22 Movie Franchises That Forgot What They Were About
It’s the dream of every filmmaker who doesn’t buy into that “selling out” crap to helm a blockbuster franchise. You can make a literal fortune just by asking the question, “What if there were wars in the stars?” and honestly, that’s beautiful. It’s a vicious cycle, however. The more successful you are, the more installments you make, the more you risk the series becoming stale. You’ve gotta change things up to keep it fresh, but if you change it too much, people start to forget what they came for, and it definitely wasn’t podracing.
“Rambo is a good example,” Redditor Alexthegreatbelgian told r/Movies. “The original was a heartbreaking drama addressing the plight of neglected Vietnam War vets and mental health, but it turned into a hardcore action series. Fast & Furious basically turned from an undercover police story into a superhero franchise.”
They then asked for more “movie franchises which derailed from their original premise,” and their fellow Redditors provided cinematic derailment after cinematic derailment.
Jaws
Resident Evil
Hellraiser
Lethal Weapon
John Wick
Rec
Jurassic Park
Shrek
Ice Age
Pirates of the Caribbean
Friday the 13th
Highlander
Police Academy
Saw
Die Hard
Mission: Impossible
Godzilla
Air Bud
Halloween
RoboCop
Speed
Pitch Perfect
