SLOUGH, ENGLAND:
If there was ever a hill for Hollywood to die on, it could be the hill of sequels. If it exists, it may well spawn a sequel, that’s the Hollywood motto. Or a prequel, or a shot-by-shot reboot. So long as it reels in viewers unable to keep away from the inescapable pull of nostalgia, it is good to go.
As Gladiator II has taken pains to indicate us, popping out because it did 24 years in the past after Gladiator, it issues little if the unique that fathered the sequel is many years outdated. If somebody might determine a option to elevate the Titanic again as much as dry land on hydraulic legs and polish it up a bit, we might have on our fingers Titanic 2. Or Titanic: Reloaded. With local weather change having taken care of a few of these troublesome icebergs littering the North Atlantic, the newly restored Titanic might survive its voyage this time irrespective of how distracted its crew is, paving the way in which for Titanic 3 and Titanic 4. There is no such thing as a placing that toothpaste again within the tube.
A 12 months of repeats
Should you stay unconvinced about this sequel epidemic, you want solely take a pithy look at this 12 months’s high ten imaginatively named field workplace hits, as laid out for us by IMDb. This was the 12 months that gave us, in descending high ten order of ticket gross sales, Inside Out 2, Deadpool & Wolverine, Despicable Me 4, Moana 2, Dune: Half 2, Depraved, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, King Fu Panda 4, Venom: The Final Dance, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
Simply lacking a spot on the highest ten, coming in at quantity 11, we have now Gladiator II. Later down the road at quantity 14, we have now catastrophe movie Twisters. Preserve scrolling down and you’ll come throughout Alien: Romulus (prequel to Aliens and sequel to Alien), Smile 2, A Quiet Place: Day One (prequel to 2018’s A Quiet Place), the much-mocked Joker: Folie à Deux, and naturally, the Disney prequel completely no one requested for, Mufasa: The Lion King.
Talking of prequels no one requested for, we even have the sequel to Forrest Gump that no one wished, Right here, that includes an AI-aged Tom Hanks. And it would not finish right here! (Pun very sadly unintended.) One more Garfield movie, Terrifier 3, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, the Imply Ladies musical and an addition to the Paddington franchise all make an look. The message is incontestably clear: whether or not a sequel will bomb or fly, come hell or excessive water, you’re going to get it. If not you, then your kids. And their kids. All the way in which till the tip of time or till the solar explodes, whichever comes first.
A rising phenomenon
Sequels have by no means been out of trend, however this 12 months has been much more sequel-heavy than regular. Based on IMDb, that is the primary time in 50 years the highest ten record has consisted totally of sequels. Going again 30 years, out of the highest ten movies of 1994, solely three have been variations. None have been sequels. This was the 12 months that churned out Forrest Gump, The Lion King and Pulp Fiction – all of which at the moment are thought-about classics, and two of which have succumbed to a pointless sequel (Forrest Gump) and each a reboot and a prequel (The Lion King).
The place final 12 months we had the highly effective ‘Barbenheimer’ phenomenon, born with the dual launch of Barbie and Oppenheimer, this 12 months cinema tried to offer us ‘Glicked’, the forcible jamming of Gladiator II and Depraved (presumably as a result of ‘Wadiator’ didn’t have fairly the identical ring to it). The place each Barbie and Oppenheimer have been unique movies, Gladiator II and Depraved have been actually not. Depraved might not be based mostly on an current movie, however it’s based mostly on an current Broadway present, which in flip is predicated on Gregory Maguire’s novel (Depraved), which is predicated on the MGM movie (The Wizard of Oz), which is predicated L Frank Baum’s e book of the identical identify. Depraved the movie simply occurs to be the most recent hyperlink in a really lengthy chain of variations and prequels.
As for Gladiator II, we could not have had Russell Crowe’s Maximus (on account of Maximus’s unlucky demise within the unique movie), however we did have Paul Mescal’s Lucius, Maximus’s son. Familiarity could breed contempt, however absence makes the guts develop fonder – which is how we have now ended up with a Crowe-less Gladiator sequel 24 years later. So long as there’s somebody in a gladiator costume wreaking havoc within the acquainted embrace of the Colosseum, nobody cares. Apart from maybe Crowe himself, who, in response to Deadline, campaigned laborious to discover a option to convey Maximus again from the useless, however to no avail. Up to now, anyway. Offered it’s mildly acquainted and harking back to days lengthy since previous, somebody will purchase a ticket.
In a sequel’s defence
What conclusions can we draw from this? We are able to see, for a begin, that creating natural, unique content material, seems to be edging into chilly fusion territory: an ideal concept, however a little bit of a headache to place collectively. Waiting for 2025, we’re already pencilled in for a Disney’s Snow White reboot for February, which, if trailer reception is any indication, seems to be even much less interesting than Hanks’ AI-generated visage in Right here. Nevertheless, as the highest ten record has proved, nostalgia-baiting is under no circumstances a technique employed solely by Disney, regardless of the (justifiable) flak the studio will get for reeling in millennials with reboots, prequels and villain origin tales. Arising in Might, in the meantime, we have now yet one more certainly one of Tom Cruise’s unimaginable missions (no slouch within the sequels division) to sit up for, Mission: Unimaginable – The Last Reckoning.
Maybe, as a filmmaker, it’s simpler not simply to make a sequel (safe within the information that not less than somebody will succumb to nostalgia), but additionally, as a viewer, to look at one thing you already know. With streaming companies pulling out outdated fashionable collection similar to Pals to appease a pandemic-plagued planet, maybe there’s a lesson to be realized. In a world wracked with uncertainty, inflation, local weather change, and doom-laden information, watching the comparatively comforting and acquainted Inside Out 2, Kung Fu Panda 4, or yet one more Deadpool movie might not be the worst concept. And with this in thoughts, maybe we may stay to see Titanic 2 in any case.