Why did one director intentionally sabotage the sequel to his surprise hit? From a lighthearted high school comedy to a brutal tale of revenge, these beloved super-films deserved super follow-ups — but they never ended up getting them.
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00:00Why did one director intentionally sabotage the sequel to his surprise hit?
00:05From a light-hearted high school comedy to a brutal tale of revenge, these beloved superfilms
00:09deserved super follow-ups, but they never ended up getting them.
00:14Based on the comic book creation of Todd McFarlane, the 1997 movie Spawn follows assassin Al Simmons,
00:19who's double-crossed by his boss and murdered.
00:22That's when he makes a deal with the demon Malbolja to return to the world he knew, but
00:25in exchange, he must be transformed and lead Hell's army.
00:38Spawn earned back more than double its $40 million budget and went on to become a cult
00:43hit, but that wasn't enough for New Line Cinema to be interested in a sequel.
00:47In the meantime, McFarlane brought the character to the small screen in an Emmy-winning series
00:50for HBO.
00:52Since then, McFarlane has been working to get another Spawn movie made, one which he
00:56envisions as more of a reboot than sequel.
00:58In a 2005 interview with IGN, McFarlane explained a new vision for an R-rated feature in which
01:04Spawn's role would be similar to that of the shark in Jaws, a destructive, mostly unseen
01:08entity whose presence looms large in the storyline.
01:11In 2013, McFarlane revealed he was still working on a Spawn reboot, divulging that he was supposed
01:16to have a script ready by the end of that year.
01:19Another update came in 2022, when Jamie Foxx, who had since become attached to Starr, told
01:23Comicbook.com that the long-gestating project would be comparable to Todd Phillips' reimagining
01:28of the clown Prince of Crime in 2019's Joker.
01:31As fun as that sounds, the pieces don't seem to be moving into place very quickly.
01:36When it comes to comic book antiheroes, they don't come much nastier than Marvel's Punisher.
01:40Frank Castle made his first live-action appearance when he was played by Dolph Lundgren in the
01:441989 direct-to-VHS movie The Punisher.
01:48Thomas Jane assumed the role in a 2004 movie of the same name, which brought in a respectable
01:52worldwide box office gross of $54.7 million on a budget of $33 million.
01:58While fans expected a sequel, what came next was essentially a reboot, with Ray Stevenson
02:03playing the role in 2008's The Punisher Warzone.
02:06Jon Bernthal also ended up taking on the character in a subsequent Netflix series.
02:10So why was there a reboot and not a sequel?
02:13According to Jane, there initially were plans for him to star in a second Punisher movie,
02:17but they ended up falling through.
02:19As he revealed during an appearance at Fanboy Expo Knoxville, a sequel was in development
02:23with rocker and horror filmmaker Rob Zombie attached as director.
02:27The team at Marvel, Jane said, weren't on board with Zombie's vision, so they went in
02:31search of another director.
02:32They finally settled on Walter Hill, an industry veteran who'd helmed such hits as 48 Hours
02:37and The Warriors.
02:39A big fan of Hill's work, Jane was thrilled, until Marvel bafflingly went in yet another
02:43direction and let him go.
02:45When Marvel suggested a replacement director whom Jane felt wasn't up to snuff, he walked
02:49away, and that was curtains for any possibility of The Punisher 2.
02:54Before he played Deadshot in 2016's ill-reviewed but profitable Suicide Squad, Will Smith starred
02:59in a different kind of superhero movie.
03:01In 2008's Hancock, his superhuman character of the same name is more interested in getting
03:06publicly intoxicated than helping people in danger.
03:09Even when he does try to save the day, he ends up leaving parts of Los Angeles destroyed
03:13in his wake.
03:14A big-budget production that reportedly cost $150 million to make, Hancock proved to be
03:27a worldwide smash, with international box office receipts exceeding $629 million.
03:33With numbers like that, Hancock 2 would seem to be a no-brainer.
03:36So why didn't it happen?
03:38Well, it almost did.
03:39In September 2009, director Peter Berg announced that a sequel was in the works with Smith
03:44and co-stars Charlize Theron and Jason Bateman all on board.
03:47Writers were hired, with Berg telling MTV News,
03:50"...hopefully we'll have a script soon.
03:51It's something everybody's anxious to get involved with."
03:54Just a few months later, however, Berg was singing a very different tune.
03:58He was reported as telling the press,
03:59"...you'll never meet a group of people who will have a harder time agreeing on anything."
