Another day, another sequel. That’s what it feels like anyway. Popular movies both new and old get sequels and reactions vary every time. Fans of Kingsman: The Secret Service were apparently very happy to get a sequel to the over the top spy series, but audiences didn’t seem particularly interested in Alien: Covenant earlier this year. It seemed like a good idea at the time. They all do, until they come out and either find an audience or find out the audience doesn’t care anymore.
We’ve got a hell of a lot of sequels coming up before the end of the year. Films like Blade Runner 2049, Tyler Perry’s Boo 2! A Madea Halloween, Jigsaw, A Bad Moms Christmas, Thor: Ragnarok, Daddy’s Home 2, Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Pitch Perfect 3 are all about to try their luck. Some of them will make money. Some of them won’t. But there’s a very good chance that in a decade or two, a lot of these sequels will be completely forgotten.
That’s what happened to these movies. All of them were sequels to popular, beloved, or at least financially successful movies. At the time they probably seemed like a big deal. Some of them are actually pretty good, and were made by talented people. But most people who love the original films have never seen them, or even heard of them.
Whether they came out decades ago or just earlier this year, these sequels have completely flown under the radar. Someday, a sequel you thought was a big deal at the time will meet the exact same fate. So either remember to remember, or remember that being forgotten is the fate of most films.
11 Movie Sequels You’ve Probably Never Heard Of:
Top Photos: Paramount / MGM / Paramount
William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on Canceled Too Soon and watch him on the weekly YouTube series What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
11 Movie Sequels You Probably Never Heard Of
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The Great Escape II: The Untold Story (1988)
Christopher Reeve, Judd Hirsch and Ian McShane star in a TV movie sequel, of sorts, to the classic all-star World War II prison break drama The Great Escape. The sequel covers the escape itself as well as the events that followed. The Great Escape II: The Untold Story also features Donald Pleasance, who co-starred as one of the escapees in the original, but who - rather oddly - now plays a Nazi officer.
Photo: NBC
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High Noon, Part II: The Return of Will Kane (1980)
The classic western High Noon gets a not-so-classic TV movie sequel, starring Lee Majors as ex-marshall Will Kane, who comes back to town and takes a stand against a corrupt lawman. High Noon, Part II: The Return of Will Kane is perhaps most notable for being written by the legendary Elmore Leonard, whose works have been adapted into beloved movies like Out of Sight, Jackie Brown and 3:10 to Yuma.
Photo: CBS
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Kangaroo Jack: G'Day U.S.A.! (2004)
The bizarre outback crime comedy Kangaroo Jack was an unexpected smash hit, thanks in part to a misleading marketing campaign that convinced audiences it was about an animated kangaroo (which it wasn't). Kangaroo Jack: G'Day U.S.A.! came out just one year later, and doubles down on the crowd-pleasing family-friendly concept. The two mob goons from the first film return to the outback to help Jack save his family from poachers.
Photo: Warner Bros. Animation
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The Last Days of Patton (1986)
George C. Scott earned an Oscar (which he turned down) for playing General George S. Patton in Patton, and 16 years later he returned to the role for the TV movie The Last Days of Patton. The title is accurate: the film is about Patton on his deathbed, with flashbacks to his former glory. This was no small production: Delbert Mann, the Oscar-winning director of Marty, was at the helm, and the great Eva Marie Saint plays Patton's wife, Beatrice.
Photo: CBS
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Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby (1976)
Ira Levin eventually wrote a sequel to his novel Rosemary's Baby, but the TV movie Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby came out first. Oscar-winner Ruth Gordon returns, and Patty Duke plays Rosemary, whose antichrist offspring is now a grown man, struggling with his identity.
Photo: ABC
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Max 2: White House Hero (2017)
The surprisingly heavy dog P.O.W. drama Max gets a cutesy, little kid-friendly sequel. In Max 2: White House Hero, Max gets called back into active duty at the White House, where he helps the first kid and his Trump-like father stop an assassination plot, declare world peace with the Russians and get the U.S. president's son and the Russian president's daughter to fall in love.
Photo: Warner Bros.
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Mean Girls 2 (2011)
When Lindsay Lohan announced that she was trying to get a Mean Girls 2 made, everyone was a) excited, and b) forgetting that it already existed. The TV movie sequel to Mean Girls stars Meaghan Martin as the new girl at school, who gets into a feud with "The Plastics", and shenanigans once again ensue. This time there's an ipecac in a pizza. Tim Meadows, as the hapless principal, is the only original cast member to return.
Photo: ABC Family
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A Return to Salem's Lot (1987)
Tobe Hooper's celebrated Stephen King TV mini-series Salem's Lot spawned a cheap, forgotten, but very interesting sequel in 1987. Larry Cohen co-writes and directs A Return to Salem's Lot, about town full of vampires who try to convince an anthropologist that their beliefs and way of life are just as valid as any other. It almost works, until a Nazi hunter (played by legendary filmmaker Samuel Fuller) shows up and reminds our heroes that actions speak louder than words, and that there is no excuse for oppression and murder.
Photo: Warner Bros.
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Road House 2: Last Call (2006)
The cult classic Road House starred Patrick Swayze as Dalton, a zen badass bouncer in a tough town. The sequel, Road House 2: Last Call stars Johnathan Schaech as Dalton's son, a DEA agent investigating his father's murder and also returning home to save his uncle's bar. Schaech also co-wrote the screenplay.
Photo: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
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Savage Sam (1963)
Everyone has either seen Old Yeller or at least heard about how sad the ending is. But hardly anyone remembers that the sequel novel, Savage Sam, was also turned into a feature film. Tommy Kirk returns, and teams up with Old Yeller's pup, Savage Sam, to track down Apache horse thieves who kidnapped his brother and neighbor. The pulpier sequel failed to find an appreciative audience, and now the world has mostly forgotten that it ever existed.
Photo: Walt Disney
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To Sir, with Love II (1996)
Sidney Poitier returned to his iconic role from To Sir, with Love in a TV movie, directed by the great Peter Bogdanovich no less. To Sir, with Love II finds teacher Mark Thackeray retiring to Chicago, but getting pulled back into the public school system to help troubled kids find their path.
Photo: Tri-Star Television
