Beetlejuice Beetlejuice lives, and it only took 36 years to bring to life. In sequels, as in comedy, it’s all about timing. Best to strike while the iron is hot, of course, but sometimes, stuff happens to delay even the most anticipated sequels. In the case of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, director Tim Burton was on board, Winona Ryder was on board, and Michael Keaton was especially on board, but, as Burton told Gizmodo, “Nothing clicked and truly, it couldn’t have happened until now.â€
Thirty-six years is a bit extreme, but plenty of other beloved films took decades to get a chapter two. Were they worth the wait? Nostalgia for fondly remembered childhood films or favorite characters only goes so far (we’re looking at you, The Odd Couple II, released 30 years after the original classic comedy).
Here are 15 sequels that took their not always sweet time to make it to the screen, organized by how long we had to wait for them and not so much by quality. Again, like comedy, appreciation of sequels is subjective.
Escape From L.A. (15 years)
I will always want to know what Kurt Russell’s Snake “Call me Snake†Plissken is up to, but it took more than a decade for him and director John Carpenter to reteam for this sequel to the sleeper hit and cult favorite Escape From New York. Blame an unsatisfactory script Carpenter commissioned and ascending star Russell’s availability. But it was Russell who pushed for this mondo sequel set in 2013, when Snake is given the life-and-death task of retrieving the Sword of Damocles, a doomsday device that can neutralize devices all around the world. The president (Cliff Robertson) has amended the Constitution and established himself as president for life, established the United States Police Force, and banished all deemed undesirable to earthquake-ravaged Los Angeles, from which escape is deemed impossible. Drastic measures (that’s Snake) are called for when the president’s daughter hooks up with a revolutionary and steals the device. This is the first sequel to a Carpenter film directed by Carpenter (and if you haven’t seen Escape From New York, get on that). It was not as well received as the original, but it, too, has garnered a cult following. Carpenter makes Blade Runner 2049’s Californian dystopian nightmare look like Eden. The supporting cast is cult-icon heaven with Peter Fonda as a surfer who helps Snake ride a tsunami and Pam Grier as a former Plissken cohort, now a transgender woman. “This is insane,†the president’s daughter shouts at one point. “That’s the point,†says the revolutionary. Welcome to Carpenter’s world.
The Two Jakes (16 years)
Forget it, Jake, it’s not Chinatown. But let’s not so blithely dismiss a project that attempted to follow up Roman Polanski’s 1974 neo-noir masterpiece whose screenplay by Robert Towne was deemed by screenwriting guru Syd Field to be the “best American screenplay written during the 1970s.†Originally titled The Iron Jew, the second in a proposed trilogy, its fraught production would sever the friendships of Jack Nicholson, Towne, and producer Robert Evans, each of whom was then in a career valley. Towne was to direct and Nicholson and Evans to star as the titular Jakes. Ultimately, Nicholson took over direction and rewrote some of the script and Harvey Keitel took the role of Jake Berman, whose murder of his business partner for having an affair with Berman’s wife sets off a convoluted L.A. mystery circa 1948. Almost worth it just for the line “I don’t want to live in the past, I just don’t want to lose it.†For the inevitable provocateur revisionism, check out, “Sure Chinatown Is a Classic — But Its Sequel Is Better.â€
The Godfather Part III (16 years)
It gave us “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in,†Connie Corleone’s transformation from pushover into “La Madrina,†and Joe Mantegna as Joey Zaza, but this problematic sequel to two of the greatest and most quotable films ever made is as divisive as, well, Megalopolis. You’ve got three versions to choose from: for purists, the 1990 Oscar-nominated but critically reviled theatrical version, the reworked and expanded Final Director’s Cut (1991), or the this-time-we-mean-it, much-better-received The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone. Each version suffers from the absence of Robert Duvall’s consigliere Tom Hagan and Michael Corleone’s godawful Tony Bennett joke.Â
Dumb and Dumber To (20 years)
Any fears that 2014’s Dumb and Dumber To would be woke and woker are quickly allayed by a look–slash–don’t look catheter yank that launches this sequel to the 1994 hit that marked the Farrelly brothers’ directorial debut and firmly established Jim Carrey as the then–reigning king of comedy. It was Carrey who reportedly set this sequel in motion in 2000 when he caught the original on television and called Peter Farrelly to say he wanted to get the band back together. He hadn’t made a flat-out comedy since 2008’s Yes Man. Dumb and Dumber To pays fan service with references to and echoes of the original. The Farrelly brothers’ uncompromised sense of humor remains content to “rise below vulgarity,†to quote Mel Brooks, but the pre-MeToo Bush Club gag illustrates how much comic sensibilities have changed in the past two decades.
