10 Film Franchises That Became Something Else Entirely
Some of these changes were gradual, others less so.
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00:00 It's impossible to tell what will happen with a film once it's released into the
00:04 wider world. As an artist, you have to accept that, to some degree, your art is no longer
00:09 yours once it's in the public sphere. Still, few movies have started off as one thing and
00:14 then pivoted so far towards something else as these ten franchise starters.
00:19 For a multitude of reasons, it's baffling to look back at where these series started
00:24 versus what we know them to be today. So with that in mind, I'm Ellie with WhatCulture
00:28 here with ten film franchises that became something else entirely.
00:33 10. The Chronicles of Riddick
00:36 Pitch Black was a sci-fi film with horror elements released in the year 2000. It tracked
00:40 the crew of a spaceship that had crashed on a planet about to undergo an eclipse. Only
00:44 problem, it was inhabited by cave-dwelling creatures that will kill them all once the
00:48 sun is blocked. What are the chances?
00:51 Thankfully, they had Richard B. Riddick in their crew, a criminal with genetically enhanced
00:56 eyes. Played by your boy Vin Diesel, Riddick helped the crew escape the planet, redeeming
01:01 himself somewhat in the process.
01:03 Diesel's performance as Riddick was one of his first standout moments and clearly caught
01:07 the attention of the film's producers. The second film in the series, The Chronicles
01:11 of Riddick from 2004, was entirely focused on him. As well as switching out the lead
01:16 character, the movie also became more action-oriented, and it also had about four times more money
01:22 to play with.
01:23 A third film, entitled just Riddick, came out in 2013 and was just as action-heavy as
01:28 the last. The series has become a long way from Vin and his shiny eyes running around
01:33 in the dark.
01:34 9. Evil Dead
01:36 In 1981, Sam Raimi announced himself on the horror stage with The Evil Dead, a film all
01:41 about the dangers of reading. Five college students come across a version of the Book
01:46 of the Dead and inadvertently summon a group of demonic deadites hell-bent on taking them
01:51 all down.
01:52 Survivors Ash and Linda make it into the next movie, Evil Dead 2, although Linda gets
01:57 binned off after about 15 minutes. This sets the stage for Ash, played by Bruce Campbell
02:02 of course, to become a solo horror icon. Evil Dead 2 and its follow-up Army of Darkness
02:07 lean much more into comedy than the movie that started it all. Ash really gets into
02:12 his action-hero one-liners, and there are far more comical moments peppered throughout
02:16 their respective run times.
02:18 By the time Army of Darkness rolled around, Raimi fully embraced the laugh, setting the
02:23 whole thing in the Middle Ages after Ash accidentally travelled back in time. The 2013 remake got
02:29 things back on the spooky path, but nobody really cared all that much. Evil Dead is one
02:34 of the best examples of comedy horror out there, and there's nothing wrong with that.
02:38 8. Rambo
02:39 First Blood, from 1982, was the first big-screen appearance of Sly as Vietnam War vet John
02:45 Rambo. After a run-in with the local police triggers his PTSD, Rambo violently escapes
02:50 from jail before hiding out in a nearby forest as the cops relentlessly pursue him. He's
02:55 a complex anti-hero in this movie. He causes untold damage, but is also a man without a
03:00 home left to rot by the country he so bravely served. He doesn't even kill anyone unless
03:05 it's by accident. Don't get too attached to this version of Rambo, though - he's completely
03:09 gone by the series' next instalment.
03:12 Rambo First Blood Part 2, which makes no sense grammatically, came out three years later
03:17 and transformed the title character into a full-on action man. His tendency to blow up,
03:22 maim and kill as many people as possible doesn't slow down over the course of the next three
03:27 films. A once-promising character transformed into yet another meathead. That's the real
03:32 trauma right there.
