20 Announced Movie Sequels NOBODY Expected
These confirmed sequels sure came out of the blue.
Sequels are of course the thing that Hollywood cherishes above all else, because why take a risk on an original idea when you can milk an existing one for another go-around?
The film industry loves to take a hit idea and do it again and again, until the box office gravy dries up and said idea is well and truly exhausted. But not every sequel that gets announced and eventually produced is quite so obvious.
Sometimes a sequel seems like a distinct impossibility for one of many reasons.
Perhaps the previous film was a massive box office flop, it simply seemed like a one-off project, or so much time passed with the sequel stuck in development hell that it was never expected to see the light of day.
But believe it or not, these 20 movie sequels are all now actually happening, despite most everyone having long since given up hope.
Some are still in the development stage while others are gearing up to shoot imminently and a few have even already been filmed.
No matter how far along they are, though, nobody expected these upcoming sequels to actually get made...
20. 24 Jump Street
After the massive commercial success of comedy sequel 22 Jump Street in 2014, it was assumed that a threequel would swiftly enter production.
And though a script was written and James Bobin (The Muppets) was announced to direct by 2016, development stalled in the years that followed, reportedly due to struggles to keep the film's budget in check, even with most of the principal players accepting smaller producer fees.
So it was quite a surprise when, back in June, a third film was finally confirmed to be happening.
The threequel, hilariously titled 24 Jump Street, is set to reunite Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, and Ice Cube, while being directed by Rodney Rothman (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse), as original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller return as producers.
If any franchise can survive a decade-plus on ice, it's Jump Street, which will surely relish making cheeky fun of the huge sequel gap.