Trilogies that will sadly never get finished

If there's an unmade sequel out there that fans truly want to see, it's Hellboy III. Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy II: The Golden Army was released in July 2008, starring Ron Perlman as the eponymous hero. It received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics and grossed over $160 million worldwide on an estimated $85 million production budget. Although the movie was a modest success for del Toro, it wasn't a monster hit. So Universal Pictures never commissioned a third installment.

Two years after Hellboy II released, del Toro told Rotten Tomatoes he was interested in potentially making another Hellboy movie after his aborted take on The Hobbit. Two years later, Perlman donned his Hellboy costume (full makeup and all) to visit a terminally ill child. That bit of kindness inspired del Toro to push for another film, telling Entertainment Weekly: "I can say publicly that now we are together in trying [to do Hellboy III]."

But years passed and nothing ever happened. Perlman said if Hellboy III were to happen, it would need to be twice as big as the previous two installments, which del Toro said would cost around $120 million to produce. Unfortunately, no studio is willing to put up that kind of money for a franchise that likely wouldn't crack $500 million. Still, del Toro is optimistic that if Pacific Rim 2 is successful, Legendary Pictures might finance Hellboy III. Perlman isn't so confident, and said there's little chance of Hellboy III happening.

Hope sprang eternal in January 2017 when del Toro polled Twitter users on whether they wanted Hellboy III, then had a couple meetings about it when everyone polled said "yes please." But by February, it was all over. Del Toro tweeted that he'd asked everyone and "100% the sequel will not happen. And that is to be the final thing about it."

What happened on page 47? That is the one question that has been plaguing National Treasure fans ever since Jon Turteltaub's National Treasure: Book of Secrets released in 2007. The unnamed President of the United States, played by Bruce Greenwood, tells Ben Gates (Nicolas Cage) that when Gates reads the President's Book of Secrets to take a look at page 47. Unfortunately, audiences were never privy to what exactly was on the fateful page. But considering that the book contains answers to mysteries like the JFK assassination, the missing minutes of the Watergate tapes, and the existence of Area 51, audiences can only imagine what puzzle the President needed Gates' help with solving.

Despite receiving negative reviews from critics, Book of Secrets was a surprising financial success, earning almost $460 million worldwide. The success prompted Disney to commission a sequel the following year. With the studio acquiring domain names for National Treasure 3 and 4, rumors began to spread that the Mouse House was eyeing back-to-back sequels. Although he was interested in making another National Treasure film, Turtletaub said they were going to take their time and get the story right before moving forward. "[U]ntil we have a great story, a great adventure and a great piece of history to explore, there's no point in making the movie," he told Canoe. In 2013, things were finally moving when Turteltaub told Collider they were about "halfway there," and that they were planning to start production in 2015. Unfortunately, nothing ever happened.

Disney and Warner Bros. may control the majority of major comic book properties via Marvel and DC Comics, but that doesn't mean people should count out other studios. Universal Pictures has made several attempts at producing non-Marvel and non-DC Comics movies, such as the aforementioned Hellboy series. Another successful attempt to break from the Big Two? Kick-Ass, based on the indie comic series of the same name by Mark Millar.

Director Matthew Vaughn brought Kick-Ass to life on the big screen in 2008, with Aaron Taylor-Johnson starring as the eponymous costumed hero. Praised for its adult themes, Kick-Ass received positive reviews from critics and managed to become a modest box office success, prompting Universal to move forward with a sequel. Directed by Jeff Wadlow, Kick-Ass 2 released in August 2013 to negative reviews. Although the film was a decent commercial success, it failed to perform as well as the first film.

Shortly before the release of Kick-Ass 2, Millar confirmed plans for a third movie that would largely depend upon how much money the second movie made. Later that month, Millar reiterated plans for a third installment and even went further, saying Kick-Ass 3 would conclude the Kick-Ass trilogy with a major death. In 2014, Taylor-Johnson, Mintz-Plasse, and Moretz all expressed interest in Kick-Ass 3, despite the fact that none of them were actually contracted for a third film. However, instead of immediately pursuing a sequel, Vaughn said in 2015 that he'd like to make a Hit-Girl prequel before tackling Kick-Ass 3. But with Vaughn's busy schedule, who knows if we'll get either movie?

The first two Ghostbusters movies are among the most beloved films in history, so much that the U.S. Library of Congress selected the original Ghostbusters for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2015 for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." The first film became a worldwide phenomenon following its 1984 release, which prompted Columbia Pictures to commission a sequel. And while Ghostbusters II wasn't as well received by critics as the first movie, it was still a hit, earning over $215 million worldwide on an estimated $37 million production budget.

