10 2017 Movies That Definitely Deserve Sequels
Brand new franchises in waiting.
The world of Hollywood in the 21st century is one of sequels, remakes, reboots and the building of shared universes. It can often feel as if every major release that makes its way into cinemas is related to an existing slice of intellectual property, whether it's a book, a superhero comic or an old movie from the industry's past given a new lick of paint.
But there has still been some space for originality this year, with new projects coming to screens for the first time. Some do have existing material behind them, like the hugely popular line of children's books that inspired the animated Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, but it's still good to see film-makers looking to slightly less obvious sources.
Given the backlash against sequel culture in today's world, many of these films won't get sequels, despite the potential they have. There's also a real financial imperative, with any sequel plans easily torpedoed by a poor box office return. Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets, for example, fell flat on its face in cinemas, which left Luc Besson's comic-inspired universe looking more mad scientist than creative visionary.
Some films, though, certainly deserve the chance to spend more time in multiplexes with an opportunity to explore their world further.
10. The Death Of Stalin
Armando Iannucci's Soviet satire might not seem like the most obvious proposition for a sequel, given the rather less fertile political and historical ground surrounding the events it depicts. The Death of Stalin showcases the scramble to find a successor to Josef Stalin as pure comedic chaos, with only the absence of a pair of trousers falling down separating it from out and out farce.
The sequel potential lies not in a direct continuation of the Russian story, but in creating a wider universe – if that word must be used – in which further periods of political turmoil can be explored in the same manner.
Iannucci's fly-on-the-wall visual style has been deployed to analyse modern British and American politics, but there's no reason it can't delve into history to explore other countries or different periods. An Iannucci take on the last days of the Thatcher government would be intriguing and he could certainly do compelling things with the betrayal of Julius Caesar in Ancient Rome.
It's time to start booking your tickets for the Historical Politics Cinematic Universe straight away. The guys at Marvel ought to watch their backs.