Long term sequels

[teankun91]

With Tron: Legacy about to be released, I’ve been thinking about other long-term sequels, movies that are release a decade or more after the original. Let me clarify that for me this excludes remakes or re-imaginings such as Tim Burrton’s Planet of Apes, but those that are actual additions to the continuity and preferably also have the original characters via the original actors. For example, Tron: Legacy has Bruce Boxleitner and Jeff Bridges reprising both their respective real world characters of Alan Bradley and Kevin Flynn as well as their program characters respectively Tron and Clu.

One of the earliest long-term sequels I can remember is 1983’s Psycho II, sequel to one of Alfred Hitchcock’s most famous movies released almost twenty years after the original. In fact, that was the tag line: “It's 22 years later and Norman Bates is coming home.” This starred the original actor, Anthony Perkins, and he would also star in a later sequel in 1986 and a prequel in 1990.

Another long-term sequel about this time is 2010, sequel of Kubrick’s 2001:A Space Odyssey. This was also an adaptation of the book 2010 which, of course, itself was also the sequel to the book 2001, both of which written by the same person, Arthur C. Clark. (Clark also wrote two more sequels, 2061 and 3001, but so far there have been no plans to make these movies.) The character Heywood Floyd is in both movies, but is played by different actors, William Sylvester in the original and Roy Scheider in the sequel. On the other hand, Keir Dullea played the character Dave Bowman in both movies and Douglas Rain also did the voice for HAL 9000 in both movies.


Off hand I can’t think of too many other long-term sequels in the 80’s or 90’s, but here have been quite a few in the second half of the past decade. There was the fourth Indiana Jones movie, the fourth Rambo, and the final Rocky movie. One particular note of Rocky Balboa was the actor’s age was incorporated into the plot with the character’s age.

The long-term sequel trend contrasts with the Star Wars prequels. While generally these involved totally new characters played totally new actors (with the exception of Ewan McGregor playing a younger Alec Guinness), most of actors reprising their roles, namely Frank Oz, James Earl Jones, Peter Mayhew, and Anthony Daniels, were primarily voice roles; in any case, their older features were never shown. The only reprising actor to actually do an on screen performance with his face totally visible was Ian McDiarmid reprising the role as Palpatine aka the Emperor. Fortunately, the actor’s older features was already compromised in the earlier movie Return of the Jedi, when the younger actor was given extreme makeup to give a deformed look so that the while older actor looked as a younger (as well as less deformed) character. He also played the role in the DVD version of The Empire Strikes Back

Anyone else know of any other long-term sequels I might have missed?

[Kyler]

The only one that I can think of is Terminator 2 than Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.

They movies were done 12 years apart. T3 obviously was not nearly as good as T2.
T2 in my opinion is one of the best sequels ever being made.

[Shadow6]

The gap between the second and third Toy Storys was eleven years (and an example of a sequel done properly), with much (all, excluding the characters not in the third?) the same voice actors. Die Hard 4 was twelve years after the previous installment, with Bruce Willis still playing the main. As you say, there are quite a few.

And a minor nitpick: it is spelt Clarke, not Clark.

[The Dark]

Off hand I can’t think of too many other long-term sequels in the 80’s or 90’s

1939 - The Wizard of Oz
1985 - Return to Oz

1961 - Hustler
1986 - The Color of Money

1974 - Chinatown
1990 - The Two Jakes

1974 - The Godfather Part II
1990 - The Godfather Part III

1977 - The Rescuers
1990 - The Rescuers Down Under

1981 - Escape from New York
1996 - Escape from L.A.

1976 - Carrie
1999 - The Rage: Carrie 2

For a couple others not in the 80s or 90s:
1991 - Silence of the Lambs
2001 - Hannibal

1941 - The Maltese Falcon
1975 - The Black Bird

[Whiplash]

Wall Street 1987 (never saw it)
Wall Street: Monet Never Sleeps 2010 (meh)

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade 1989 (never saw it)
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull 2008 (meh)

[Shroom Man 777]

JOHN RAMBO

[Dalton]

Rocky V and Rocky Balboa as well, for that matter.

[Marcus Aurelius]

Predator 2 1990
Alien vs. Predator 2004

Unofficial sequel:

The Conversation 1974
Enemy of the State 1998

The writer of the latter movie has admitted that they thought Gene Hackman's character is the same as in The Conversation even though it does not have an official sequel status and the name of the character is different. (The original was written and directed by Francis Coppola, who had nothing to do with the Enemy of the State.)

[lance]

Predator 2 1990
Predators 2010

FTFY

[KhyronTheBackstabber]

Although it's a year shy of a decade

Phantasm -1979
Phantasm 2 - 1988

[tim31]

Another long-term sequel about this time is 2010, sequel of Kubrick’s 2001:A Space Odyssey. This was also an adaptation of the book 2010 which, of course, itself was also the sequel to the book 2001, both of which written by the same person, Arthur C. Clark. (Clark also wrote two more sequels, 2061 and 3001, but so far there have been no plans to make these movies.) The character Heywood Floyd is in both movies, but is played by different actors, William Sylvester in the original and Roy Scheider in the sequel. On the other hand, Keir Dullea played the character Dave Bowman in both movies and Douglas Rain also did the voice for HAL 9000 in both movies.

A side note; in the foreword to the novel of 2010, Clark points out that where the first book and movie differed(in the book the Discovery mission was to Saturn) he chose to follow the movie for purposes of a sequel.

[Coyote]

The movie Gone With the Wind had a book sequel just...ohhh, ten years ago? But I don't know if that would really count, since there was a change in medium (move to book) for the sequel. It might be seen as little more than fanfiction that got published professionally.

[Steve]

Um, "Gone With the Wind" was initially a book as well. By a Confederate apologist, granted...

[Coyote]

Um, "Gone With the Wind" was initially a book as well. By a Confederate apologist, granted...

Ah, I thought the book followed in the wake of the movie. I never saw or read either, so... eh.

[Freefall]

Texas Chainsaw Massacre - 1974
Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 - 1986

Boondock Saints - 1999
Boondock Saints II - 2009

To me, another interesting question is how many of these movies actually seemed like they were any good or actually added to the franchise? TCM 2 was certainly horrible. Boondock Saints 2 was disappointing. Indy 4 I thought was okay on its own, but a waste of the franchise. Rambo 4 I actually thought was really good, and I had never been a Rambo fan. Never saw the Psycho sequels, but I heard they were pretty bad, and I was under the impression that they came so late because they spent those 20 years begging Anthony Perkins to do them, who kept refusing until I guess he became desperate due to typecasting.

[Marcus Aurelius]

The movie Gone With the Wind had a book sequel just...ohhh, ten years ago? But I don't know if that would really count, since there was a change in medium (move to book) for the sequel. It might be seen as little more than fanfiction that got published professionally.

I don't know when the novel was written, but the story was filmed as a miniseries already in 1994, so I suppose the novel predates that.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108915/