10 Best Movie Sequels That Took Decades To Arrive - Ranked

4. T2 Trainspotting (2017)

Renton Trainspotting 2
TriStar Pictures

The Previous Film: Trainspotting (1996)

Few people were clamouring for a sequel to Danny Boyle's Trainspotting - the first film was a brilliant standalone story, but it was never something that was commonly considered "franchiseable".

But fortunately, T2 Trainspotting isn't just a lazy rehash of its predecessor or a passable "more of the same" return to this world. Instead, it wisely explores what's happening to these characters now, 20 years after we last saw them; how the first film affected their lives, and how their lives have changed in the years since.

As a result, it feels completely fresh and different, but because the director and main ensemble cast remained the same, it's also got that signature Trainspotting flavour. Its crazy energy is infectious, which, in a movie that's largely about addiction, is another way of saying that it absolutely accomplished what it set out to do.

Contributor
Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!