Trilogies that will sadly never get finished

It seems like just about every new movie is looking to be turned into a franchise or a trilogy these days. While it makes sense for some movies (like superhero stories) to receive multiple sequels and be part of a shared universe, it doesn't always need to happen. (If you saw The Hangover, you get the idea. If you saw any of the sequels to The Hangover, you're jumping from your seat and shouting, "Preach!") Of course, sometimes movies just aren't commercially successful enough for a studio to greenlight a sequel, even if the sequel was going to be really awesome and even if it does leave the previous movie on a totally unacceptable cliffhanger. But people vote with their wallets, so there are plenty of studios with planned sequels that never saw the light of day. Here are some of the movies that will never see their trilogies completed, no matter how much you beg.

Despite critics and audiences largely detesting Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3, Tobey Maguire at least got the chance to conclude his Spider-Man trilogy. That's something Andrew Garfield will never get to do, because in 2015 Sony Pictures suspended plans to expand the Amazing Spider-Man franchise and instead opted to share the character with Marvel Studios. As a result, we now have a new Spider-Man (Tom Holland) in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and a rebooted Spider-Man film series. That one officially kicks off with Jon Watts' Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2017. But what were Sony's original plans?

Prior to Marc Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in 2014, Sony planned to launch an extended Spider-Man franchise to compete with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It was going to include two more Amazing Spider-Man films (releasing in June 2016 and May 2018), as well as spinoffs for Venom and the Sinister Six, directed by Alex Kurtzman and Drew Goddard, respectively. Sony also hired Lisa Joy Nolan to write a script for a female superhero movie set in their Spider-Man universe, but nothing has since come of it.

Although the studio canceled plans to pursue more Amazing Spider-Man films, they have not shuttered all the Spider-Man spinoff films. In March 2016, Sony confirmed it was moving forward with the Venom film, with Dante Harper penning the script and Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach producing. However, there don't appear to be plans to have the movie connect to either the Amazing Spider-Man films or the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

It took almost 30 years, but Disney finally released a sequel to Steven Lisberger's cult hit Tron. Joseph Kosinski's Tron: Legacy, starring Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner, released in 2010 to average critic reviews. And though the movie became a modest box office success, earning over $400 million worldwide on an estimated $170 million production budget, it wasn't enough for Disney to justify a third installment.

But the thing is, Tron: Legacy writers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz had already begun working on a script for a third film before Legacy even released. Not long after Legacy hit, Ain't It Cool News reported that Disney was gearing up to announce Tron 3 — but the announcement never arrived. Instead, years and years of updates, promises, and delays ensued, with a new writer being brought on board due to Horowitz and Kitsis leaving to work on their ABC fantasy series Once Upon a Time.

Things were finally starting to look up when rumors swirled that production might ramp up in October 2015. Unfortunately, Disney decided not to move forward with Tron 3, which Wilde confirmed. Boxleitner soon expressed disinterest in continuing the franchise, too, after going through several production ups and downs. With Star Wars, Marvel, and countless fairy tale remakes, Boxleitner feels Disney is "going to play it safe with their old [formula]." Still, Hedlund believes there's a glimmer of hope. He told ComicBook.com: "I haven't been told it's totally dead," which admittedly isn't the strongest vote of confidence. But, he did suggest possibly continuing the series 30 years later, like Legacy did. While rumors swirl of Tron 3 eventually becoming a thing — produced by Justin Springer and possibly starring Jared Leto — we currently have naught but memories of the first two. Oh, and Kingdom Hearts II, which centered a whole level around Tron. It's a start.

Five years after Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later released in theaters, the sequel 28 Weeks Later arrived. Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, 28 Weeks Later depicts a NATO takeover of the U.K., where they supposedly quelled a zombie infestation. Unfortunately, one person infected with the virus survived and manages to spread it to the remaining survivors. At the end of the movie, a handful of survivors escape England and make it to France. However, one of them was still a carrier for the infection, and the movie's cliffhanger showed zombies running rampant in front of the Eiffel Tower, thus indicating the infection had spread across the channel.

Shortly after 28 Weeks Later released, Boyle indicated plans for a third installment were in the works. Unfortunately, screenwriter Alex Garland believed the rumored 28 Months Later movie wouldn't happen due to copyright issues: "When we made 28 Days Later, the rights were frozen between a group of people who are no longer talking to each other."

Boyle still wants to make a third movie, and he even has some ideas for what it would entail. He has declined to share any of his ideas because he worries, albeit jokingly, they might end up in an episode of The Walking Dead. But, Boyle and Garland are both up for making 28 Months Later — there are just several complications holding them back from moving forward. Still, they have hope.

