We’ve all seen enough movies to know how things work when it comes to big budget blockbusters; the opening installment lays the world-building groundwork, introduces our key players and their backstories, while leaving behind a deliberate trail of teases, hints, and breadcrumbs that can be picked up in future entries should the project in question perform well enough to get a sequel or two.
However, there have also been plenty of occasions when fantastic films have arrived, said their piece and then left, never to be heard from again. In the process, they left behind a tantalizingly unexplored mythology that had so many more stories left to tell, but barely even managed to scratch the most superficial levels of the surface before the credits rolled.
It clearly still stings for plenty of fans, though, who’ve been calling out the titles that felt like they were part of a sprawling mythology that never happened. The original post kicks things off with an excellent case in Demolition Man, before the floor was opened up to commenters.
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension didn’t take too long to make an appearance, which is fair enough when it’s the cult classic to end all cult classics. Minority Report is another excellent shout, even if it did get a TV series that was canned after a single season, because a police force stopping crimes that haven’t happened yet is an incredible concept.
The Fifth Element, District 9, Dredd, and Bright are all worthy contenders, too, and the recurring theme for all four is that they each had sequels announced that never ended up happening. John Wick is brought up for being the ideal scenario of how a franchise can drip-feed lore to its audience in the long-term, something many properties should aspire to.