by Cine Pop if a fourth
movie could happen, star Ed Helms pinpointed the odds at, quote, "between 0 and 0" chance.
James Dashner's extraordinarily successful young adult novel series The Maze Runner comprised
three books: the initial Maze Runner, followed by The Scorch Trials and The Death Cure. Set
in a dystopian post-apocalyptic future, the action concerns a group led by a teenager
named Thomas, none of whom recall the times before they were thrown into a competitive
labyrinth that's a tool of their fascist oppressors.
"We're trapped here, aren't we?"
"For the moment."
While the ending of The Death Cure movie is different, and more open-ended than its literary
predecessor, screenwriter T.S. Nowlin doesn't want to make movie number four. He told Thrillist:
"We've actually talked about how much we don't want to do a fourth movie. It's rare to do
something clean, that just has a beginning, a middle, and an end. I really like the way
this movie wraps things up and ends. It's nice to let the movies kind of exhale."
A fourth film isn't too likely then, although Dashner did write a couple of Maze Runner
prequel novels ripe for adaptation.
The original Back to the Future wasn't just the highest-grossing film of 1985, it was
a cultural phenomenon and one of the most iconic movies of the decade. Michael J. Fox
and Christopher Lloyd delivered charming performances as wannabe rocker teen Marty McFly and his
improbable best friend, scientist "Doc" Emmett Brown. Marty accidentally uses Doc's DeLorean-based
time machine and winds up in 1955, where he has to ensure his future father meets his
future mother, while also fending off her very unwelcome romantic advances.
"Do you mind if I sit here?"
"No. Fine. No. Good. Fine. Good."
As time travel makes the possibilities for sequels virtually endless, Back to the Future
Part II and Part III found Doc and Marty engaging in legacy-preserving activities in 2015 and
1885, respectively. Decades after the release of Back to the Future Part III, fans want
another installment.
But not even the power of love can bring about Back to the Future Part IV. Screenwriter Bob
Gale and co-writer and director Robert Zemeckis have a clause in their contracts ensuring
them approval on any future Future film. Zemeckis told The Telegraph that he and Gale are so
opposed to the idea that even if Universal wanted to reboot the franchise:
"It can't happen until both Bob and I are dead."
Released in early 1997, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery was a surprise moderate hit,
as it parodied mostly forgotten swinging '60s British spy movies. Written by star Mike Myers,
it was as fashionable in the late '90s to quote Austin Powers' many catchphrases as
it was for Austin to wear a crushed blue velvet suit.
"Oh, behave!"
The first film involved a cryogenically frozen '60s Austin out of place in the cynical '90s,
while movie number two, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, had the spy travel back
to the '60s, and the third, Austin Powers in Goldmember, landed him in the '70s.
The standout character: Dr. Evil, an amalgam of James Bond villains also played by Myers.
Trilogy director Jay Roach told The Independent:
"[Myers] and I always thought there was more to do with Dr. Evil."
Roach also remarked that the pair have long tried to come up with a viable idea for a
fourth film, but so far, to no avail. It may be impossible without Verne Troyer, who portrayed
Mini-Me, Dr. Evil's small clone, and who died in 2018. Roach said of the actor:
"I don't know how we'd do it without Verne. We always had ideas of revealing a whole life
that he had that would have taken his character much further."
Before Star Wars introduced the modern idea of a blockbuster sci-fi movie, the biggest
other-worlds film franchise was Planet of the Apes. Between 1968 and 1973, five installments
in the saga of a world ruled by hyper-intelligent ape factions hit theaters. Planet of the Apes
is such a familiar and well-regarded property that Hollywood can't stop rebooting the thing.
In 2001, the usually wildly imaginative Tim Burton helmed a remake of the original, starring
Mark Wahlberg. The film was a hit, but no sequels happened, at least in part because
Burton said he'd, quote, "rather jump out of the window" than make them.
