10 Movie Franchises That Were Robbed Of An Ending

As Tony Stark once said from beyond the grave, part of the journey is the end. Of course, how a story arrives there is equally, if not even more important than the conclusion, but that ending is crucial to its success.

This is no different in the movie industry, whether you're talking about a standalone movie or a franchise. Though, in today's landscape, it seems that almost everything will eventually be turned into a franchise! Even if that is the plan however, things don't always pan out as anticipated.

Whether it's because of box-office and critical failings, over-ambition, behind-the-scenes issues, or a combination of the above, many movie franchises don't get to reach their end. Is there anything more infuriating than getting invested in a story, only for it to be robbed of its conclusion, with no closure?

Whether for better or worse in the end is debatable, but some franchises get quite far into their story before having the rug pulled from under them, while others barely even begin.

And speaking of which...

Planning is absolutely essential when it comes to building a movie franchise. Without it, a studio runs the risk of suffering exactly what the Star Wars sequels went through - three movies that were completely disconnected and seemingly going out of their way to retcon the others.

However, you have to be sensible about these things. Franchises like the aforementioned Star Wars, the MCU, and any drawing from a book series with a pre-existing, passionate fanbase can reasonably expect success, but King Arthur was none of these.

Of course, it's a famous story, but it doesn't exactly have the die-hard fans of Harry Potter. This is why announcing a six-movie franchise before the first movie (King Arthur: Legend of the Sword), had even been released was incredibly risky. Particularly with a leading man lacking the star power to put such a franchise on his back.

As popular as Charlie Hunnam was as Jax Teller in Sons of Anarchy, he couldn't lift King Arthur above a disappointing and franchise-ending box office of $148 million worldwide. Unsurprisingly, any hope of sequels died with this bomb.