Prequel movies are notoriously difficult to pull off, especially if fans of the original movies never wanted them in the first place. While a prequel can provide some interesting backstory about characters, the stakes often seem lower, because audiences know roughly how they’re going to end.
Only the best prequels can bring some new ideas to the story which justify their existence, whether they subtly change the original movies or act as exciting standalone stories. It usually helps if the audience is already on board with the basic premise, although this is rather rare.
Cruella de Vil is one ofDisney’s best animated villains, but this doesn’t mean anyone was desperate to find out about her early years trying to break into the tight-knit world of haute couture. It’s a credit to the cast and Craig Gillespie that there are still elements which make the prequel worthwhile despite its unappetizing premise.
Cruella de Vil is one of Disney’s best animated villains, but this doesn’t mean anyone was desperate to find out about her early years in the world of haute couture.
Cruellamakes a few strange missteps in its origin story.It probably wasn’t necessary to try and humanize the villain by explaining that her mother was killed by some dalmatians. This detail is like a weak parody of the tragic villain trope, and it’s symbolic of the jarring tonal shift between animation and live-action.
Disney’s live-action remakeshave been rather controversial, with many fans of the animated originals claiming that there’s no need for remakes other than commercial gain.The Lion Kingsums up this debate, as it earned mixed reviews and negative comparisons to the original, but it made over $1 billion at the box office.
Mufasa: The Lion Kingsees Disney doubling down on their live-action remakes,just likeCruella.It’s another story that fans ofThe Lion Kinglargely didn’t care to see, but it’s another box office success that suggests the critical response to the movie isn’t something Disney are too concerned with.
There are plenty of great characters in theMummymovies, but Mathayus wasn’t high on anyone’s list for their own spinoff movie.The Scorpion Kingcontinued the critical decline of the franchise, and it also failed to come close to the level of commercial success that the main series ofMummymovies enjoyed.
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Prequel movies are difficult to get right & often fail to live up to the original film, but these deserve to be remembered by viewers & critics.
The Scorpion Kinggave Dwayne Johnson his first lead role. Perhaps it’s cynical to suggest that this was the motivation behind the prequel, but there certainly wasn’t much necessity in the story forThe Scorpion King.Nevertheless,it developed into a franchise of its own,with more sequels thanThe Mummy.
AfterThe Secret ServiceandThe Golden Circle,theKingsmanfranchise was set up for a bright future, but the tepid reaction toThe King’s Manhas put any further sequels on ice for the time being. The prequel travels 100 years into the past to follow the foundation of the Kingsman agency amid the chaos of the First World War.
The King’s Manreceived much worse reviews than either of the franchise’s two previous movies, with a contrived, fanciful plot that bogged down a few promising action scenes.It was also a box office flop, meaning that the bizarre post-credits sequel tease of Adolf Hitler entering the picture could be left hanging.
Since the original trilogy, theStar Warsfranchise has been referencing itself in everything that it does. The tangled timeline includes several movies and TV shows which take place beforeA New Hope,starting with the divisive prequel trilogy. Some of these are great, butSolo: A Star Wars Storyis an example of an unnecessary addition to the canon.
The Disney era of the franchise created one brilliant prequel withRogue One,but fans weren’t asking for Han Solo’s origin story. One problem is thatit’s impossible to replace Harrison Ford’s charms, and that’s no slight to Alden Ehrenreich. Han Solo is also a better character when he maintains an air of mystery. TheupcomingStar Warsmoviesfeature a balance of new stories and more prequels.
After the explosive return of theMad Maxfranchisewith 2015’sFury Road,fans were keen to see more from George Miller. In the end, it took nine years for another movie to materialize, and it wasn’t exactly what fans were hoping for. Charlize Theron’s Furiosa is a great character, butnot many people wanted a prequel about her early life with a different actor.
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From The Godfather: Part II in 1974, to 2022’s Prey, and 2016’s Rogue One, there are many prequel movies that have improved their original films.
Had things panned out differently, it’s possible that fans would have gotten theMad Maxsequel they were hoping for, with Tom Hardy reprising his role.Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’s poor box office performance proves that it was seen as a disappointing consolation prize. Despite this, it earned positive reviews.
A Quiet Placebecame an instant sensation when it was first released, butDay Oneis an unwarranted prequel that slightly dampens the original.One of the great strengths ofA Quiet Placeand its sequel is the intelligent worldbuilding, and the way the audience is suddenly dropped into an unsettling world.Day Onewipes away a lot of this clever mystery.
A Quiet Place Part IIIwill eventually return the franchise to the main story, which marksDay Oneas an unnecessary detour. The prequel performed worse at the box office and worse with critics, although the odds were stacked against it from the beginning, since fans would have rather seen a third movie right away.
John Carpenter’sThe Thingis the kind of movie that should never be remade, but Universal Pictures gave the green light to a prequel that rehashes a lot of moments from the original. 2011’sThe Thingtakes place just before the events of Carpenter’s film, with the final scene leading directly into the opening of the 1982 original.
2011’sThe Thingcomes across as a pale imitation of a true sci-fi classic, and its reputation has constantly suffered from negative comparisons to the original. There was no need for a sequel or prequel of any kind toThe Thing, especially not one with a lack of originality.
2Hannibal Rising (2007)
Hannibal Lecter’s Origin Story Didn’t Need To Be Told
Hannibal Risingattempts to provide a backstory for one of cinema’s most iconic bad guys, but it tries to make him surprisingly sympathetic in the process. The idea that the cannibalistic serial killer started out as a Nazi hunter adds a layer of moral dubiousness that doesn’t fit with anything that had previously been written about the character.
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Blockbuster sequels bring in big numbers at the box office, but, there are quite a few prequels that have boasted similarly impressive performances.
Hannibal Risingsuffered dismal reviews and a disappointing box office performance, proving that audiences weren’t particularly excited for more of Hannibal Lecter’s backstory.The TV showHannibal,starring Mads Mikkelsen, is a much more interesting prequel, proving that the concept could have worked with a different execution.
Monsters Inc.is one ofPixar’s best movies, but the studio has had a hit-and-miss record with sequels and prequels. While theToy Storymovies have gone from strength to strength, sequels likeFinding DoryandIncredibles 2never quite lived up to the high standards of the originals.Monsters Universityis the same, but it was probably doomed from the start.
Pixar’s canceled sequel idea would have seen Mike and Sully traveling through a door to the human world.
Over a decade passed betweenMonsters Inc.and its prequel, but the second movie didn’t do much to justify its existence. There are some great jokes here and there, but the story is much less interesting than the original, andthe college setting lowers the stakes. Pixar’s canceled sequel idea would have seen Mike and Sully traveling through a door to the human world, which probably would have been more entertaining.