Despite the success, director Ivan Reitman didn't have any immediate plans to make a third installment. Flash forward 10 years, and series star and writer Dan Aykroyd finished a 122-page draft for Ghostbusters 3: Hellbent. It appeared that they were finally making progress on a third film, but Bill Murray was reportedly disinterest in making another Ghostbusters. It was then rumored that Ben Stiller could replace Murray in the sequel, alongside Aykroyd and Harold Ramis (who not only starred in Ghostbusters but also acted as co-writer). But, nothing came of the idea. Following Ramis' death in 2014, Reitman officially backed out of directing Ghostbusters 3 but offered his help as a producer. After approaching a few directors, Sony decided to move forward with a soft reboot of the franchise, directed by Paul Feig and starring Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones as the new Ghostbusters. The film, Ghostbusters: Answer the Call, released in July 2016.

Quentin Tarantino has a unique approach to filmmaking, which is evident in his films like Reservoir Dogs, The Hateful Eight, and of course, the Kill Bill series. He is also a director who likes to make one story at a time, moving from one project to another without sequelizing. However, just a few short months prior to Kill Bill releasing in theaters, Tarantino and Miramax concluded that the four-hour film would have to be split into two releases. Thus Kill Bill: Volume 1 and Kill Bill: Volume 2 were born.

Although they aren't his most commercially successful films, the two-part grindhouse homage has become a cult hit in the years since its release. The second film ends on a solid note, with Bill dying and Beatrix and B.B. leaving together. However, Tarantino believes there is always room for more. In 2004, he indicated plans to make a Volume 3 with Uma Thurman reprising her role as Beatrix Kiddo. But Tarantino said he would probably wait around 15 years before making another one.

Tarantino said he planned on making another installment (and maybe even a fourth one), with the story potentially focusing on "the revenge of two killers whose arms and eye were hacked by Uma Thurman in the first stories," or a daughter's revenge story. But nothing ever came of either idea. In 2012, Tarantino finally conceded it probably wouldn't happen. And in February 2018, Thurman called Tarantino out for making her drive a car too fast while filming Vol. 2, ultimately crashing and injuring herself. Don't expect them to be working together anytime soon.

The tagline for 2010's remake of Clash of the Titans was "Titans will clash," which does an excellent job of summing up both the plot of the movie and exactly what the filmmakers thought of their audience. (Not much.) Despite this, the film wound up being kinda fun, in a dumb, goofy sorta way. Good box office and not-as-awful-as-expected reviews (from Roger Ebert, no less) evidently led the producers to think they had a series on their hands because a sequel was immediately announced, and then a third part announced before that sequel was even released (via Hollywood Reporter). It seemed Titans would be clashing forever, or at least they could have been, had the sequel not sucked reproductive organs.

2012's Wrath of the Titans was everything the original seemed like it was going to be: a garish explosion-fest that was as emotionally satisfying as cholera. More to the point, it underperformed at the box office, pulling in only $83 million domestically, about half what the original managed. Despite having been announced back in 2011, the final part of the trilogy was put on indefinite hold. In very little time at all, "indefinite hold" became industry speak for "canceled."

By 2013, even the producer, Basil Iwanyk, was saying he couldn't see Titans 3 happening without fresh ideas (via IGN). If you're still looking, Mr. Iwanyk, how about a movie where Titans resolutely refuse to clash? Now that would be a twist.

If the turnaround on some superhero franchises seems fast now (ahem, Spider-Man), spare a thought for audiences in the 1990s. After Bat-breaking box office records with 1989's Batman, director Tim Burton and star Michael Keaton returned three years later with Batman Returns, a movie that hinted at more Bat-adventures to come. In 1995, those adventures dutifully arrived, only now they were a neon-drenched Bat-debacle fronted by Val Kilmer, directed by Joel Schumacher, and featuring Jim Carrey as an ordinary actor bitten by a radioactive slice of ham. What happened?

Simple. As with Chinatown, Burton's trilogy was completely sunk by its underperforming middle part. Batman Returns received negative reviews by the bucketload. While it did OK at the box office, it also got lambasted for promoting violence, damaging McDonald's Happy Meal tie-in toy sales. So Warner Bros. dropped Burton, Keaton left, and the final part of the trilogy was replaced by two ridiculously garish Schumacher films.

Burton fans (or Schumacher haters) can still content themselves with the little clues about Part 3 in the existing films. Billy Dee Williams had been all teed up to play Twoface. Marlon Wayans was cast as Robin in Batman Returns but was left on the cutting room floor. Industry rumor suggests Robin Williams was meant to play a manically unhinged Riddler. Would it have been any good? Hey, it couldn't have been worse than Batman and Robin.

