Not every franchise gets its endgame.
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00:00 As Tony Stark once said from Beyond the Grave, "Part of the journey is the end."
00:04 Of course, how a story arrives there is equally, if not even more important than the conclusion,
00:10 but that ending is crucial to its success. This is no different in the movie industry,
00:15 whether you're talking about a standalone movie or a franchise, although in today's landscape,
00:20 it seems that almost everything will eventually be turned into a franchise.
00:23 Even if that is the plan, however, things don't always pan out as anticipated.
00:28 Whether it's because of box office and critical failings, overambition, behind the scenes issues,
00:33 or a combination of the above, many movie franchises don't get to reach their end.
00:38 Is there anything more infuriating than getting invested in a story,
00:42 only for it to be robbed of its conclusion with no closure?
00:46 Whether for better or worse, in the end is debatable, but some franchises get quite far
00:50 into their story before having the rug pulled from under them, while others barely even begin.
00:55 And so, with that in mind, I'm Ellie with WhatCulture,
00:58 here with 10 movie franchises that were robbed of an ending.
01:02 10. King Arthur Legend of the Sword
01:05 Planning is absolutely essential when it comes to building a movie franchise. Without it,
01:10 a studio runs the risk of suffering exactly what the Star Wars sequels went through;
01:15 three movies that were completely disconnected and seemingly going out of their way to reckon
01:19 the others. However, you have to be sensible about these things. Franchises like the aforementioned
01:24 Star Wars, the MCU, and any drawing from a book series with a pre-existing, passionate fanbase
01:30 can reasonably expect success, but King Arthur was none of these.
01:34 Of course, it's a famous story, but it doesn't exactly have the die-hard fans of Harry Potter.
01:39 This is why announcing a six-movie franchise before the first movie had even been released
01:45 was incredibly risky, particularly when a leading man lacking the star power to put such a franchise
01:51 on his back. As popular as Charlie Hunnam was as Jax Teller in Sons of Anarchy, he couldn't lift
01:56 King Arthur above a disappointing and franchise-ending box office of $148 million worldwide.
02:03 Unsurprisingly, any hope of sequels died with this bomb.
02:06 9. The Chronicles of Narnia
02:08 The previous entry referenced movie franchises adapting popular source material,
02:13 and while this would certainly help the longevity of such franchises in theory,
02:17 this isn't always the case. Look no further than The Chronicles of Narnia.
02:22 The seven books, written by C.S. Lewis and considered classics by many, were published
02:27 throughout the 1950s and have retained audiences right up to the present day. The film series,
02:32 however, was hampered by issues that stopped it from getting anywhere near the end of the
02:36 source material. The first movie, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, pulled in an impressive
02:40 $745 million, but both sequels performed considerably worse, with numbers of just over
02:47 $400 million each. This put the studio off producing any more movies for a while, though
02:53 things were seemingly back on track for the fourth of seven planned movies to release.
02:57 However, this hope was short-lived, not only because enough time had passed that the children
03:02 were too old to return to their roles, but because Netflix purchased the rights. This effectively
03:07 killed the franchise on the spot. Noise was then made about a potential series at the
03:11 streaming giant, though nothing of note has been heard since.
03:15 8. Spider-Man There will always be a passionate
03:18 debate among comic book movie fans as to which iteration of Spider-Man is the best. Of course,
03:23 all have their own merits, though Tobey Maguire's version of Peter Parker has a certain advantage
03:28 for being the original. From 2002 through to 2007, Sam Raimi brought his trilogy to life.
03:34 People loved the first movie, the second is the best of the three, but the less said about the
03:38 third, the better. It essentially spat in the face of everything that made the first two movies great,
03:43 opting to shove as many over-the-top characters and stories down audiences' throats as possible.
03:48 Even in spite of its poor reception, Spider-Man 3 performed well at the box office,
03:53 and a fourth movie was confirmed. It was even given a 2011 release date. But unfortunately,
03:59 in spite of reportedly bringing back the core cast, as well as John Malkovich and Anne Hathaway as
04:04 Vulture and Black Cat respectively, Sam Raimi wasn't happy with the script.
