10 Movie Sequels That Didn't Go The Way They Should Have

The tonal shift that Joel Schumacher brought to the Batman movie franchise when he boarded it in the mid-1990s is well documented. A dark vision that was a great fit for the character underpinned the Tim Burton films, but a family-friendly farce lay ahead.

Burton had intended to remain at the Bat-helm and reportedly planned to cast Robin Williams as the Riddler and team him up with Billy Dee Williams's fully-transformed Two-Face in a threequel that would no doubt have been as mature and gritty as the first two instalments. Warner Bros had other ideas.

Although Batman Returns was a hit, the studio was keen to tap into the lucrative family market and felt Schumacher was the man for that. A haul of $336.5 million at the box office and through-the-roof merchandise sales suggests it was mission accomplished, but this commercial success came at the expense of Bats' credibility.

Complex villains made way for pantomime takes on Riddler and Two-Face, and the mature tone was replaced by the campy thrills of the Adam West era.

In hindsight, everyone from the fans to Warner Bros studio executives would agree that Burton should have been retained for at least one more sequel, giving him the chance to cap off a trilogy of dark Batman films, but at least Christopher Nolan was on hand to repair the damage of Schumacher's tenure further down the line.