Instead, Fox waited a few years, hired a new team, and in 2011 rebooted the series with
Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Two more films followed: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and
War for the Planet Apes, and together the three movies serve as a prequel trilogy to
the original Planet of the Apes saga. There might have been more stories to tell of how
apes acquired global dominance, but they won't be seen on the big screen. In 2019, Disney
acquired Fox, along with the rights to the studio's properties, and planned for yet another
reboot of Planet of the Apes.
"Help me. Please. Please help me."
It's of nearly universal opinion among film writers that the organized crime epic The
Godfather is among the greatest American-made movies of all time. Based on a pulpy novel
by Mario Puzo, screenwriter and director Francis Ford Coppola made The Godfather a movie that
topped the 1972 box office and earned 11 Oscar nominations. Paramount wanted a sequel, but
Coppola held off, telling MTV News:
"When they wanted a second Godfather, it was just to make money."
At the same time, he was working on a film that would tell parallel stories, of a father
and son, each at the same age. Coppola finally agreed to make The Godfather Part II, and
he used his framework, telling the tale of both Vito Corleone and his son, Michael.
After those triumphs, Coppola's career took a downturn, culminating in massive debts after
the failure of his passion project One from the Heart. When Paramount asked him to make
The Godfather Part III in the late '80s, he did it specifically to fix his financial problems.
"It's not personal. It's strictly business."
But the film renewed his interest in the franchise, and he and Puzo came up with an idea for a
fourth movie. By then, Puzo was in his 70s and concerned with leaving behind an inheritance
for his kids. Coppola told Paramount he'd do The Godfather Part IV for free if they
paid Puzo $1 million. The studio balked, Puzo died, and Coppola didn't pursue the project
further.
Veronica Roth's Divergent series was among the "young adult" book boom of the early 21st
century. In a futuristic Chicago, highly-regulated and watched humans are divided into distinct
classes based on their qualities and abilities...but not Tris Prior, ruled a "divergent" and thus
dangerously unclassifiable.
"I'm divergent."
After the first Divergent book came Insurgent and Allegiant, with Shailene Woodley starring
as Tris in the movie versions. Adaptations of Harry Potter, Twilight, and The Hunger
Games proved so successful at the box office that studios weren't ready to let these franchises
go. So producers split the last books of their series into two films each, giving the world
awkwardly titled movies like The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1.
Allegiant was supposed to follow suit, but the second part of the story, titled Ascendant
never did make it to film. After director Robert Schwentke backed out and Allegiant
made half as much at the box office as Insurgent had, Lionsgate canceled the film entirely.
After Lionsgate bought Starz, plans were made for a TV miniseries to wrap up the franchise,
but those sputtered too.
In 1981, future big-time director Sam Raimi made his first major feature: The Evil Dead,
a low-budget, darkly comic tale of five college kids who visit a cabin in the woods and unleash
demonic monsters. Charismatic and quirky cult movie icon Bruce Campbell starred as hero
and last man standing Ash Williams, a role he reprised in Raimi's Evil Dead 2, a more
upmarket remake and retelling of the first film. At the end of this one, Ash gets sucked
into a time vortex and winds up in the year 1300, leading to the events of 1993's cheeky
Army of Darkness, where he has to fight undead, soul-sucking monsters and the forces of King
Arthur.
"See this? This is my boom stick!"
In 2013, Evil Dead was released, loosely related to the original trilogy but more of a remake
and reboot of the original, with the action centered around a new group of young people
terrorized in the woods. Around the time of that film's debut, Raimi's team announced
that Army of Darkness 2 was on the way. At a WonderCon panel talk, Campbell and Evil
Dead reboot director Fede Alvarez said they'd really like to merge the two trilogies with
a seventh film. None of those movies were ever produced, but Starz aired Ash vs. Evil
Dead, a TV series that followed up the events of the original trilogy, and in 2020, Campbell
revealed that Raimi was developing yet another installment in the franchise. So maybe, just
maybe, the king will return to the big screen once again.
"Hail to the king, baby."
