Movies That Were So Bad They Had To Cancel The Sequel

No one has higher hopes than the studio when it comes to a movie's franchise potential. If they sense a feature could be the start of something major, they might even green light a follow-up before the film even hits theaters, and in some cases—such as these films—those sequel plans are embarrassingly canned.

Sony planned to produce four installments in its rebooted Amazing Spider-Man franchise, but after the second one failed to impress reviewers and returned lackluster domestic box office results, the studio decided to hand the keys to the character over to Marvel for 2017's Spider-Man: Homecoming, which saw the studios sharing control—and Tom Holland stepping into Spidey's suit.

Even the Veronica Roth faithful were turned off by the third installment of the Divergent book series. The trilogy closer received grimmer reviews than its predecessors from readers who were disappointed at its hectic conclusion. So when Lionsgate announced they'd be dividing the final adaptation installment into two films, the collective eye-rolling among Divergent fans was intense.

The first two Divergent installments weren't built for critics, so it didn't matter that they weren't lapped with praise or prestige; they still earned enough money to justify carrying on with the franchise, so Allegiant was greenlit. However, the third film was an unmitigated disaster on all fronts, earning laughingstock status with critics and barely bringing in half of what Insurgent did at the box office. The production budget on the would-be final installment, Ascendant, was immediately slashed, the director jumped ship, and after the studio revealed they'd turn to television to produce the final chapter, several cast members bowed out.

Several months after its originally slated release date for Ascendant passed by, Lionsgate announced a new plan to develop Divergent's final leg as a TV series with Starz, but without its original initiates onboard to finish the dystopian saga, it hardly qualifies as a true sequel.

Based on the Steven Gould novels, Jumper was a sci-fi extravaganza that was clearly supposed to do more. With a promising young cast, an open ending, and a frenetic story that could easily be continued in new adventures, it had "franchise hopeful" written all over it. Despite a tepid box office take and terrible reviews, lead actor Hayden Christensen claimed sequel plans were still in development with the studio even two years after its release. According to Christensen, the sequel would've followed its heroes to a darker place; leap forward a decade, though, and 20th Century Fox is officially out of the Jumper movie business.

Director Doug Liman has since managed to transport the property to another locale for a reboot-slash-sequel produced by YouTube Red. However, instead of continuing on with Christensen's character's journey, as told in the second book Reflex, the new series will focus on the third novel in the series, Impulse, which focuses on his eventual daughter. Meanwhile, actor Jamie Bell has taken it upon himself to start up a television reboot based on the property, which may or may not feature him in his original role from the 2008 film. So while Jumper might have built a launchpad for separate projects, whatever plans were percolating for Jumper 2 have ultimately failed to clear the hurdle.

Fox tried to follow Marvel's Cinematic Universe concept and expand its own comic-based collection with a 2015 reboot of Fantastic Four. It may have seemed like a good idea at the time, especially since they boasted a quartet of critically favored actors (Michael B. Jordan, Miles Teller, Jamie Bell, and Kate Mara). Critics overwhelmingly hated it, however, and the box office results were terrible. A sequel was slated for 2017, but the cast has since said it won't happen.

Disney's John Carter was such a box office bomb that the film's title is now often used as an adjective to describe a grossly underperforming picture. The film's critical reception was moderate at best, but what really destroyed the would-be franchise was how much of a loss the studio took on its (lack of) ticket sales. The film reportedly cost a whopping $250 million to make, not counting its marketing expenses, and earned just $73 million in North America and $284 million worldwide. Ouch.

Although Ryan Reynolds has since proven his worth on the superhero market by way of Deadpool, his turn as Hal Jordan, a.k.a. the Green Lantern, was a franchise nonstarter and remains something of a pock mark on his filmography. Green Lantern, crushed by critics, also tanked at the box office and plans for Green Lantern 2 came to a crashing halt.

Red, a tongue-in-cheek action thriller about a group of retired CIA operatives brought back into action by an old foe, was just kooky and action-packed enough to hit the right tone with critics and make a nice mint at the box office. Encouraged by its all-star cast (including Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, and Morgan Freeman) and warm reception, the studio was quick to greenlight Red 2 and got a script going on Red 3 shortly before the first sequel's release.

Red 2 was a letdown for the studio, however—scorned by reviewers and skipped by moviegoers, and making more headlines for Willis' awkward promotional interviews than anything. Though the third installment was poised to go into production just months after Red 2's release, Red 3 was never greenlit. Instead series screenwriting duo Jon and Erich Hoeber took their story to NBC in the hopes of launching an hourlong TV series. When that failed to pan out, Lionsgate decided to instead reboot the Red series for the Indian market, effectively scrapping its plans for another follow-up to the surprise hit.

Ironically, Man of Steel star Henry Cavill was up for the leading role in what would've been McG's Superman: Flyby, but ultimately became Bryan Singer's Superman Returns. That loss ultimately turned out to be a win for him, because he'd later get to suit up as Kal-El anyway—and he missed out on the critical drubbing that greeted this misguided reboot, which didn't do well enough monetarily to justify Warner Bros. moving forward with its sequel plans.

It took more than two decades for the first sequel to 1982's Tron to come down the pike, and it looks like it might take just as long for the next one. The 2010 movie's domestic box office was mostly a bust, and despite some formidable fan effort to rescue plans for Tron 3 from the dustbin, Disney ultimately abandoned the project...although efforts to revive it have continued to simmer on the back burner.