Psycho II (23 years)
“I’m going to bed right after I take a shower if that’s alright with you.†Who says you can’t go home again, but no sooner does Norman Bates return to the Bates Motel than he experiences unnerving flashbacks of poisoning his mother as a preteen and begins receiving ominous notes and phone calls from her. And then the bodies start to drop. Is someone trying to drive poor Norman — wait for it — psycho? Perkins, in the role that defined his career, and Vera Miles are back from Alfred Hitchcock’s original film with Meg Tilly as a sympathetic waitress at the diner where Norman has secured a job upon his release from the institution. The inevitable reprise of Psycho’s iconic shower scene is something of a letdown, but there are newer, more explicit shocks, including a curtain-call killing that opened a vacancy for Psycho III, this time with Perkins directing.
The Color of Money (25 years)
It’s doubtful many in 1986 were wondering, Whatever became of Fast Eddie Felson?, from the 1961 classic, The Hustler, but this sequel stacks up nicely with the original and is one of the few on this list that can be appreciated without seeing the first film. Paul Newman won his only Academy Award revisiting one of his most indelible roles as the pool shark undone by his own lack of character who finds a new lease on life when he meets Vincent (a live-wire Tom Cruise), a prodigy and “incredible flake,†and becomes his mentor. After the box-office disappointments of The King of Comedy and After Hours (both much more appreciated today), this was a for-hire project that Scorsese elevated and made his own. The story of Felson recapturing his passion must have resonated with him.
Bill & Ted Face the Music (29 years)
After almost 30 years, a third Bill & Ted film may have seemed unlikely, but so has everything about this little franchise that could. The original 1989 film was a sleeper hit that made Keanu Reeves a star. Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey was not as triumphant, but it carried on the original’s sweet spirit. Through the years, the possibility of a threequel was bandied about in interviews, but finally, in 2019, Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves announced that the party was on. Face the Music was released during the pandemic in August 2020. Remember what we said about timing? (To recap: It’s everything). The pandemic was no time to “party on,†but it was certainly a time to be reminded that we should all “be excellent to each other†and “play along.†Last January, Winter told an interviewer that a fourth film was in the works.
Mad Max: Fury Road (30 years)
Here’s how long Mad Max: Fury Road was in development before its 2015 release: Mel Gibson was attached to reprise his star-making role as the postapocalyptic road warrior that he originated in 1979’s Mad Max and continued in 1981’s The Road Warrior and 1985’s Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. That was before, well, you know. Director George Miller thought the franchise had run out of gas, but, as he told the New York Times, “I was crossing the street in Los Angeles and this very simple idea popped in my head: ‘What if there was a Mad Max movie that was one long chase …’ Tom Hardy strapped himself in as Max, while Charlize Theron took the wheel as Furiosa and became an instant action icon. One of the great sequels (or was it a reboot? Discuss), made the visceral old-school way with limited CGI, Fury Road was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won two for its cinematography and editing. It paved the way for the prequel, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, released this year.
Blade Runner 2049 (35 years)
Blade Runner was never a box-office blockbuster or critical darling, but since its polarizing 1982 release, Ridley Scott’s adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep has gained a considerable cult cachet thanks in part to home video and the release of director-approved alternate versions of the film, including a director’s cut in 1992 and Scott’s preferred “Final Cut†(2007). Blade Runner is now considered a benchmark science-fiction film and was inducted into the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry of “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant†American films. This did wonders for the film’s IP status, and after years of pesky licensing-rights issues, a sequel was green-lit with Ryan Gosling as K, a hunter of replicants, and Harrison Ford, reprising one of his most indelible roles as former blade runner Deckard. Director Denis Villeneueve’s ambitious sequel fared better with critics, but was also a box-office disappointment (even Ridley Scott said in interviews it was too long). Villeneuve is on record that there will be no further versions of his film.
