10 Movies That Teased A Sequel Which Never Happened

Although The Golden Compass didn’t receive rave reviews when it was released, the two sequels were still in production to be made.

The Golden Compass made a lot of book lovers angry, as the film didn’t follow its source material tightly by changing a lot of scenes or cutting out important ones entirely.

However, the biggest controversy to come from the film was the film's anti-religious message, which actor Sam Elliott claims the Catholic Church was to blame for the cancellation of the sequel. The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights said the film was promoting “atheism for kids” due to the way the film criticised religion, especially Catholicism.

The Catholic League called for a boycott of the film, but according to New Line Cinema the sequels were put on hold, not because of the controversy as Sam Elliott believes, but because of financial concerns during the global recession of 2008 that affected Hollywood and many upcoming productions planned.

New Line Cinema were also in early development of The Hobbit trilogy which was the guaranteed box-office winner out of the two. However, HBO has come out with a successful TV show based off the books named, His Dark Materials.