04:04He seemed insistent that Hancock 2 would eventually get made, but as of 2023, the alcoholic hero
04:08still hasn't returned.
04:11Hidden among the glut of theatrical superhero flicks in 2012, including The Avengers, The
04:16Amazing Spider-Man, The Dark Knight Rises, and several more, was Josh Trank's Chronicle,
04:21which put a very different spin on the genre.
04:23The found-footage film follows three teenage boys who discover a mysterious substance that
04:27gives them telekinetic powers, ultimately setting them on a dark path.
04:31Made for just $12 million, Chronicle became a surprise hit by grossing more than $126
04:37million.
04:38Director Josh Trank was quickly tapped to reinvigorate another superhero franchise,
04:42but his 2015 version of Fantastic Four didn't have any of his previous feature's low-budget
04:47charm.
04:48Meanwhile, Fox was proceeding with a Chronicle sequel without Trank's involvement.
04:52With surprising honesty, he admitted in 2020 that he intentionally tried to derail the
04:56project, as he didn't have much faith that it would succeed.
04:59The director told Polygon,
05:01"...I made it difficult for them to set up meetings.
05:03I was dodgy about stuff.
05:05I did a lot of s**t things.
05:06I really didn't ever want to see Chronicle 2 happen.
05:09That was my worst nightmare.
05:11First of all, I'm not doing it.
05:13Second, if somebody else does it, then you know it's gonna be a piece of s**t."
05:17The following year, however, producer John Davis confirmed that a Chronicle sequel was
05:20moving forward regardless.
05:22He told Forbes,
05:23"...We're working on Chronicle 2 right now, and I think it's going to be great.
05:27We're going to tell it from the female point of view."
05:30There's the Avengers, the X-Men, the Justice League, and then there's the Mystery Men.
05:35One of the weirdest superhero teams in history made the leap from flaming carrot comics to
05:38the big screen in 1999.
05:41Members include expert digger The Shoveler, the cutlery-throwing Blue Rajah, the bowling
05:45ball-wielding Bowler, the inexperienced Invisible Boy, the flatulent Spleen, and Mr. Furious,
05:51who gets really, really angry.
05:54After the actual superhero, Captain Amazing, is kidnapped, it's up to them to take on the
05:57evil mastermind, Casanova Frankenstein.
06:01"...We've got a blind date with destiny."
06:03"...And it looks like she's ordered the lobster."
06:07Despite a star-studded cast and the presence of Smash Mouth's All-Star, Mystery Men was
06:11a box office bomb that made back less than half of its budget.
06:15That pretty much quashed any hopes for a sequel.
06:17Or did it?
06:19In the years since its release, Mystery Men has evolved into something of a cult favorite,
06:22with its ever-expanding fanbase clamoring for a sequel.
06:26Actor Kel Mitchell, who played the boy who can only turn invisible when nobody is watching,
06:30has been vocal about his desire to expand the Mystery Men universe.
06:33He even has some ideas for what a sequel, or prequel, might entail.
06:38When asked to share his pitch, Mitchell told ComicBook.com,
06:41"...Let's just say Origin Story.
06:43You know, we were the first superhero team-up before the Avengers, and all those superhero
06:46movies started doing that."
06:48Unfortunately, the gang may have aged a bit too much to play younger versions of their
06:52heroes, and tragically, Paul Reubens is no longer around to reprise his role.
06:58Years before Disney bought Marvel, the House of Mouse dipped its toe into the superhero
07:01genre by combining it with a high school comedy.
07:042005's Sky High takes place largely at a floating academy where young superhumans are sent to
07:09hone their skills.
07:10As the son of two world-famous heroes, freshman Will Stronghold is already feeling the pressure
07:15of his family legacy, even though his powers haven't quite kicked in yet.
07:19It's an exciting take on a classic coming-of-age story, and Will's struggle to find himself
07:23ended up resonating with kids everywhere.
07:26Disney's brightly-colored family flick was something of an anomaly compared to other
07:29superhero movies of the era, like Batman Begins.
07:31Still, Sky High performed well at the box office, bringing in close to $90 million internationally
07:36— nearly three times its modest budget of $35 million.
07:40According to director Mike Mitchell, Disney initially intended to spin off Sky High as
07:44a TV series, and the entire teenage cast was on board.
07:48But when Sky High wasn't the nine-digit mega-blockbuster that Disney had apparently hoped for, those
07:53plans ended up getting shelved.
