5 Cinematic Universes That Failed Miserably
3. King Arthur
Guy Ritchie's King Arthur: Legend of the Sword had a whole back catalogue of sequels, spin offs, and origins stories in the pipeline before it even got released, essentially dooming it to obscurity by not focussing on the here-and-now of the opening film. Directed by Ritchie and a delightfully different spin on the Arthurian legend, the film isn't necessarily a bad one - but the same can't be said for the proposed follow ups.
Written by Joby Harold, who also planned to have a Robin Hood cinematic universe (someone please stop this man), there was plans for individual tales of the knights of the round table to become canon in the King Arthur universe. Lancelot, Merlin, and a whole host of other characters were penned in to make big screen debuts - that is until the creative team came to their senses and realised people wouldn't really care unless they were hardcore history fans.
Taking the characters away from Arthur resulted in less engaging storylines, and ones the company didn't want to follow up on. Whilst it would have been interesting to see just how they would have stylised these interconnected movies, the latest King Arthur movie serves as more than enough testament to the legend.