10 Movie Sequels Whose Titles No Longer Made Sense

3. The Pink Panther Strikes Again

The Pink Panther is proof positive that audiences would rather watch somebody bumblingly incompetent than somebody suave and successful. Conceived as a vehicle for David Niven's playboy jewel thief The Phantom, the film ended up being a hit for the slapstick comedy of Peter Sellers' inept Inspector Clouseau. When writer-director Blake Edwards brought Clouseau back for a sequel the film, A Shot In The Dark, it didn't concern the Pink Panther diamond that had been the subject of the Phantom's theft attempt in the original film so, naturally, there was no need to give the film a title that referenced it. By the time of Sellers' return to the role in 1975's The Return of the Pink Panther it was clear that the Pink Panther branding, and its associated music and animation, were as key to the franchise's success as Clouseau's slapstick blundering. At least that time the Pink Panther gem made a plot return to justify the title. 1976's The Pink Panther Strikes Again had no such justification for its use of the title. There is no appearance from the Pink Panther at any point and the diamond certainly does not "strike again", even assuming a jewel could be capable of that. Nevertheless, the series went on using the name long beyond any relevance, just as it continued to be made long after it had ceased to be funny. The diamond equally does not take revenge in Revenge of the Pink Panther, nor does it bear offspring in Son of the Pink Panther, by which time the Panther may as well have been a nickname for Clouseau himself. As with The Thin Man, what we ended up with here is the film's own producers moronically assuming the title must refer to the protagonist, as if John McClane was really called Die Hard.