07:55Still, there was enough faith in the potential for a sequel that Mitchell and some writers
07:58conceived of a second film, Save You, in which the characters would graduate high school
08:03and hone their skills further at superhero college.
08:05Mitchell said of Sky High,
08:07"...I am hugely proud of it, and they should make it a franchise."
08:11Based on a character with a history dating back to 1936, The Green Hornet was adapted
08:15for television in the 1960s, with Van Johnson playing the titular masked vigilante and martial
08:20arts legend Bruce Lee as his manservant, Kato.
08:23After Iron Man and the Dark Knight kickstarted a superhero boom at the box office, the character
08:27was revived in 2011.
08:29This time, comedy star Seth Rogen took on the title role, joined by J. Cho as Kato.
08:34With a budget of $120 million, a script from Rogen and longtime collaborator Evan Goldberg,
08:48and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind director Michel Gondry at the helm, The Green
08:52Hornet earned mixed reviews and $227 million at the box office.
08:57Given all that, a sequel shouldn't have been out of the question, but $227 million
09:02apparently wasn't enough.
09:03Producer Neil Moritz told The Hollywood Reporter,
09:05"...The movie did almost $250 million and was actually very well-liked, but we made
09:11the movie for too much money.
09:12If I had done it in a tax rebate state and not done 3D, it would have been considered
09:16a huge financial success for the studio.
09:18So we're not making a sequel right now."
09:21While a sequel may be out of the cards, plans for a reboot have been floating about for
09:24some time.
09:25In 2020, the rights to the property were obtained by Amaja Entertainment, with plans to develop
09:30a new movie.
09:32The Phantom is nearly as old as The Green Hornet, having made his first appearance in
09:36a newspaper comic of the same name in 1936.
09:39Paramount brought the masked crime fighter to the screen in 1996, with future Titanic
09:43star Billy Zane putting on the unmistakable purple suit.
09:47While Zane had signed up for two sequels, the low-budget film's old-timey vibe and
09:50so-so script did little to win over either critics or regular moviegoers.
09:55That resulted in middling reviews and an anemic box office take of just $17 million that cratered
10:00any possibility of a franchise.
10:03More than a decade later, The Phantom re-emerged, on the small screen this time, when the sci-fi
10:07network greenlit a TV miniseries that debuted the following year.
10:11Ryan Carnes of Desperate Housewives fame took over the role, with plans that the miniseries
10:15– promoted by the network as a four-hour movie event – would serve as a backdoor
10:19pilot for a full-fledged show.
10:21Soft ratings and poor reviews ensured that didn't happen, and The Phantom faded once
10:25again.
10:26Over the years, rumors have occasionally emerged of a reboot called The Phantom Legacy, but
10:30those plans never quite came to fruition.
10:32Still, Zane has expressed interest in returning to the role.
10:35As he told ComicBook.com,
10:37To be honest, a Phantom return would be quite interesting.
10:40Twenty years later, it's a father-to-son business, and a bit of a handoff.
10:43So right out of the comic universe, I'd say that character would be a hoot.
10:47Boasting a retro Art Deco-inspired look and Billy Campbell in the title role, Disney's
10:52The Rocketeer zoomed into theaters in 1991, and promptly took a big old nosedive.
10:57The story of a cocky pilot who uses a prototype jetpack to take on Nazis flopped at the box
11:01office, earning $46.7 million on a budget of slightly less.
11:06Even though plans were in place for a sequel, those numbers essentially quashed Disney's
11:10ambitious plans for a franchise.
11:20Fast forward 25 years, with The Rocketeer now viewed as an ahead-of-its-time cult favorite,
11:24and plans are being forged for a reboot.
11:27In 2016, The Hollywood Reporter claimed that a rebooted Rocketeer was in development, and
11:31in 2021, Deadline reported that David Oyelowo and his wife, Jessica, were producing a sequel,
11:36a Disney Plus movie to be titled The Return of the Rocketeer.
11:40This take on the character would potentially star the Selma actor as a former Tuskegee
11:43airman who takes over the jetpack as the new titular hero.
11:47Oyelowo offered an update in a 2022 interview with The Wrap, revealing that the script was
11:51still being written and there was no director attached as of yet.
11:55As he put it,
11:56I was a big fan of the first one.
11:58Actually had the poster up in my bedroom as a teenager.
12:00It's a beloved property over at Disney, so to be trusted with it is a real privilege.
