10 Movie Franchises That Ended Too Soon
Those movie franchises that still had plenty more in the tank.
More often than not, film franchises tend to have a nasty habit of overstaying their welcome. Seriously, in what sort of world do we ever need anything even close to a ridiculous six outings for the Sharknado franchise?!
While Sharknado is a direct-to-TV product, the same rules can clearly be applied to the cinema screen. Even if a movie doesn't get universally praised, so long as there's a decent profit margin for the film then studios will forever power away with making sequel after sequel, milking a property until its completely devoid of any value.
On the other side of the coin, there are those franchises that pick the exact perfect time to call it a day in a way that leaves audiences with a satisfied taste of completion in their mouths. Then on the other side of this three-sided coin, there are certain franchises where they ultimately have the legs pulled out from under them when there's still so much potential and possibility left on the table for the IP.
It's that final school of thought which we're going to explore here, as we pinpoint ten film franchises that, quite frankly, ended far, far too soon.
With that in mind, then...
10. Hellboy
For the longest time, fans held out hope that Guillermo del Toro's long-gestating third Hellboy film may finally move forward into production.
By the time that 2008's splendid Hellboy II: The Golden Army had come to a close, Big Red had the responsibility of parenthood on the horizon, in addition to the hero putting himself out of the shadows and into the public spotlight.
A year after the second GDT-helmed Hellboy offering, tentative development began on a third movie with the working title of Hellboy III: Dark Worlds. Not only was del Toro back in the director's chair, but the core cast of Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, and Jeffrey Tambor were all eager to reprise their roles from the previous two outings.
With the potential to show the Hellboy character dealing with parenthood and attempting to live somewhat of a normal life, that was something hugely intriguing. Sadly, this threequel was doomed to spend years in development hell before being officially scrapped by Universal Pictures in 2017.
Instead of the long wanted return of Perlman as Hellboy, we'd all get landed with a David Harbour fronted stinker of a reboot last year - a reboot that reeked of 'too many cooks in the kitchen' and tanked so spectacularly that any follow-up picture now seems completely off the table.