03:34 7. Mad Max
03:36 It might surprise you to learn that a film series called Mad Max actually started off
03:41 fairly realistically. George Miller's first trip to a dystopian down-under doesn't actually
03:46 take place during a full-blown apocalypse. It is instead set during the breakdown of
03:50 society as the country struggles to come to terms with mass oil shortages. Mel Gibson
03:55 plays Max Rokitansky, a police officer tasked with keeping order in a crumbling world. By
04:01 the time the second Mad Max movie comes along, the world hasn't just crumbled, it's disintegrated.
04:07 Max now finds himself a hermetic survivor in a world ravaged by full-on nuclear war.
04:12 It is this film, called The Road Warrior in the US, that introduces the whole weird mutant
04:17 people element of the franchise.
04:19 The third film, Beyond Thunderdome, takes this concept to the extreme. It has Tina Turner
04:24 in it for goodness sake. 2015's Fury Road returned the series to slightly more grounded
04:30 roots, but it was still utterly mental. With that film garnering so much success, expect
04:35 to see Miller lean more into the zaniness of the franchise going forward. Maybe he'll
04:39 even get Tina back.
04:41 Number 6. Jaws.
04:43 In 1975, Steven Spielberg changed everything when he made the original blockbuster Jaws.
04:48 He certainly changed everything for the world's shark population, who have never recovered.
04:53 It was tense. It was frightening. It had just the right balance of action, horror and intrigue.
04:59 Jaws was a massive hit. And then came the sequels.
05:03 Jaws 2, released three years later, was a decent, if unnecessary, follow-up. Jaws 3D,
05:08 though, that's when the rudder came fully off the boat.
05:11 And as for Jaws The Revenge? Don't even get us started. Alright, get us started, because
05:16 it's actually quite funny. Ignoring the events of the first two sequels, always a good sign,
05:20 the fourth Jaws film is totally nuts. Not only does the shark follow the Brody family
05:26 to the Bahamas, but Brody's wife Ellen also develops psychic powers, like she can sense
05:31 when the shark is going to attack. It's completely nonsensical and earned the film a well-deserved
05:36 zero percent on Rotten Tomatoes, which is probably too high, in all honesty.
05:41 Number 5. Robocop.
05:43 Despite sounding like it was tailor-made to sell toys, the first Robocop movie is a really
05:48 bloody affair. The film has an A-teen rating in the UK today and got the dreaded X rating
05:54 from the American Motion Picture Association, which would have killed its initial theatrical
05:58 run. Thankfully, the rating was eventually lowered and fans got to see it.
06:03 The violence and gore was still present when Officer Alex Murphy returned for the sequel.
06:08 Not for number three, though. Number three was very different. This movie was intentionally
06:13 geared towards a family audience, so cut down massively on the violence and swearing. Not
06:18 the swearing! That's the best part of this film series about a robotic police officer.
06:24 Robocop 3 completely zapped the franchise of everything fans loved about it. It was
06:28 meant to be an over-the-top bloodfest, but now it was just another sci-fi series designed
06:33 to get pre-teens into movie theatres. It failed at this, by the way, drawing less money than
06:38 the original film despite having almost twice the budget. At least Robocop can take some
06:43 comfort knowing that he's not the only android on this list, but he'll be back later.
06:48 Number 4. A Nightmare on Elm Street.
06:51 Freddy Krueger remains one of horror's greatest ever monsters, despite several decades' worth
06:55 of attempts to neuter him. First stalking us in our dreams in the original 1984 Nightmare
07:00 movie, Freddy has been back eight times across various sequels, reboots and spin-offs. And
07:06 yeah, he's changed a bit over the years.
07:09 He started out as a genuinely frightening villain, able to assault people when they
07:13 were at their most vulnerable. His disfigured face and iconic bladed glove weapon soon became
07:18 classic horror iconography. Over time, though, the character became less of a relentless
07:23 killer and more of a punchline. He started cracking jokes, dressing up in funny costumes
07:28 and pulling very odd faces. He wasn't scary anymore, which was a crying shame.
