10 Cancelled Movie Sequels (That Could Still Happen)

It's a common complaint that all Hollywood does is churn out sequels, reboots and remakes, ditching original ideas in favour of recognisable characters and bankable brands with a greedy, cynical approach to the business of movie-making.

And yet, even sequels in popular franchises aren't totally immune to the embarrassing and unfortunate sting of cancellation.

Whether it's due to financial reasons, creative dead-ends or a lack of fan interest, movie studios are more than willing to sweep potential sequels under the rug, even if there was a slight chance they could've been a worthy investment.

Sometimes though, these projects can come back from the dead, and the following ten sequels - some of which were officially cancelled and some of which were thrown into serious doubt by the actors and filmmakers involved - have all shown signs of life, even after appearing like they wouldn't happen at all.

We're not saying that they're definitely going to get made, but there are reasons to believe that, one day, you'll get to see these troubled sequels grace the big screen. Everything is doom and gloom in Hollywood recently, so it's time for a bit more optimism!

Cancellation

Even before Alien: Covenant hit cinemas in May 2017, director Ridley Scott was planning to make more films in the franchise, and during the movie's Blu-Ray audio commentary, he remained firm on that stance, stating that Alien: Covenant 2 was "already being written".

Unfortunately, Covenant underperformed at the box-office, and in December 2017, an anonymous source - who claimed to have inside knowledge - stated that the followup had been indefinitely cancelled, and in January 2019, Variety further dampened fans' hopes for a future Alien film.

Why It's Not Dead

But it might not be the end! In May 2019, we learned that a sequel was "in the script phase", while Scott himself told THR that "discussions" were being held about future instalments. Plus, at CinemaCon 2019, Fox even name-dropped Alien as one of the franchises they were interested in continuing.

Disney's acquisition of Fox clearly complicated this whole situation, with the former company not as interested in producing adult-only films as much as the latter was. Still, it doesn't look as though Alien is completely dead just yet.