10 Long-Gestating Movie Sequels That Were Worth The Wait

Making one great film is hard enough, so attempting to follow-up greatness with something that is either on-par or even better can be incredibly difficult. And waiting several years or even decades between films can make this already Herculean task practically impossible.

But somehow, some of the brightest minds in Hollywood's history have pulled it off. They've seen long-gestating sequels through to fruition that not only builds on the work of the original film but sometimes even surpasses it. With the 14 year wait for Incredibles 2 about to (finally) be over, audiences await with bated breath to see if Brad Bird's sequel can possibly live up to the heights of the original.

Luckily for Bird, it's not unheard of for a filmmaker to return to their most famous franchise for another installment after years and deliver a sequel that's more than worthy.

Whether it be due to development problems, the filmmakers taking some time away from the franchise, or it simply taking that long to find the right story, these sequels traveled long-and-winding roads to arrive in theaters. These are the sequels that felt like they took forever but wound up being more than worth the wait.

Years Waited: 14

It may be a bit hard to recall now, three years on from the release of Jurassic World, with a lackluster-looking sequel on the horizon and the name of Colin Trevorrow well-and-truly sullied from his time spent working on Book of Henry and the like, but Jurassic World was a HUGE deal when it came out.

It made more money than anyone was predicting, and it was all because it finally delivered what fans had been waiting on for years: a not-terrible sequel to Jurassic Park. Spielberg's original was an instant classic upon release, but its sequels were received a lot less favorably. Both were nothing but pale imitations of what came before, luring members of the core cast back to the island for no reason other than sequel money.

While Jurassic World isn't going to be making anyone's list of classics from the 2010s anytime soon, it did deliver the goods. It was a genuine thrill to see the park open and operating for the very first time, and the film put in oodles of nostalgia-fueled fan service to ensure fans of the original film felt at home in this new incarnation. They even brought back the original T-Rex from the first film and made him a bona fide badass action hero again.

So sure, it's kind of stupid and generic, but it's also an entertaining ride that finally gave audiences a Jurassic sequel that was more than utter garbage.