10 Upcoming Legacy Movie Sequels That Feel Inevitable
Austin Powers 4 is DEFINITELY happening sooner or later.
Has there been a hotter cinematic trend in recent years than the legacy sequel?
Exemplified by the success of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the legacy sequel typically arrives a good while after the previous film, and teams original cast members with young new leads for a film that plants one foot in the past and another in the future.
The results unsurprisingly tend to vary, regardless of box office success: for every Force Awakens and Top Gun: Maverick, there's a couple of Terminator: Dark Fates and Rambo: Last Bloods.
But they're an easy(ish) way for movie studios to mine their existing properties for box office gravy, and so there seems to be little prospect of the legacy sequel conveyor-belt stopping anytime soon.
We can only hope that Hollywood shrewdly picks projects that might organically benefit from another movie, rather than cynically trying to flog a dead horse.
For better or worse, then, these 10 legacy sequels all feel like they're basically inevitable within the current Hollywood climate, and could easily be announced any day now.
Each at least has a measure of potential, so it's just up to Hollywood to develop them in a smart and respectful way...
10. Gremlins 3
Even though Gremlins 2: The New Batch was a massive box office disappointment back in 1990, the IP nevertheless remains highly visible and popular today, enough that it's a genuine surprise a third Gremlins hasn't yet come down the pike.
It hasn't been for lack of trying, though, with it first being reported back in 2013 that Steven Spielberg was planning to reboot the franchise.
Since then talk of a new Gremlins movie has pivoted into a direct sequel to the first two films, with original writer Chris Columbus even penning a "dark and twisted" script for a potential threequel.
Nothing's managed to stick yet, but given the enduring fondness for Gremlins and especially furry hero Gizmo (Howie Mandel), it feels like it's just a matter of time before a third movies arrives.
It goes without saying that it'll surely center around a new troop of young heroes teaming up with Billy (Zach Galligan), Kate (Phoebe Cates), and Gizmo to take down a new fleet of Gremlins - assuming Phoebe Cates can be lured back out of retirement for at least a cameo, of course.
Columbus insists that any new Gremlins movie will absolutely use puppets and animatronics rather than opt for an ill-advised CGI makeover, so that's something, right?