8 Upcoming Movie Sequels Destined To Fail

5. Bright 2

Fantastic Beasts Newt Scamander
Netflix

Ahead of its release in 2017, there was so much excitement and anticipation surrounding Bright.

A mish-mash of humans and magical, mystical beings? Played out like a buddy cop comedy? With Will Smith and Joel Edgerton on headlining duties? It seemed as if this Netflix production couldn't miss. Only it did. Hard.

Buddy cop comedies can be great when done right, and they're also the sort of movie that you don't necessarily need a huge budget for. But with Bright, Netflix went big and spent over $100 million to put the film together. To see that budget result in this movie was an absolute travesty - particularly when you consider this was effectively a made-for-TV picture.

Netflix is obviously a paywalled streaming service, but was anyone really going to sign up for Netflix just to watch Bright? That's highly doubtful. And so to spend so much money on a film designed for an on-demand platform, and then to see it bomb with critics and a good portion of film fans, that's a massive kick in the nether-regions for Netflix.

Despite all of this, however, tentative plans are still afoot for a Bright 2.

Production on that follow-up was at one point planned to start in 2019 but was delayed due to Will Smith's manic schedule. With no definitive start date for the sequel right now, one would think it might be best for Netflix to backtrack on Bright 2 - for there's no way this could be any form of success for the streaming juggernaut.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.