After achieving global success with Bryan Singer's X-Men series, 20th Century Fox hoped to build off those movies' hype by moving forward with a Fantastic Four series. The first Fantastic Four movie, starring Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, and Michael Chiklis as the titular heroes, released in 2005 to mixed reviews. However, fan anticipation led the Fantastic Four to become a box office success, earning over three times its production budget.

Fantastic Four's success inevitably led Fox to commission a sequel, titled Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Director Tim Story and the rest of the cast and crew all returned for the 2007 follow-up. Despite being critically better than the first film, Rise of the Silver Surfer still received mixed to negative reviews and even performed slightly worse at the worldwide box office, taking in $289 million on an estimated $130 million production budget. Those mediocre box office results initially made Fox hesitant about immediately pursuing a sequel.

However, there was hope. All five of the main cast members, including Julian McMahon (aka Doctor Doom), were signed on for three-picture deals. They were also interested in making another movie and diving deeper into the Fantastic Four mythos by introducing new characters, such as Franklin Richards. Although Story was keen to make a third and fourth film, Fox was having none of it. Evans put an end to fans' hopes in 2008 saying the franchise is "a closed book." And he was right. Instead, Fox attempted to reboot the Fantastic Four in 2015 with Josh Trank at the helm — a film so bad it might've finally iced the franchise for good.

Not many people know that Roman Polanski's 1974 masterpiece Chinatown already has a sequel. In 1990, Jack Nicholson reprised the role of grizzled PI Jake Gittes in The Two Jakes, a sequel that is to its predecessor what Godfather III is to The Godfather. But had The Two Jakes set the box office alight, it would've paved the way for a full-on trilogy.

Polanski's original turned the detective movie on its head with its story of evil, rich men being shielded by a rotten system, even as they exploited a vital resource (water) and destroyed the lives of those they loved. The Two Jakes chose not to flip the formula back and featured yet more evil, rich men exploiting natural resources (oil) while destroying loved ones' lives. While not directed by Polanski (Nicholson took over as director, for obvious reasons), it was still high-profile enough for writer Robert Towne to envisage yet another tale of evil men exploiting resources and messing up family members' lives. Hey, if it ain't broke.

Gittes vs. Gittes would've seen Nicholson's detective take on a monopoly controlling access to the L.A. freeway while also going through a messy divorce — the other "Gittes" of the title. Unfortunately, The Two Jakes bombed so hard that Towne gave up on the idea of Part 3 altogether. Not that Chinatown 3's story ended there. A competing treatment commissioned by the studio wound up being reused as the basis of another L.A. noir film, 1988's Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

On paper, the Millennium trilogy must have looked like the surest bet in Hollywood. Based on the mega-selling books by Stieg Larsson? Check. Directed by David Fincher, the genre-hopping talent behind Fight Club and Se7en? Check. Shirtless Daniel Craig? Double check. To paraphrase Philip J. Fry, shut up and take our money!

The first Millennium movie, 2011's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, managed to pull in $223 million off a $90 million budget, enough to prompt talk of a sequel. There were still two books left unfilmed, and a Fincher/Craig Girl Who Played with Fire and Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest would be sure to generate a tidy profit. Since the original books function as a trilogy, it made sense for the films to do the same. Well, it would have made sense if the movies were fronted by a cheaper lead actor.

Sony claims Craig wanted too much money to reprise the role of Mikael Blomkvist for two more films. At one point, they considered completing the trilogy with a different lead. Then they ditched Fincher, too, and talk of a trilogy went out the window. Latest reports say Sony was planning a 2018 reboot with a new cast, adapting the semi-official fourth Millennium book, written after Larsson's death without consent of his partner and without referring to Larsson's own unfinished draft or notes. It may turn out to be popular, but it sure as heck won't be a continuation.

Escape from New York is John Carpenter's gritty, weird 1981 ode to a city he apparently hated, a tale in which New York has become a giant prison and only Kurt Russell is man enough to punch his way in there to save the president. Yeah, it's a B-movie, but what a B-movie! There's action. Watergate parallels. Harry Dean Stanton's hangdog face. You get the idea. By the 1990s, Escape was already a cult classic, and one that was crying out for a sequel. So Carpenter and Russell obliged, twice. They announced two new parts: Escape from LA, and Escape from Earth. Spoiler alert: Only one of those would actually get made.

