10 Awful Movie Retcons That Pissed Off Everybody

A retcon (retroactive continuity), aka a soft reboot, is one of the more creatively questionable ways to freshen up a film franchise. A way for script writers to breathe (or at least attempt to) some new and provocative life into sequels by simply rewriting, or straight up destroying, the tales that lead us all to this point.

Retcons are most often associated with the wonderful world of comic books where writers have frequently used them to be rid of other writers’ takes on a series. A powerful and frustrating tool, the presence of the retcon has made itself felt in the film world far too many times, especially in this age of endless sequels, prequels, sidequels, spin-offs, reboots, remakes etc.

Often times it’s to bring back popular characters tragically killed in previous instalments such as Harry Hart in Kingsman 2 or Letty Ortiz in Fast and Furious 6. Other times it’s as simple as pretending certain scenes never happened.

When a retcon stinks the theatre out, often times it doesn’t just ruin the film it belongs to, it ruins several connected movies by association. When new series entries provide contradictory information, it runs the risk of poisoning everything that came prior.

Let’s take a look at 10 infuriating film retcons and feel free to share any missed ones in the comments below.

The follow on from H20, a film that in turn had retconned many a sequel out of existence entirely (something taken even further in 2018’s sequel/reboot), Halloween Resurrection takes the definitive ending of its predecessor and flushes it down the toilet.

Laurie beheading and finally defeating her brother for good is all a lie thanks to the indestructible mute craftily switching himself out for a medic. Along with the sheer implausibility of the scenario, it leads to a glum and flat ending for the Laurie Strode character. Locked away in an asylum, Laurie is finally murdered by her worst brother of the year candidate relative and creepily kisses his mask before falling to her death.

Not sure what possessed her to do that.

The film that follows granted us one of the most wonderfully stupid scenes in horror cinema history: Busta Rhymes kung fuing his way to a surprise win over the once unstoppable Michael.

Poorly received by fans and critics alike, the studio would discontinue the series and attempt a remade series helmed by Rob Zombie for a short spell before retconning everything bar the original 1978 feature in 2018.