8 Crazy Movie Sequels That Almost Happened That We Just Found Out About

Adapted by Andrew Stanton from Edgar Rice Burroughs' sci-fi novels, the Disney-made John Carter never really got off the ground, despite having a solid premise and a killer cast (Willem Dafoe, Mark Strong... need we say more?), in which American Civil War soldier John Carter (Taylor Kitsch) finds himself transported to Mars where kingdoms are at war.

Perhaps it was due to Stanton being an animation director, having helmed solid gold Pixar hits like Finding Nemo (2003) and WALL-E (2008), or maybe a vague title, a lacklustre lead or uninspired visuals (despite being one of the most expensive films ever made), but John Carter's critical and commercial failure doomed what ought to have been the beginning of an exciting new franchise. Had it worked, it may have provided something of a tonic to the angsty, teen-focused film series, such as Twilight and Divergent, that seemed to be springing up all over during the late-2000s and early 2010s.

In any case, Stanton recently revealed his plan for the John Carter sequel that never happened, and it is a doozy. The villain abducts John Carter's child in the prologue, Carter rises from a coma state, and we are treated to grand, action-packed adventures into worlds existing inside worlds. And this was just the first of several treatments Stanton was working on for the series.