8 Once-Popular Movie Franchises (That Will Never Work Again)

5. New Movies Only Exist Because Of Their Legacy - Fantastic Four

Pop quiz, hotshot - what's the first thing anybody mentions when talking about the Fantastic Four? No, not naked Jessica Alba - time and again it's how they were Marvel's first superhero team. The comic giant had had some successes with superpowered beings under the guises of Timely and Atlas Comics previously, but it was Stan Lee's first creation that really put them on the map.

However, that they got there first (although not really - it was an attempt to cash in on DC's success with superheroes) and shaped the company is not only the prime selling point of the whole series, but also the only reason Fox are still trying to make them work on the big screen. When you break down Fantastic Four's appeal there's not much else there; the powers the quartet have a broad and nonsensical, while their actual adventures have been overshadowed by other characters ever since Spider-Man swung into view a year after they arrived.

They're so much background noise that they received one of the heftiest origin re-writes in the Ultimates comics line, an alternate-universe run that aimed to bring in new readers, while any new movie that comes along makes a big deal about how it's found depth in the bland original ciphers or is purposely diverging from anything that came before (as with U.N.C.L.E. making the name rather worthless).

This is something Superman has also struggled with - the original movies are incredibly pedestrian by today's standards, reflected in the overly-nostalgic Superman Returns, while Man Of Steel steered too far in the other, revisionist direction - but not only is his whole idea more interesting, there's been enough in-comic development and cultural presence since his inception to make him still (potentially) relevant.