2021 looks set to be the year of the delayed movie sequel, with a bunch of long-awaited films finally set to see the light of day. It's bad enough when an original film is consigned to development hell - the likes of Akira, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote and Mad Max: Fury Road can attest that the metaphorical purgatory of the cinematic world is just about as much fun as it sounds. Writers and directors put years of work into a protect, studios pump in the money and fans invest their time and interest, only for no end product to emerge.
But movie delays can be even more frustrating when the subject isn't an initial release, but a sequel. In these cases, the anticipation and the audience is already in place, waiting with bated breath for the next installment, only to be repeatedly disappointed. Fortunately, 2021's movie slate includes an array of releases many predicted might never become a reality. Although their delays might not be quite as lengthy as those listed above, the following set of movies have all endured troubled productions for one reason or another, and perhaps even risked never being made at all.
With 2020 still fresh, there's plenty of time for things to go wrong, of course, but for now at least, here are all the long-awaited delayed movie sequels that are set to finally hit theaters next year.
Jackass 4 (March 5th)
Something about the new millennium made a group of L.A. youngsters want to put their bodies on the line for fun, fame and fortune, and 2 decades later, their exploits still have audiences coming back for more. The appeal of the Jackass franchise isn't difficult to dissect; taking the perverse fascination of reality TV, mixing it with the enduring intrigue of the Evel Knievel-era stuntman and adding a sprinkling of the "most outrageous home video" craze, Johnny Knoxville and his crew were always onto a winning formula. A killer soundtrack and a slant towards skateboarding culture helped immortalize Jackass as a cultural movement that outgrew its MTV origins and went on the dominate the big screen.
After 3 entries in the main movie series, talk of a Jackass 4 began around 2012, but that project quickly evolved into Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa, an offshoot of the main series with a more cohesive narrative and Knoxville as the central grandpa character. Knoxville claims to have been setting aside ideas for a fourth 'proper' Jackass movie for some time since, and all the key crew members have expressed an interest in another round of physical torture following Bad Grandpa's release in 2013, leading to an official confirmation in December 2019 .
Indiana Jones 5 (July 9th)
Of all the long-awaited sequels coming out in 2021, Indiana Jones 5 is perhaps the one movie-goers could do without, and for good reason. Indiana Jones & The Raiders of the Lost Ark was a stone-cold classic in 1981, followed up by The Temple of Doom and The Last Crusade across the decade, both of which were well-liked enough, even if they failed to live up to the original. But it was 2008's The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull that soured Indy's cinematic canon, dividing fans more harshly than ever before, particularly with the infamous "nuke the fridge" scene. On one hand, Indiana Jones 5 offers a chance for the famous archaeologist to go out on a high note but, on the other, a fifth film risks tarnishing the legacy further, especially with Harrison Ford rapidly approaching 80.
Various cast and crew interviews confirmed that George Lucas was working on a story concept for Indiana Jones 5 almost immediately after the fourth movie was released, with suggestions that Shia LaBeouf's Mutt would play a more prominent role alongside an older Indy. That early progress ground to a halt after Lucasfilm was purchased by Disney in 2012, leading to some legal wrangling with Paramount and a reset on the proposed story. Finally, Indiana Jones 5 was announced for July 2019, but repeatedly failed attempts to nail down a writer pushed that date first back to 2020, and then to 2021 where it currently sits. With filming still yet to begin, further delays aren't out of the question.
Space Jam 2 (July 16th)
Space Jam is such a quintessentially 1990s film that it's impossible not to question the wisdom of a sequel 25 years down the line, but the idea of a modern day follow-up does, at the very least, conjure a morbid curiosity. The original Space Jam took the novel concept of combining classic cartoon Looney Tunes characters with real-life basketball mega-star, Michael Jordan, in an unashamedly wacky pop culture mashup. A fun and colorful visual feast, albeit not an especially clever one, Space Jam was a crossover hit with its target audience of youngsters and had a few treats for sports fans also.