12:04We're going to take care of the fans of the original, and hopefully bring in a whole new
12:08fanbase.
12:10If a superhero movie ever seemed destined for success, it was Justice League.
12:14The 2017 film was the culmination of the DC Extended Universe, teaming up Henry Cavill's
12:19Superman, Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman, and Ben Affleck's Batman.
12:22In the midst of production, director Zack Snyder and his wife, producer Deborah Snyder,
12:26were forced to exit the film to deal with a family tragedy.
12:29Joss Whedon, who directed The Avengers and its first sequel, was brought in to finish
12:33the movie and reshoot much of what Snyder had already filmed.
12:36The resulting movie proved to be a critical disaster and a box office flop, losing the
12:40studio approximately $60 million amid largely lousy reviews.
12:45After years of begging from fans, Snyder unveiled the long-awaited Snyder Cut of the movie,
12:49which debuted in 2021 on HBO Max.
12:52Gone were most of Whedon's comedic touches as Snyder imbued the film with a darker tone,
12:57including a new scene featuring Affleck and Jared Leto as the Joker, reprising the role
13:01he originated in Suicide Squad.
13:03During a 2021 appearance at IGN FanFest, Snyder revealed that Justice League was originally
13:08intended to be a trilogy.
13:09While Snyder Cut fans may harbor hope that his planned sequels could be made, Snyder
13:13himself does not.
13:15When asked about DC Studios heads James Gunn and Peter Safran, Snyder said,
13:19"'Warner Bros.' has been aggressively anti-Snyder, if you will.
13:22What can I say?
13:23Clearly they're not interested in my take."
13:26Despite calls from fans to restore the Snyderverse, it seems that the director's time working
13:30with DC Studios has come to an end for now.
13:33These days, James Gunn is known for his trilogy of Guardians of the Galaxy movies and his
13:37role as co-head of Warner Bros. DC Studios.
13:40Back in 2000, he was still a few years away from breaking out as a director when he wrote
13:44the screenplay for The Specials, a quirky comedic take on the superhero genre.
13:49Starring Rob Lowe as the Weevil and Thomas Hayden Church as the Strobe, this low-budget
13:53indie is centered on a team of vulgar third-rate heroes.
13:56While the film kind of came and went at the time, it remains a cult favorite among fans
14:07and, given Gunn's track record in the years that followed, could be ripe for a sequel.
14:12While Gunn has never discussed any plans for The Specials 2, he did open up about its origins
14:16during an appearance promoting the film at the 2000 edition of San Diego Comic-Con.
14:21He revealed that he would find himself more interested in superheroes' interpersonal
14:24dynamics than whatever battle they were facing at the time.
14:27As he put it,
14:28I've also always been interested in people's jobs, and the fact that any job we have, whether
14:33it be a rock star or an actor or a film director or what, it ends up being a job, the same
14:38as working at a furniture store.
14:39In a lot of ways, The Specials is about that.
14:42They're superheroes, but they've gotten used to it.
14:44It's the same as working at The Gap.
14:46For years, pro wrestler-turned-actor Dwayne Johnson spoke about launching his own superhero
14:51franchise.
14:52In 2014, he confirmed that the hero that he'd be portraying, or rather the anti-hero, would
14:56be DC Comics' Black Adam.
14:59The film was a long time coming, and it finally hit theaters in October of 2022.
15:03Any doubts that Black Adam was intended to launch a multi-film franchise were laid to
15:06rest in a last-minute post-credits scene that featured Johnson's character encountering
15:10Henry Cavill's Superman himself.
15:13Fans could certainly be excused for assuming the scene was setting up an epic confrontation
15:16in a sequel, and even though critics were unenthused, the film's solid take at the box
15:21office of nearly $400 million worldwide seemed to guarantee a second film.
15:26But then an unexpected twist occurred.
15:28In October 2022, Peter Safran and James Gunn were tapped to head DC Studios.
15:33As it turned out, Gunn's vision for the future of the DC Cinematic Universe didn't include
15:37Cavill's return as Superman, or Johnson as Black Adam.
15:41During a 2023 sit-down with his friend and frequent co-star Kevin Hart, Johnson explained,
15:45I think that Black Adam got caught in a vortex of new leadership.
15:49That will always be one of the biggest mysteries, I think, not only for me and us on our end,
15:54but also throughout our business."
15:56As Johnson predicted, the hierarchy of the DC Universe did in fact change, but it wiped
16:00his version of Black Adam out of existence instead of putting him on top.