10 Abandoned Franchises That Deserved Another Movie

Warcraft spent a decade trapped in development hell before Duncan Jones managed to get it across the finish line, and while it may have came and went without ever really grabbing the attention of mainstream audiences, it still remains the highest-grossing video game adaptation ever made after raking in $439m.

However, the $160m fantasy epic tanked at the domestic box office, where it failed to even reach $50m, and Chinese audiences would save the movie from financial disaster after accounting for over 50% of the global tally. As is the case with any major blockbuster, Warcraft was designed with one eye on creating a franchise, but despite being left open for follow-ups the lack of any major profit saw any plans quietly abandoned.

Big-budget fantasy has been very hit-or-miss in the years since The Lord of the Rings led to a resurgence in popularity for the genre, and Warcraft was one of the better attempts with a rich and expansive mythology to explore, but with the exception of China it seemed as though nobody else had much interest in returning to Azeroth in the future.