16 Movies That Were Originally Supposed To Be Sequels

Hey, get your own franchise!
16 Movies That Were Originally Supposed To Be Sequels

Have you ever enjoyed a major motion picture and felt something familiar? No, no, not the sticky floor feeling, the film! Something familiar about the film you're watching. Sure, it's an original movie or start to a franchise, but it sort of feels like a continuation of something you've seen before. Well, there are some cases when that feeling is justified and you're not some form of cinema-based conspiracy theorist.

There have been several great films that were originally conceived as sequels to other popular movies. However, due to a falling out, a change in the script, or some other reason, the sequel was altered to become its own thing, with mixed results. Without Rocky IV, there would be no Predator. Without Die Hard, Speed 2 wouldn't have had a script. Forget it, Jake, without Chinatown there would be no Who Framed Roger Rabbit?!

 

Die Hard With a Vengeance

McClane and Zeus were almost Riggs and Murtaugh. CRACKEDC The script that became Die Hard With A Vengeance traveled a long and winding road. Originally written as a Brandon Lee vehicle called Simon Says, it was reimagined as a Lethal Weapon after Lee's untimely death, before finally being punted to
The lazy spinoff that could have been a rad sequel. TOMMY IEE JONES WESLEY SNIPES ROBERT DOWNEY JR. TA 609 uhe '8 414 etk CRACKED COM U..S. Marshals ended up being a lazy spinoff (as one critic put it) of The Fugitive, but was originally conceived as a direct sequel, wherein
Blade Runner didn't get a sequel because producers thought it had tanked. 700 CRACKED cO Blade Runner's success was a bit of a slow burn. That's why the spinoff sidequel that screenwriter David Webb Peoples had written was reimagined as the unrelated Kurt Russell vehicle Soldier, that just happened to have
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? was a Jack Nicholson vehicle. CRACKEDO A cartoon-less version of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? was first written as a Chinatown sequel, featuring Nicholson's Jake Gittes in place of Eddie Valiant. It was scrapped after The Two Jakes bombed, but would later be dusted off for the
Bushwhacked was going to kick off a Wet Bandits franchise. Bushwhacked was supposed to be a direct spinoff of Home Alone, featuring Daniel Stern's Marv trying to put his days as a Wet/Sticky Bandit behind him. Production was already underway when they decided it wasn't officially part of the

Each Fact As Good As The Last!

Se7en. Ei8ht? Nein. The movie we know as Solace was once rejiggered as a sequel to Se7en, called Ei8ht. Anthony Hopkins' character in Solace would have been Morgan Freeman's Se7en character.

Ghosts of Mars

Snake Plissken almost went to space. Ghosts of Mars was originally a third Kurt Russell vehicle, called Escape From Mars. When Escape From LA tanked, they pulled a switcheroo, barely changing the name and tagging in Ice Cube.
DiE Hard 2: Cruse Control CRACKED CON The movie that eventually became the tragically Keanu-deficient Speed 2: Cruise Control was originally written as a Die Hard spec script. The DH franchise ultimately passed, because they know a turd when they smell one.
Predator was kind of a joke. NOfie mesafve brchemnerfre Henereeommll at tha N' FE 7A u TOOUE CRACKEDcO After Rocky IV came out, the running joke in the industry was that Rocky had run out of terrestrial foes, and would have to start fighting aliens. One writing duo called dibs,

The Collector

The Collector was almost Jigsaw's origin story. Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton wrote 4 different Saw films, but the relationship started with a Saw movie that never happened. The duo almost had their film, called The Midnight Man at the time, picked up as a Saw prequel. The tie-in
Spielberg wanted to make a sci-fi horror, had to settle for a ghost story. Spielberg began developing a sequel to Close Encounters of the Third Kind, called Night Skies. But director Tobe Hooper was more interested in making a ghost story, SO Spielberg helped him out with Poltergeist. Contractually,
A missed connection: Nighthawk was supposed to complete a French Connection trilogy, but Gene Hackman declined to come back for a third film (despite taking home an Oscar for the first).
War, Inc, what is it good for? John Cusack Reasy Hilary Duff anny.s Marisa Tomei Joan Cusack CRACKED OON It's not an on-the-books sequel, but John Cusack's professional assassin character in War, Inc. is suspiciously similar to his professional assassin character from Grosse Pointe Blank 11 years earlier. Not to mention
For sale: Hannibal Lecter, never worn. The Slience of the Lambs was a juggernaut of a psychological horror that spawned a sequel and two prequels, but it all stemmed from 1986's Manhunter -.- a movie that flopped SO hard, the producer lent out the rights to the Hannibal Lector character

Each Fact As Good As The Last!

Paul Newman never stopped hustling. N aky 2a3 44 6e oo as At6 the A As A4 6- A tan AL4ta Color nti Of Money CRACKED COM Paul Newman finally won an Oscar for The Color of Money, which was actually a reprisal of his role from The Hustler, 25 years earlier.
Spielberg's B-story becomes an instant classic. 015 FE His unproduced sci-fi horror masterpiece Night Skies was conceived as a sequel to Close Encounters of the Third Kind. But the main plot was shelved in favor of a secondary plot that moved a screenwriter to tears: a little boy befriending
Scroll down for the next article

Must Read

VIRAL ON CRACKED

A WEEKLY
NEWSLETTER OF
JOKES + TRIVIA

Forgot Password?