10 Movie Franchises That Need To Ditch ONE Thing

5. John Kramer - Saw

There's no way this won't be controversial, but John Kramer (Tobin Bell) is both the best and worst thing to ever happen to the Saw franchise.

On one hand, Kramer was the fascinatingly motivated serial killer who headlined the original three Saw movies before finally being killed off, and on the other, he's such a compelling antagonist that the series has struggled to disentangle itself from him ever since.

Hell, Kramer appeared in the next five sequels despite being dead, with extensive flashbacks being deployed to keep him in the periphery of the story, before finally being absent from the recent ninth film, Spiral.

But with Spiral's attempt to soft-reboot the franchise falling flat, it was recently announced that the upcoming Saw X will see the return of Kramer yet again, in what's said to be a "midquel" set between the first two movies.

Now, as much as we love Tobin Bell and his superb performance as Kramer, there is clearly a ceiling to what the series can be while still hopelessly attached to this character - played by a now-80-year-old Bell, no less.

Much like the Terminator franchise, Saw feels stuck in neutral while it remains obsessed with bringing it all back to its original star - similarly, Terminator has only shown how creatively bankrupt it is by refusing to move on from Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Saw is such an evergreen concept for a horror franchise that it shouldn't be that difficult to reboot in an entertaining way, and while it'll be fun to see Bell back as Kramer once more, after this the series really needs to find compelling new blood to lead the charge.