20 Things You Didn't Know About The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
6. ...Yet The Films Were Never Intended To Be A Trilogy
Despite the Dollars Trilogy now being a household name, their designation as a trilogy or even a continuity was never Leone's intention. He had simply made 3 spaghetti westerns starring Clint Eastwood as 3 very similar characters - even with 3 different names as opposed to none (Joe, Monco and Blondie respectively)!
The "Man With No Name" concept was invented by United Artists, the films' American distributor. They believed that presenting the films a trilogy was an effective marketing strategy - and it arguably works in the films' favour, taking Eastwood's character's aforementioned character development into account.
Leone drawing attention to Blondie acquiring the iconic sheepskin vest and brown poncho probably didn't help in making the films separate entities, either.