07:33 Wes Craven did his best to revitalise his creation in his new Nightmare film, but that
07:38 couldn't undo years of damage done to the character. Once Freddy's edge was blunted,
07:43 the films really started to go downhill, to the point where there are now more bad Nightmare
07:47 films than good ones.
07:49 Number 3. The Terminator
07:51 Before he became obsessed with shoving blue people down our throats, James Cameron made
07:55 1984's The Terminator. It's now become an iconic tale. Machines take over the Earth,
08:02 humans rebel, machines send Arnold Schwarzenegger back in time to kill human resistance leader
08:06 before he is born. Chuck in some sunglasses and Arnie's bare butt, and that's basically
08:10 the movie.
08:11 The first Terminator film is a slasher film dressed up in sci-fi clothes. Sarah Connor
08:16 and Kyle Reese are relentlessly pursued by the mechanical menace who is as unmoving and
08:21 cold as any great horror villain. The picture is just darker too. Literally, some scenes
08:25 are kinda hard to see.
08:27 Seven years later, Cameron returns to the series for Terminator 2 Judgment Day. This
08:32 time, he presented an out-and-out action thriller, complete with car chases, shootouts and enough
08:37 leather to make a vegan puke.
08:39 The horror elements of the past movie were completely gone, traded in for one-liners
08:43 and cool fight sequences. Not that this was a bad thing, mind you, as Terminator 2 is
08:48 often considered one of the greatest action movies of all time. If only the same could
08:53 be said for all of the films after that.
08:55 Number 2. Harry Potter
08:57 It is often said of the Harry Potter movies that they "grew up with their audience",
09:01 which is the perfect way of describing them. The first two films are children's movies,
09:06 through and through. Everything from the music, to the colour palette, to the action, screamed
09:10 "take your 10-year-old to see me". And, to their immense credit, this worked.
09:15 As the lead trio grew up or weren't cute anymore, the films took a decidedly darker
09:20 tone. This kicked off with the appearance of the Dementor in Prisoner of Azkaban, a
09:24 moment that wet the pants of unsuspecting children the world over.
09:29 Things shifted again when Voldemort made his return to the land of the living, giving Harry
09:33 et al a physical embodiment of evil to fight with. By the time the final two movies were
09:38 being shown, these were not kids' films anymore. Imagine how out of place a game of
09:43 Quidditch or Wizard's Chess would have looked in either of the Deathly Hallows films. And
09:47 equally, just think what the reaction would have been like to the Bethilder Bagshot sequence
09:51 if it had made its way into the Philosopher's Stone. That's not a world worth thinking
09:55 about.
09:56 Number 1. The Fast and the Furious
09:59 Vin Diesel starts the list, Vin Diesel ends the list. How poetic. Well, as poetic as supercars
10:05 jumping through buildings can be. In 2001, one of the biggest, most ridiculous film franchises
10:10 of all time revved into life as undercover cop Brian O'Connor attempted to bring down
10:14 Diesel's street-racing kingpin Dominic Toretto. The film ends with the two men forming a friendship,
10:20 some might even call it a family, but the story was far from over. Since initially meeting
10:26 Brian Dom and their friends have outrun helicopters, jumped cars across skyscrapers, deflected
10:32 nuclear missiles, parachuted in cars and gone to actual space. This series used to be about
10:37 street racing. How did this happen?
10:40 The Fast movies aren't car movies anymore. They're superhero flicks filled with impossible
10:45 feats of action, garish gadgets and shady villains. They are completely ludicrous. But
10:51 hey, if that's what you want out of a film, you honestly can't do much better.
10:55 And that concludes our list. If you think we missed any, then do let us know in the
10:58 comments below and while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that
11:01 notification bell. Also, head over to Twitter and follow us there and I can be found across
11:05 various social medias just by searching Ellie Littlechild. I've been Ellie with What Culture,
11:10 I hope you have a magical day and I'll see you real soon.