10 Potentially Awesome Movie Franchises That Never Took Off

6. Starship Troopers

Starship-Troopers To be fair, Paul Verhoeven's sci-fi satire Starship Troopers did earn two sequels...the problem is that both of them were straight-to-DVD, and both of them were absolutely diabolical (yet somehow, the third film cost a whopping $20 million), so basically, they just don't count (even though Casper Van Dien did return for the third film, playing protagonist Rico). What truly fascinates is that anyone was inspired to make a Starship Troopers follow-up at all, given that the original cost $105 million and only made $121.2 million, despite modestly positive reviews and a subsequently firm cult fanbase. The world of Starship Troopers is such fertile ground for a trilogy of effects-heavy war movies, but alas, the satire just didn't resonate with more casual audiences, who perhaps prefer their movies to be more shooty and less talky (even though the film boasted its share of awesome action). Plus, the lack of a known leading man certainly didn't help things (call it Taylor Kitsch syndrome)...
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Frequently sleep-deprived film addict and video game obsessive who spends more time than is healthy in darkened London screening rooms. Follow his twitter on @ShaunMunroFilm or e-mail him at shaneo632 [at] gmail.com.