04:08 The acclaimed director ultimately left the project, ending Tobey Maguire's stint as Spider-Man and
04:13 opening the door for another. Which leads us to…
04:16 7. The Amazing Spider-Man What was Tobey Maguire's loss turned out
04:21 to be Andrew Garfield's gain, as The Amazing Spider-Man saw the English actor's suit up as
04:26 a very different Peter Parker. Though Mark Webb's movies typically weren't as well-received as
04:32 Raimi's, there is still a lot of love for Andrew Garfield himself.
04:35 Peter 3 was, to many, the MVP of Spider-Man No Way Home, bringing a great deal of depth
04:41 and emotion to proceedings, but according to the Sony leak of 2014, which claimed he was let go
04:47 for failing to show up to a press event in Brazil, he was the architect of his own downfall.
04:53 The event in question reportedly would have seen the announcement of The Amazing Spider-Man 3,
04:58 ironically a movie that fans want to see now more than ever, slated for a 2016 release.
05:04 Instead, with Garfield fired and a second Spider-Man franchise dead in the water in seven
05:08 years, Sony turned to Marvel Studios. This was truly the final nail in the coffin,
05:13 as Tom Holland was brought in to play in the MCU, leaving The Amazing Spider-Man 3 on the shelf
05:19 forever. There is a slim hope for fans that the popularity of Garfield in No Way Home could spark
05:24 a return to the franchise, but for the time being, it doesn't seem particularly likely.
05:29 Number 6. Divergent
05:31 Things started off well for the Divergent series, but the movie franchise suffered largely at the
05:36 hands of cinematic trends that it tried to exploit. The first of these trends was the
05:40 world's obsession with young adult novels in the wake of The Hunger Games' success.
05:44 Debuting in 2012 and finishing in 2015, The Hunger Games is up there with the best young
05:50 adult film franchises, leading to adaptations like Divergent and The Maze Runner. However,
05:55 the Divergent series never reached the same level as The Hunger Games, and by the time the third
06:00 movie released in 2016, no one really cared anymore. The young adult trend had passed,
06:06 as was made very clear by Allegiant's sub-$200 million global take. It was at this point that
06:12 the studio decided to abandon ship, leaving regret over the decision to split the final movie in two.
06:18 Allegiant Part 1 performed so poorly at the box office that the franchise was killed on the spot.
06:23 Talk of a TV movie was put to bed pretty quickly, with none of the cast even remotely interested.
06:29 Number 5. Eragon
06:31 In the same way that Divergent was essentially born out of the mainstream audience's brief
06:36 obsession with young adult novels, Eragon was a product of the fantasy movie craze of the early
06:41 2000s. Just three years removed from Return of the King came a movie in the same vein,
06:46 albeit far inferior. Eragon, based on the incredibly popular children's book series,
06:51 was cursed by the same trend that brought about its release. There was a massive call for fantasy
06:56 movies of this ilk, but with the likes of The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter to compete against,
07:01 there was never really much hope for the franchise. Of course, it didn't help that
07:04 the movie was as poor as it was. Even without being mired in an oversaturated genre, Eragon
07:10 gave critics and audiences little to hang on to. Even with a fairly decent cast, there was little
07:16 to redeem it. Like The Chronicles of Narnia, the full Inheritance Cycle source material,
07:21 which is the book series Eragon is part of, was never destined to make it to the big screen.
07:26 Only the first book was adapted, at which point the studio saw fit to pull the plug,
07:30 and it's hard to argue with that decision.
07:32 Number 4. Hellboy
07:34 There are plenty of reasons for a movie not to be made, and many on this list have focused on
07:38 the likes of poor showings at the box office or seeing an actor fired. Hellboy 3, however,
07:43 seemingly never got made simply because of Guillermo del Toro's ridiculous schedule.
07:48 He and actor Ron Perlman created a Hellboy that earned itself a loyal army of fans.