Geek site The Mary Sue has the full details, but they can be summed up in a single sentence. Escape from LA bombed. It bombed harder than any movie featuring Kurt Russell hang-gliding into Disneyland while firing a machine gun has any right to. The trouble was, LA was beyond wacky. It had Russell chase a car by surfing after it. It had Botox monsters. World-saving basketball games. No Harry Dean Stanton. While some people love it today, '90s audiences treated it like the celluloid itself was made from roadkill.

Nevertheless, Carpenter and Russell tried to get their trilogy's capstone finished. It nearly became a TV series, then an anime movie. Today, though, Escape from Earth is officially dead, with the production company instead reviving Escape from New York as a new trilogy directed by Robert Rodriguez.

Conan the Barbarian was the 1982 film that introduced us to Arnie's glistening, oiled pecs, thus beginning a process that would turn the Austrian muscleman into a global star. That's all you need to know to understand the fate of the Conan trilogy, which would have seen 1984's sequel Conan the Destroyer followed in 1987 by a final part. Sadly for fans of Arnold in a loincloth (i.e., everyone), 1984 was also the year a little movie called The Terminator was released. The idea of any B-movie being able to afford Arnie after that was unlikely, to say the least.

But, hey, God works in mysterious ways. Conan 3's script was eventually reworked into 1997's Kull the Conqueror and, as this old review attests, it was one of the most hilariously godawful things ever committed to celluloid. That bullet dodged, Arnie waited a while, did some political stuff in California, then finally revived the idea of a Conan trilogy after leaving the governor's mansion. The plan was to revisit Conan at the end of his life, in a script that took the same approach as Unforgiven did for Clint Eastwood's Man with No Name, and Logan did for Wolverine. Don't worry, that feeling in your pants is perfectly natural.

Sadly, not all producers are able to distinguish between "awesome" and "not awesome" because Conan's final outing was killed off in April 2017 (via Den of Geek). An Arnie-fronted TV spin-off is now heading to Amazon's streaming service instead.

A great crying fills the air, birds fall from the sky, as mobs of people in the street openly beat their chests and wail, "But Grunge, how could you include the Divergent films? There are already three of them. Your premise is moot! Truly, this must be the end of days!"

To which we can only say: guilty. But with one planet-sized caveat. The third film, Divergent: Allegiant, is only based on the first half of the concluding Divergent book. Just like the Harry Potter series sliced Deathly Hallows into two parts for a combination of artistic reasons, and a deep-seated fear that the producers would have to find something other than gigantic piles of fresh money to sleep on, Summit Entertainment decided to turn the Allegiant book into two films: Allegiant and Ascendant. In what can only be called a masterful piece of trolling, they then canceled Ascendant (via Vanity Fair). Oh, spent the last three movies waiting for a conclusion have you? Well, here it is, and it's called disappointment! You just learned an important life lesson, kids.

Ascendant is now destined to become a TV series, which seems a fair trade-off, until you learn that the series' star, Shailene Woodley, isn't going to be involved. To return to our Harry Potter analogy, imagine if Deathly Hallows Part 2 had only been available online, and starring, say, Malcolm in the Middle's Frankie Muniz as Harry. Gee, Hollywood, you sure know how to mess with people.

In terms of offers you most certainly can refuse, "would you like two more Justice League movies directed by Zack Snyder?" is up there with "would you like to take part in our new reality TV series Sleeping with Porcupines?" After disappointing audiences with Man of Steel in 2013, Snyder went on to really disappoint audiences with Batman v Superman in 2016, before teaming up with Joss Whedon to redefine notions of disappointment with 2017's half-dark, half-goofy, all-flop Justice League, aka the film that ended this iteration of the DCEU.

After three critical maulings, plus worse than expected box office, DC canceled all remaining plans for Snyder-fronted movies. Most people who actually saw Justice League probably picked up that a sequel was on the cards, but a trilogy? Well, according to Kevin Smith's Fatman Beyond podcast, that was exactly what Snyder had planned. The next two movies were gonna throw the DC kitchen sink at the screen and hope that awesomeness followed.

Smith talked to many people involved with the planned trilogy. He claims part two would have introduced the Green Lantern and intergalactic villain Thanos — sorry, Darkseid — who would have defeated the League, arrived on Earth, and killed a significant percentage of its population. (Say, 50 percent?) Part three would have then seen the League regroup and return to Earth, finally defeating Darkseid and probably destroying some magical Minfinity Shmones or something. It sounds kinda cool on paper, but then so did Suicide Squad.