Top Gun: Maverick (36 years)
Tom Cruise’s career really took off following Top Gun, the biggest box-office hit of 1986 and one of the defining films of Reagan’s America. Between the Mission: Impossible films, working with top directors (De Palma, Spielberg, Kubrick) and earning a little Oscar cred for himself (Born on the Fourth of July, Magnolia), it’s not like he needed to make a Top Gun sequel. But if he were to do it, he told Beverly Hills magazine, he wanted to wait until filmmaking technology made possible his vision to “put the audience into what they’re going to feel when they see this movie.†Though the buzz was through the roof (Cruise does his own stunts; Val Kilmer’s return as former nemesis Iceman; Glen Powell), Cruise also insisted that the film’s original 2019 release be delayed until it could be exhibited in theaters. It put asses back in the seats post-COVID-shutdown and went on to become the highest-grossing film of 2022 and to earn six Oscar nominations, including for Best Picture. It won Best Sound.
Coming 2 America (33 years)/Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (40 years)
Artistically speaking, the primary question should be: Is this sequel necessary? In the case of Coming to America, the second biggest box-office hit of 1988, Eddie Murphy initially didn’t think so. He told Extra that he thought the story had been told. But over the years, it became one of cable TV’s staples. “The movie stayed around,†he said. In the case of Beverly Hills Cop, one of 1984’s ten biggest box-office hits — well, there had already been two sequels of diminishing quality. Both of these 21st-century sequels were legacy-risking propositions: Crown Prince Akeem and Axel Foley, respectively, are two of Murphy’s most iconic characters. But both films adhere closely to the originals while expanding their universes. Both also benefit from returning beloved original supporting cast members: Arsenio Hall, James Earl Jones, Shari Headley, and John Amos in 2, and John Ashton, Judge Reinhold, Paul Reiser, and Bronson Pinchot as Serge in Axel F. And Murphy rises to the occasion in both, especially in 2’s barbershop scenes with Hall.
Mary Poppins Returns (52 years)
The 1964 original, arguably the jewel in Walt Disney’s live-action crown, transports viewers to wondrous places. The sequel is content to replay the musical and emotional beats with parallel sequences. It didn’t ruin my childhood. Emily Blunt administers much more than a spoonful of sugar to help the depressing story (mourning, foreclosure) go down. The film’s most wondrous effect is a 91-year-old Dick Van Dyke, as the son of the predatory banker in the first film, execute a dance step he performed in the 1961 season-one Dick Van Dyke Show episode “Jealousy.†Let’s leave it at this: I could, right now, lead a sing-along to “I Love to Laugh,†the merest trifle from the Sherman brothers’ Oscar-winning musical score for the original, and sitting here, I can’t remember a one of the new musical numbers.
Fantasia 2000 (59 years)
Walt Disney envisioned Fantasia (1940) to be a perpetual work in progress with new animated sequences in rotation with the originals. A box-office dud, that film almost sunk the studio, but it gained a second and third life when, in the 1960s and ’70s, marketing for the theatrical rerelease focused on the film’s trippy nature to appeal to a counter-culture audience. In the next decade, it was a best seller on home video. At last, the sequel Walt envisioned was considered commercially viable. Fantasia 2000 is not as highfalutin as the groundbreaking original. A distinguished roster of hosts, including Steve Martin, Itzhak Perlman, Bette Midler, and Penn and Teller (who better to introduce “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice�) keep things light, while the 75-minute runtime (the original clocked in at just over two hours) won’t try a child’s patience. The best-realized pieces include “The Carnival of the Animals,†featuring a yo-yo playing flamingo, and “Rhapsody in Blue,†set in Jazz Age New York and visually inspired by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld (can you spot his signature character, Nina?). Donald Duck gets his turn in the Fantasia spotlight as Noah’s assistant, charged with steering animals aboard the ark in a segment set to Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance.†It’s not necessary to have seen the original, but you should. Now, how about Fantasia 2050 for an encore?