Along with J.R.R. Tolkien and his Lord of the Rings saga, C.S. Lewis virtually invented
modern fantasy with The Chronicles of Narnia, the epic tale of the mystical land of Narnia,
its lion leader Aslan, and the conflict that tears it all apart. According to CNN, more
than 95 million Narnia books have sold, making it one of the most popular series of all time,
and yet it took until 2005 for a large-scale Narnia movie franchise.
"Do not cite the deep magic to me, witch. I was there when it was written."
Only the first three Chronicles books were initially turned into films: The Lion, the
Witch, and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. In North America,
however, each film made less money than the one that came before it.
Producers took a few years to regroup, during which time the rights to Narnia passed from
Disney to the Mark Gordon Company, which announced in 2016 that production on The Silver Chair
was underway, with a brand new cast, under the eye of director Joe Johnston. The film
fell apart relatively quickly, because by 2018, the C.S. Lewis Company had sold Narnia's
movie rights to Netflix.
Somehow, Fox, along with director Shawn Levy and various screenwriters, got three action-packed,
full-length feature films out of the 32-page children's book The Night at the Museum. Similar
to the storybook, the Night at the Museum films are about Larry, the night watchman
at the American Museum of Natural History, where exhibits come to life every night.
"Dum dum."
"Yes?"
"You give me gum gum."
Over three films, Larry meets a dinosaur skeleton and a monkey, along with several reborn historical
figures, like Amelia Earhart, Theodore Roosevelt, and a cowboy. While Larry gets involved in
plenty of adventures and escapades, the fluffy and entertaining kids' movies plot a redemptive
arc: At the beginning of the first movie, Larry is an underemployed sad sack, by movie
two he's a successful inventor, and by the third he's left his exhibits in the hands
of a trusted successor and moved on.
Levy knows it's time for new things, too, and he did when work began on Secret of the
Tomb. He told The Hollywood Reporter:
"Ben and I knew that the third movie would be about the characters saying goodbye and
us also saying goodbye."
And then Robin Williams died after production wrapped but before Secret of the Tomb hit
theaters. Not being able to do another movie without Williams, for Levy, quote, "sealed
it."
Pairing a couple of police detectives who are very different from one another is a cinematic
combination that almost guarantees success. Joining the tradition of Lethal Weapon came
the Rush Hour series, placing brash American detective James Carter with Chief Inspector
Lee, originally from the Hong Kong police force.
"Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?"
Rush Hour involved the pair rescuing a Chinese diplomat's daughter kidnapped in the U.S.
Rush Hour 2 found them investigating a death at the U.S. embassy in Hong Kong. And Rush
Hour 3 had the detectives track down a criminal mastermind who happened to be Lee's foster
brother. All three films were released between 1998 and 2007, so a fourth Rush Hour is long
delayed at this point. But it's not due to a lack of effort.
After refusing scripts for seven years, Chan finally approved one in October 2017, with
Tucker confirming his involvement in February 2018. When the stars posed together for an
Instagram post in April 2019, some media outlets reported the pic as proof that production
had begun, leading Chan's management company to release a statement denying that.
As far as buddy comedies about two guys who smoke a lot of marijuana and get into crazy
and absurd adventures, only Cheech and Chong made more of them than John Cho and Kal Penn,
stars of three Harold and Kumar movies. First they went to White Castle, then had to Escape
from Guantanamo Bay, and wrapped it up with A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas.
"How you feeling, Mr. Claus?"
"A little woozy."
"That's actually just the morphine, it'll wear off."
It's been years since the release of that third movie, and Penn and Cho moved on to
become two of the most frequently working actors in Hollywood. Likewise, franchise creators
Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg are multiple seasons in on the Karate Kid-inspired series
Cobra Kai. Four principals with packed schedules means a fourth Harold and Kumar film isn't
impossible but unlikely, and not liable to happen for years. Penn said at a 2019 Television
Critics Association Event:
"They're busy working on Cobra Kai. John and I both have our own things this year so I
think our hope is towards the end of the year, we'd like to toss something around and see
what might work."
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