9 Insulting Ways Characters Were Killed Off Between Movies

2. Everyone Explodes - G.I. Joe: Retaliation

Sometimes, a sequel gets made and you have no idea why. G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra, at best, was a complete misfire and, at worst, completely embarrassing for everyone involved, especially star Channing Tatum who quickly became a bona-fide movie star following the picture's release. Paramount pushed ahead with a sequel anyway though, subtitled Retaliation, bringing Tatum back but dropping pretty much the rest of the cast from the original, including Marlon Wayans' Ripcord.

Tatum reportedly wanted nothing less than to return for the sequel, but was contractually obligated to. Fortunately for him, he's killed off quickly in the opening, as an airstrike takes out all the original G.I. Joe members, making it clear that he was only brought back for 10 minutes so Paramount could use his cultural relevance to con people into paying for a sequel they didn't want to see.

It's the rest of the cast that pulled the short straw, though. The studio obviously didn't want to pay for the actors to return just to give them a dignified demise (presumably as they couldn't capitalise on their image like they could Tatum's), and instead just implied that they also died in the explosion, leaving it to the performers and producers to tackle the question in interviews following the film's release.