Making a sequel is like a 1984 Clint Eastwood crime thriller: It’s a tightrope.
Audiences come to a sequel because they loved a movie and wanted to see more of its story or characters. But you can’t just make more of the same movie again. Moviegoers want a sequel that feels both fresh and familiar all at once, which is an impossible balancing act. (Maybe that’s why so many sequels are so bad.)
The challenge to deliver something new can sometimes yield sequels that look strikingly different than the films that inspired them. Here the tightrope gets even more precarious. Will the audience that liked the first movie show up for something that doesn’t look like the first movie? Will they be satisfied by the changes? Get yeses to both those questions and you’ve got a hit. Get noes to both, and you’re in deep trouble.
The films on the list below run the gamut from two yeses to two noes to every possible in between. But they are all sequels that forged different paths than the movies that preceded them. Some were made by new directors with ideas of their own; others replaced popular actors for budgetary or scheduling reasons. Some greatly expanded the scope of their franchises because sequels are often considered guaranteed hits and are budgeted by studios accordingly.
One or two franchises on this list went hog wild and switched tones or even genres between installments. That’s like walking a tightrope without a net while the rope is getting sprayed with gasoline in the middle of a cigarette lighter factory. Let’s take a look at some of the movies that pulled off that tightrope walk — and some of the ones that didn’t.
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Gallery Credit: Emma Stefansky