07:53 After The Golden Army released in 2008, such fans immediately looked to a third Hellboy movie,
07:58 while the director didn't. Instead, del Toro was hired to direct The Hobbit. Of course,
08:04 this didn't work out, but upon leaving the project, it was Pacific Rim that the director went to,
08:08 again putting off Hellboy 3. Incredibly, it wasn't until 2017 that the threequel was
08:14 officially cancelled, and after the David Harbour reboot became one of the biggest
08:18 cinematic bombs in recent memory, it's unlikely any movie studio will touch the Hellboy property
08:24 any time soon. Number 3. Multiple DCEU franchises
08:28 The DC Extended Universe has never been without its issues since its inception in 2013. Tonal
08:35 shifts, no real direction, huge flops, and plenty of troubles off-screen meant the DCEU was something
08:41 of a problem child. Recently, moves have been made to steady the ship and take what is now
08:45 known as the DCU into a brighter future. Mega changes are coming, but some of the biggest
08:50 have been the cancellation of franchises and confirmation that certain characters will no
08:55 longer be appearing under the new banner. For example, Wonder Woman 3 has been scrapped.
09:00 Not too surprising after the reception of Wonder Woman 1984, as has what was arguably the franchise's
09:06 most exciting prospect. Dwayne Johnson has a knack for boosting failing franchises,
09:11 and he gave his everything to Black Adam. Fans loved it, in particular the long-awaited return
09:16 of Henry Cavill in the movie's post-credits scene, and the thought of seeing the two go
09:21 toe-to-toe down the line was amazing. However, it's since been confirmed that neither Henry
09:26 Cavill's Man of Steel nor Black Adam have a place in the DCU's immediate future.
09:31 Number 2 - Fantastic Four
09:33 The Tim Story Fantastic Four movies from the mid-2000s were inoffensive yet uninspired,
09:38 but by 2015, they would retroactively be made to look a hell of a lot better.
09:43 The 2015 reboot, which boasted an impressive cast on paper, will always be in the conversation for
09:49 the worst comic book movie of all time. Certainly, that is suggested by its abysmal 9% Rotten Tomato
09:55 score. Its audience score isn't much better at 18%, even though Fox had such high hopes before
10:01 its release. The Fantastic Four movies certainly never lived up to the property's potential from
10:05 the source material, and so building a universe around them seemed like a good opportunity,
10:10 but not with a dull, joyless opener like Fantastic Four.
10:14 After Josh Trank's infamous bomb, the movie that should have kickstarted a new Fantastic
10:18 Four franchise instead ended up killing it. It wasn't long after this that Marvel's first
10:23 family returned home to Marvel Studios and the MCU, hopefully opening the door for a much better
10:29 version of the team in the future. Number 1 - The Dark Universe
10:33 Like King Arthur Legend of the Sword, there are too many franchises that tried to jump on the
10:38 bandwagon of the shared universe trend before laying any solid foundations. Arguably no
10:43 potential franchise rushed into things so quickly than The Dark Universe. This was to be the shared
10:48 universe of Universal Monsters, kicking off with Tom Cruise-led reboot of The Mummy in 2017.
10:55 Cruise was just one of the huge names attached to the new mega-franchise,
10:58 with Russell Crowe as Dr. Jekyll, Johnny Depp as the Invisible Man,
11:02 and Javier Bardem as Frankenstein's monster. Universal were seemingly throwing everything
11:07 at this new franchise, and would have needed nothing short of a complete and utter disaster
11:11 to pull out after just one movie. Unfortunately, this is exactly what The Mummy was.
11:17 With a Rotten Tomatoes score of just 15%, an audience score of 35%, and a mediocre box office
11:23 take, even the director labelled the movie as both brutal and the worst failure of his life.
11:29 It would seem that the studio also agreed.
11:32 And that concludes our list. If you think we missed any, then do let us know in the comments
11:36 below. And while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe, and tap that notification bell.
11:40 Also, head over to Twitter and follow us there, and I can be found across various social medias
11:44 just by searching Ellie Littlechild. I've been Ellie with What Culture,
11:47 I hope you have a magical day, and I'll see you real soon.