That old adage that the "only good sequels" are The Godfather Part II and The Empire Strikes Back just doesn't hold orange juice/blue milk anymore, does it? No longer exclusively thoughtless cash-ins (although the impending release of Alvin And The Chipmunks: Road Chip proves that idea's not gone away completely), studios will invest actual talent and eye-watering amounts of money to ensure Big Hit From A Couple Of Years Back 2 isn't just the unwatched half of an overpriced DVD double-pack. All this means that a movie series doesn't just stop being worth it with the ending credits of the first movie. It can grow, becoming something far beyond what the original pitch entailed. The Fast And The Furious didn't become objectively not-terrible until the fifth film, while Marvel didn't become an industry leader until they'd worked through all their origin stories. In fact, what many often view as an key part of a franchise wasn't actually introduced until the second, third or (in one case) fifth film of a series. Here are ten such franchises where a defining trait didn't get established until the sequels.
