9 Upcoming Movies That Could Be Franchise Killers

We’ve all had that moment in the cinema while watching the trailers; a preview for an upcoming sequel will appear onscreen, and we’ll roll our eyes that some studios are still trying to flog a tired old premise. Then we'll silently curse ourselves since we'll probably go see it anyway.

Some franchises have a natural lifespan, though, and it can be painful to watch it get stretched well beyond breaking point; especially for fans who’ll still go watch it out of misguided loyalty. Sequels make the world go round, however, and studios occasionally have to go around and shake their old properties by ankles to see if there’s any change falls out. 

2016 has quite a line up of these movies; belated, unwanted or just plain baffling sequels or reboots. Audiences can see from a mile off they exist solely to suck a bit more cash out of their wallets, and the odds of them being even half-decent are exceedingly bleak.

These movies are the most obvious suspects, and a combination of online contempt or, and this is even worse, sheer apathy by fans mean these franchises might have to call it a day and head off to a nice comfortable retirement home instead.  

Independence Day doesn’t hold up the way it used to; it’s still got some impressive effects and fun scenes (“Welcome to Earf!”), but there’s a lot of filler and silliness in there too. For some reason known only to the studio, they decided to wait twenty years to make a sequel, and release it in an era dominated by comic book movies without original star Will Smith; the box-office results should be interesting.

Returning director Roland Emmerich hasn’t had it easy the last few years – think White House Down – so it makes sense he’d want to return to his biggest hit. The fact is they waited too long; the original fans will have moved on long ago, and younger moviegoers won’t have any attachment to the original. It’s always lovely to see Jeff Goldblum and Bill Pullman getting work, but there’s hardly a compelling reason to go see it.

Liam Hemsworth will be playing the new hero too, and it’s a safe bet he won’t have the same charisma Will Smith did. It’s sad to say, but it looks like Resurgence will mark the end of the Independence Day franchise before it even really starts.