Popular movie franchises provide so much more than just a few hours of entertainment. They dominate their industry’s landscape, galvanizing fans and creating a powerful sense of community. If done well, they can become a cultural force, building from one film into a massive connected universe. Unfortunately, sometimes it just doesn’t work out that way - even when a studio has planned something big.
Sometimes a presumptive franchise is poorly handled or incorrectly timed and it just doesn’t connect with audiences. Sometimes studio interference ruins the good times for everyone. Whatever the reason, here are ten franchises that were never allowed to realize their full potential. All of them have the potential to return someday, in some capacity, but all of them would need a significant makeover first.
Conan
1982’s Conan the Barbarian was successful, nearly quadrupling its budget at the box office and establishing Arnold Schwarzenegger as an action hero. Unfortunately, the sequel (Conan the Destroyer) did poorly both critically and commercially. While a third film was in development, super-producer Dino DeLaurentis attempted to create a spinoff, Red Sonja. Featuring Conan in a supporting role, it was a tentative step towards an innovative extended universe.
Unfortunately, Red Sonja’s studio wasn’t able to license the rights to Conan, so Schwarzenegger was forced to play the Conan-esque Lord Kalidor instead. That film performed even worse and got even poorer reviews, and by then Schwarzenegger’s contract was up and he abandoned the franchise. He’s spoken of returning since, but so far nothing has come of his claims.
The Amazing Spider-Man
The reasons for Sony’s Amazing Spider-Man franchise ending early are simple: the second film’s reception was horrible. Fans hated it, critics mocked it, it didn’t meet expectations at the box office… It was meant to spin off an entire Spider-Man universe, with Venom and Sinister Six movies on the horizon, but Sony put all of those plans on hold.
Now, with the Venom franchise in full swing and a spinoff movie about Morbius in the can, it seems like Sony’s plans might finally come to fruition. But who is the Spider-Man in this universe? It’s probably no longer Amazing’s Andrew Garfield, and an appearance by Michael Keaton’s Vulture in the Morbius trailer implies that it might be Tom Holland. However, nothing has been confirmed, leaving this franchise in a fascinating limbo.
National Treasure
Starring Nicolas Cage as treasure hunter Benjamin Franklin Gates, the National Treasure films earned middling reviews but were quite successful at the box office. However, since the second film in 2007, there has been no further development of the franchise. A higher-up at Disney said that “the company was never able to capitalize on it as a franchise,” meaning that the films had little merchandising potential. Kids just weren’t clamoring to buy action figures of Benjamin Gates’ estranged father.
Now, well over a decade later, a TV series is in the works for Disney+.
Chinatown
Any cinephiles will already be aware of Chinatown, one of the most acclaimed films of the '70s. However, even devoted fans might not realize that it was, in fact, part of a larger franchise. There was a sequel, released 16 years later and directed by series star Jack Nicholson himself. The Two Jakes followed Nicholson’s character Jake Gittes on a new case, one which saw him deal with the events of the earlier film and the death of Evelyn Mulwray.
A third film, Gittes vs. Gittes, was planned but scrapped when The Two Jakes performed poorly and received mediocre reviews. It’s a solid film, but following up a classic so many years later was always going to be a tricky proposition.
The Chronicles of Narnia
This beloved fantasy series must have seemed like a slam dunk in the mid-2000s, like a hybrid of Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. The first film, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe did perform to expectations. Unfortunately, the second film in the series, Prince Caspian, was more expensive to produce and made far less money. Disney, who had been co-producing the films, got spooked and stepped away, with 20th Century Fox eventually taking their place. The third film, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, only earned slightly less money than Prince Caspian, and the budget was significantly lower. However, the next film in the series, The Silver Chair, was never produced. A Netflix series was announced in 2018, but as of 2021, a release date has not been confirmed.
Hellboy
Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy series was profitable, critically acclaimed, and beloved by fans, so why wasn’t his trilogy completed? Director del Toro originally delayed the project because of his interest in The Hobbit, then the Pacific Rim franchise, though he always remained invested in Hellboy. However, Hellboy 3 was meant to be a grand finale, with a much higher budget. Despite the success of the previous films, no major studios were willing to take the gamble.
Finally, del Toro was able to work out a deal with Legendary Pictures: if his Pacific Rim sequel did well then Hellboy 3 might have a chance. Then del Toro left Pacific Rim: Uprising, voiding the deal and dooming Hellboy 3 for good. Instead, Lionsgate chose to reboot the franchise, which did not go well.
Divergent
Critics never responded to the Divergent series, calling it derivative of other Young Adult franchises like The Hunger Games. Audiences disagreed, flocking to the theater in droves. However, the third film, Allegiant, was a box office bomb, earning only $180 million worldwide on a $142 million budget. Compare that to the first film in the series, which earned double its budget in North America alone. As had been done with many YA properties at the time, Lionsgate Films made the decision to release the story’s final chapter in two volumes. However, because of the public’s lack of interest, the fourth film was canceled, with plans shifting to a TV movie on the Starz channel. By that point seemingly no one in the cast or crew was still passionate about the project, and the franchise was abandoned for good. This may be the most high-profile franchise ever to be abandoned largely out of boredom.
The Hulk (Edward Norton Edition)
Aside from an appearance by Thunderbolt Ross in Captain America: Civil War, the events of 2008’s The Incredible Hulk have been largely ignored by Marvel in the intervening years. Most notably, the original Hulk Edward Norton did not return for 2012’s The Avengers. Norton did take it upon himself to rewrite the entire script and argue with Marvel over the final edit. Regardless, The Incredible Hulk was the lowest-grossing Marvel movie, and its failure (coupled with the negative reception for Ang Lee’s Hulk five years earlier) convinced the company to stop making Hulk solo films for the foreseeable future.
The Dark Universe
Much like Marvel, Universal tried to build its own extended universe, one based around their classic monsters. It all began with 2017’s The Mummy, a film intended to establish the series’ continuity and introduce both its first hero (Tom Cruise’s Nick Morton) and the Nick Fury type who would bring the team together (Russell Crowe’s Dr. Jekyll). It was an expensive film, and though its worldwide box office was reasonably high domestic numbers were shockingly low. Reviews were poor and audience reaction was extremely mixed, so the entire Dark Universe concept was scrapped. Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water, originally intended to be the Dark Universe version of The Creature from the Black Lagoon, went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture.
The Snyderverse
This is still an ongoing situation, but it seems that the Snyderverse has been shelved… again. Every fan knows the story by now: Zack Snyder was the guiding voice in the DC Cinematic Universe, but his films earned a very mixed fan reception. When he had to step away from Justice League for personal reasons DC brought in Joss Whedon who radically altered the film. Fans fought to see Zack’s original version, which didn’t really exist at the time. Eventually, DC gave in and allotted him the money to finish it. Fans loved it, but it didn’t bring as many new subscribers to HBO Max as expected. If it had, perhaps the Snyderverse could have gotten a second chance. As for now, things aren’t looking so good…