10 Horror Movie Sequels That Killed Franchises
7. Hannibal Rising
Alright, so this one's technically not a sequel, but it is a follow-up all the same.
Hollywood began adapting Thomas Harris' series of Hannibal Lecter novels with Manhunter in 1986, but it was, of course, 1991's The Silence of the Lambs which made the character a pop-culture phenomenon.
Like any colossal success, there was enormous interest in further exploiting Harris' novels, resulting in Hannibal and Red Dragon being released in 2001 and 2002, both proving commercially successful in their own right. And then we have 2007's Hannibal Rising - an adaptation of a Hannibal prequel novel, which Harris only agreed to write because producer Dino De Laurentiis threatened to hire another writer to pen it if he didn't.
Combine this lack of creative impetus with a total absence of Anthony Hopkins - it being a prequel and all - and it's no surprise at all that Hannibal Rising was a critical and commercial failure.
In the nearly two decades since, we haven't seen a single Hannibal movie, with the IP only living on through a short-lived-but-brilliant TV series starring Mads Mikkelsen and a rather terrible, swiftly cancelled 2021 spin-off centered around Clarice Starling.
Without clear audience interest in more Hannibal stories and an 85-year-old Harris having not written any new Hannibal novels since 2006's Hannibal Rising, it truly feels like the series is out of juice, and that's just fine.
Hollywood doesn't want to hear this, but it's OK for things to just end, especially with the unlikelihood of an 87-year-old Hopkins ever reprising the role again.