10 Movie Franchises Which Got Terribly Adapted TWICE

Adapting any existing IP into a movie - whether a book, TV show, video game, or something more left-field - is a huge challenge, to take a much-loved property and rebuild it in a way that both pleases existing fans and entertains total newcomers.

As such, it's little surprise that Hollywood often gets it totally wrong, but sometimes a brand name is strong enough that a second adaptation eventually moves forward with considerably better results - for example, Dredd, It, and most recently Dune.

Yet there are unfortunately many times where the second time most certainly isn't the charm, and those involved largely end up repeating the mistakes of the first adaptation - if not also making new ones entirely.

That's absolutely the case with these 10 movie franchises, which spectacularly bungled their beloved source material twice in a row, leaving many to ponder if they're just fundamentally incompatible with the big-screen treatment. In the very least, those in charge clearly had a poor grasp of what made it so popular in the first place.

While some of these brands already have a third attempt announced, others have evidently read the writing on the wall and decided to put the matter to bed - for now, anyway...

Not everything needs to be a movie, and yet, Paramount is clearly desperate to make fetch happen with iconic toy line G.I. Joe. 

The popular action figures were first spun off into a 2007 movie, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, which despite its mammoth $175 million budget proved to be a shockingly not-thrilling affair, populated by a cast who clearly wished they were literally anywhere else (looking at you, Channing Tatum).

Despite flopping at the box office, a sequel finally materialised with 2013's G.I. Joe: Retaliation, which by shifting the focus to new characters played by Dwayne Johnson and Bruce Willis ultimately felt less like a follow-up than a soft reboot.

It had its moments, but still failed to be anything more than a dead-generic, super forgettable tentpole actioner.

Retaliation's so-so box office performance ultimately led Paramount to instead reboot the franchise with 2021's Snake Eyes, which achieved the near-impressive feat of feeling even less consequential than its predecessors.

Punctuated by exposition-rife dialogue, generic origin story nonsense, mediocre action, and a sub-par performance from Henry Golding, Snake Eyes was a massive box office flop which served as the concluding argument that G.I. Joe just doesn't need to be a damn movie - let alone three.

All the same, given that last year's Transformers: Rise of the Beasts teased a future crossover with G.I. Joe, Paramount doesn't seem willing to let it go just yet.