In the wake of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Harry Potter films, studios were scrambling to find the next big fantasy epic. Narnia, the Avatar books, and more were all bought up, but it was New Line that bagged the winner. His Dark Materials was a grim atheist fantasy by British writer Philip J. Pullman that had set the literary world alight a decade earlier. It had battles. Baddies. School children sprinting through spectacular set pieces. Post-Potter, it seemed a surefire success.

And it might have been had the first film, The Golden Compass, not managed to anger just about everyone. Fans were outraged that New Line tried to water down the books' anti-religion themes, while religious organizations were outraged by the diluted remnants of those same themes. (According to The Guardian, Fox News even claimed it was part of that year's "war on Christmas".) Perhaps it's no surprise the film made barely $70 million at the domestic box office against its $180 million budget.

The global box office was actually pretty solid, adding another $300 million, but the damage had already been done to its reputation. It didn't help that New Line forced the creation of a cliffhanger, gotta-watch-the-sequel ending in an attempt to milk money right out of viewers' pockets. Bad news for anyone still waiting: the poor reviews and bad box office killed this trilogy as dead as the series' own god.

There are formal trilogies and there are informal trilogies, like three thematically linked films in a larger series. According to various reports, Timothy Dalton's mooted Bond trilogy would have fallen into the latter camp. Conceived as a way of capping the actor's involvement with the franchise, it would have given Dalton's Bond a big send-off while indulging in the themes that made his previous two outings so distinct.

Known in pre-production as Bond 17, the unfinished picture got as far as the scripting stage. The plot involved deadly accidents at nuclear power stations in the U.K. and China, the work of a British-Chinese megalomaniac determined to use the threat of a catastrophic meltdown to force the British to hand Hong Kong back to China. Needless to say, Bond would have stopped this unthinkable eventuality by breaking into the bad guy's base and blow-torching his face off. If that sounds a little grotesque, it all fits in with the idea of this capping a Dalton trilogy. His previous Bond film, 1989's License to Kill, ended with him setting a dude on fire.

Bond 17 stayed on the table right up until 1994, when Dalton got tired of waiting and quit the role. Bond was recast as Pierce Brosnan, and Bond 17 became Goldeneye. Perhaps it's just as well. Within two years of Goldeneye's release, Hong Kong had been handed back to China with nary a megalomaniac in sight.

In 1984, Robert Zemeckis managed to take a movie Fox had written off and turn it into box office gold. Romancing the Stone was that year's sleeper hit, thanks in no small part to stars Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner having chemistry explosive enough to power a small fusion reactor. Fox was so impressed it immediately rushed out a sequel, Jewel of the Nile.

Although Nile did good box office, it was hell to make. Den of Geek reports that neither Turner nor Douglas wanted to do the picture, and only agreed after Fox threatened to take them to court for breach of contract. Still, easy money is easy money, and it wasn't long before Douglas announced that a final chapter, The Crimson Eagle, would soon be released. Like, any minute now. Any. Minute. Now…

For a long time, Eagle looked a sure bet. IGN notes Douglas quit his role in 1997's U-571 to focus on it. In 2008, a retitled version called Chasing the Monsoon was reported as preparing to shoot in India, with Catherine Zeta Jones taking over from Kathleen Turner (via Telegraph). It would have been the first proper Hollywood and Bollywood co-production … had it not also vanished into development hell. By 2011 Monsoon had itself been replaced by a remake, which in turn was replaced by a TV series that also seems to have now dropped off the radar. Just think of all those poor stones that will never know romance.

In 1994, a little action movie came out. It was about a bus that had to speed around a city, keeping its speed over 50 mph, and if its speed dropped, it would explode. Yep, The Bus that Couldn't Slow Down (or, to give it its boring, real-life name, Speed) was a sleeper hit, setting the box office alight and proving that Keanu Reeves' three stock facial expressions were absolutely no impediment to him starring in action flicks. Unless, that is, that action flick was Speed 2: Cruise Control, a movie about what would happen if you put a bomb on perhaps the least exciting, least speedy of all vehicles (a cruise ship) and said "action?"

The Keanu-less Speed 2 tanked. Despite a weirdly good review from Roger Ebert, the film today holds a grim 4 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. To put that in perspective, the steaming mess that was 2016's Suicide Squad has 27 percent. Suicide Squad, people!

Now, unlike some of the trilogies we've mentioned, this wasn't originally planned as a trilogy. But despite Speed 2 being so pungent you could serve it as an Icelandic delicacy, it wasn't long before rumors began of Speed 3 began floating around. As late as 2008, Den of Geek reported Reeves was set to return to the franchise, giving it the sendoff it deserved. However, it seems that rumors were all they ever were. Although a treatment made its way onto the internet, the proposed Speed capstone never reached production. The only Speed 3 we have today is one involving Irish priests slowly driving explosive-rigged milk trucks. (Thanks, Father Ted!)