Unsurprisingly, Warner Bros. looked to make a sequel straight away, but those plans were swiftly nixed when Jordan declined the offer to return. It wasn't until 2014 that the idea of Space Jam 2 was visited, with LeBron James identified as the man to take the franchise to a new generation but, once again, production was far from smooth, with original director, Justin Lin leaving the project in 2018. Terence Nance was later drafted in as Lin's replacement, directing a cast including Sonequa Martin-Green and Don Cheadle. Space Jam 2 went right to the buzzer, but production finally wrapped in late 2019.
The Suicide Squad (August 6th)
The gap between Suicide Squad and its imaginatively-titled sequel may not be as wide as other entries on this list, but the DCEU film managed to fit plenty of behind-the-scenes disarray into that 4 year interim. One of the more lucrative films in DC's shared universe, Suicide Squad boasted an all-star cast headed up by Margot Robbie and Will Smith, but suffered a critical battering both online and in reviews, which surely played a role in the less interconnected direction Warner Bros. are now taking their superhero movies. A Suicide Squad sequel was never seriously in question, but the nature of the follow-up has been in constant flux.
The original film's director, David Ayer, was originally slated for the sequel, but then moved along with Margot Robbie to Gotham City Sirens, an effort that DC ultimately dropped in favor of 2020's upcoming Birds of Prey. Ayer's replacement, Gavin O'Connor, also ended up departing the project, making way for James Gunn, fresh from being fired at Disney after the emergence of offensive tweets. Under Gunn's leadership, The Suicide Squad effectively became a soft reboot, rather than a direct sequel, with a mostly new batch of convicts joining the titular team alongside some favorites from the original.
Avatar 2 (December 17th)
Considering Avatar's place in cinematic history and James Cameron already marking out ideas for further movies, it's certainly a surprise that Avatar 2 has taken over a decade to come out. The original 2009 movie was a visually stunning affair, criticized by some for its comparatively weak story and heavy-handed environmental subtext. Nevertheless, there's no doubting the immersive nature of Pandora and the fascinating culture of the Na'vi which helped propel Avatar to record-breaking financial success. Since the original Avatar itself was the subject of repeated delays while Cameron waited for technology to catch up with his imagination, it's perhaps not surprising that the wait for a sequel has been similarly prolonged.
Avatar 2 was confirmed as early as 2010 and initially expected to arrive four years later. With reports suggesting the Avatar franchise would expand by as much as 5 additional films, the writing process wasn't completed until the February of 2017, with the prospective release date continually sliding backwards during that period. Production finally began in mid-2017, but the complicated nature of filming with cutting-edge technology meant further delays were necessary. Finally, December 2021 was settled upon, by which time Avatar 2 and 3 would've been released under the original plan. Back-to-back filming on the next two Avatar films continues later this year.
Sherlock Holmes 3 (December 22nd)
Many attribute the role of Iron Man as being instrumental in Robert Downey Jr.'s resurgence as a top-tier Hollywood star, but his turn as Arthur Conan Doyle's famous sleuth was arguably just as vital. Both the 2009 original Sherlock Holmes and 2011's A Game of Shadows released to considerable financial success and largely positive reviews, offering a more action-packed twist against the BBC's gritty, modern TV adaptation released around same time. The combination of Downey Jr. and Jude Law as the ever-faithful Dr. Watson proved a winning partnership alongside Guy Ritchie's direction and the 19th century setting, and the franchise was widely expected to become a trilogy in the not-too-distant future.
As is usually the case in development hell, finding the right script proved to be the stickiest sticking point for Sherlock Holmes 3, and the next big screen adventure for Doyle's dynamic duo wasn't officially announced until mid-2018, with a release for December 2020 set. This was subsequently moved back by a further year. With Robert Downey Jr. now officially out of the MCU (or is he?), and Dexter Fletcher set to take over Guy Ritchie's seat in the director's chair, there should be no further delay to Sherlock Holmes 3, which will now arrive a decade after the last installment.
