As spinoffs, sequels, and prequels abound,film franchisesare inescapable. Studios are going to continue to mine IP whenever and wherever possible. Even those franchises that lie dormant for 20 years and seem dead will inevitably be resurrected through the wildly popular, ever-present concept of a legacy-sequel. Now, they can be somewhat ill-defined, but in general, a legacy sequel is a film that continues a franchise about a generation or so since the last installment. It often features new characters who are the offspring or spiritual successors to characters from the original, while also bringing back OG people in supporting roles. There’s typically a meta, self-referential aspect to these films as well, with lots of scenes, dialogue, and designs that blur the line between homage and remake.
For example, I don’t necessarily think that anyIndiana Jonesfilms are legacy-sequels; they’re just continuous versions of the same story over a long period of time; Indiana Jones continues to be the main character throughout, he’s just older. Mad Max: Fury Road is also not a legacy sequel; it’s just another entry into a long-running franchise and exists in the same world; there’s no Mad Max Jr running around following his father’s footsteps.Beetlejuice Beetlejuiceis a legacy sequel, in that it creates a new main character in the daughter of the former main character. The thing about legacy sequels is that they can be sequels as well as reboots.
With that in mind, here are the elements that make a legacy-sequel successful, and which movies did it best.
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1A new, diverse generation
Scream bridges past and future
Scream (2022)
The Scream franchise was iconic for its visceral tension and its meta commentary about movies, so it’s no surprise that its attempt to restart the franchise anew with a legacy-sequel was wildly successful. That’s because it achieves the perfect balance of the then and now, of old and new, incorporating timeless elements while also making it very of the present time.
The main element that helps Scream succeed is how it creates its ensemble cast. The movie welcomes a crop of young, more ethnically and sexually diverse characters while positioning characters from the original as wise, supporting figures. This Scream wasn’t the first to create this dynamic, but it’s not always the easiest to pull off. You need to create somewhat believable circumstances for these characters to all interact, and they need to be fleshed out enough that you still care.
When you have boring new characters, and they are forced into arbitrary scenes with old characters just for the sake of sharing the screen, you get Jurassic World: Dominion.
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2Great storytelling and acting
Creed stands on its own
You don’t need to be particularly cute or clever to make a successful legacy sequel. Pair a great writer and director with a talented and irresistibly charming actor to make a movie (or three) that is just so fun and watchable that it helps to know what came before, but it also doesn’t matter.
That was the format for Creed, which looked at the offspring of an iconic character from the lengthy Rocky franchise around whom to build a movie. Written by Ryan Coogler and Aaron Covington (with assistance by Sylvester Stallone), and directed by Coogler, the film stars an ascendent Michael B. Jordan was an aspiring boxer following in his father’s footsteps. If you are a devotee of the Rocky films, you will see familiar beats and a compelling story that follows a young male who grew up without a father. If you’re coming in cold to the franchise, then you’ll still be treated to a story that is rich, and boxing scenes that are full of tension.
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3Ambition is worth it
Blade Runner: 2049 doesn’t always work, but it tries
Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
The worst legacy-sequels trade in nostalgia for stakes, familiarity for consequence. The most interesting ones embrace the nuance and passion of the original to try to make something special. That’s the case with Blade Runner: 2049, a lengthy, immersive, and ambitious film that had a lot of mixed, complicated reactions to it. There are lots of similarities to the original, but 2049 tackles the meaning of life and the question of what it is to be human in ways that are complex, confusing, and curious. It is not a casual watch, and even if it doesn’t work out the whole time, it’s certainly worth checking out.
In this way it is similar to Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which is somewhat of a legacy-sequel itself as it echoes Empire Strikes Back, was wildly ambitious and creative as well, trying to bring complicated ideas and new thoughts to a franchise that needed it. It was ambitious, and perhaps the best compliment it could be paid was that it upset a lot of franchise gateways and proved too much for those seeking out the safest, most familiar of stories.
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4No substance, just vibes
TRON: Legacy looks and sounds cool
TRON: Legacy
One of the opportunities of legacy-sequels is to utilize the latest technology to either improve on or alter the original, or simply to do things that weren’t really possible before. Maybe you don’t have the best story to work with, but if you may craft something visually compelling, then you might have something that’s fun to watch.
That’s more or less what happened with TRON: Legacy, which recreates the 80s film with modern touches. There’s the family connection that inspires many of the stories behind legacy films, but all of that matters less than the fact the Tron is an easy, captivating watch. On top of eye-catching aesthetics, Tron levels up the sound as well, with not just a technically rich audio, but also a killer soundtrack orchestrated by Daft Punk.
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5Just remake the original for the times
The Force Reboots
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)
There are any number of great movies that kicked off franchises that just won’t be eclipsed. Maybe a sequel comes close, but too often the movies that follow live in the shadow of the first. So, if you’re able to’t make a better movie, just make the same movie decades later and update the cast and a few other elements for the times.
That’s essentially what The Force Awakens is, an almost a beat-for-beat remake of A New Hope, but with new characters, better special effects, and an awareness that people love the original. It includes all the elements most fans adore, and enough time passed since any previous movie that there was a lot of love to give. The Force Awakens is perfectly fine and very watchable, even if it started to stir something within the worst kinds of fans. To a lesser extent, Teminator: Dark Fate did a similar thing by remaking Judgment Day with a bit of casting diversity and worthy special effects, and that just may be what audiences will get when they see the newest Beetlejuice movie.
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