10 Canceled Spin-Off Movies That Could Have Been Incredible

Elsa told everyone to “let it go” in “Frozen,” but what if it’s too difficult to do that? What if the memory of what could have been burns too hot and too brightly in the heart? That’s what happens when you consider canceled spin-off movies that had the potential for awesomeness. Maybe these projects could have become somebody’s new favorite films; instead, they are only footnotes of the what-if section in cinema history.

Even so, it’s still okay to think about and discuss them around friends, right? Imagine Steven Soderbergh and Adam Driver teaming up for “The Hunt for Ben Solo,” which might have fixed many of the wrongs of the rush-job known as “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.” It’s a pairing almost too good to be true — almost as if it’s a suggestion made on Reddit — but it would have likely sent shockwaves throughout Hollywood. Same story with “The Trench,” which would have explored the best scene from 2018’s “Aquaman” and turned into a full-blown horror story about why the monsters of the deep are the scariest creatures, period. Alas, the game of musical chairs at Warner Bros. and DC buried “The Trench.”

So, grab that mug, fill it with the hopes and dreams from days gone by, and let’s cry together about these canceled spin-off movies that could have been incredible. Having said that, Hollywood is the strangest place on Earth, and nothing’s ever truly dead if the price is right. Never say never, and all that.

Even director Joel Schumacher apologized for 1997’s “Batman & Robin,” which is the cinematic equivalent of licking a battery. It’s tough to find many redeeming qualities in this film, but it must be said: Chris O’Donnell made an excellent Dick Grayson, aka Robin. Even in the prior movie, “Batman Forever,” the actor possessed the charm and candor to turn the Boy Wonder into a highlight whenever he’s in a scene.

Years later, O’Donnell revealed that there were plans for Dick to receive his own spin-off movie. Expectedly, this would have seen him step out from under the Dark Knight’s cape and evolve into the hero known as Nightwing. Maybe he would have left Gotham City and moved to Blüdhaven too, like the character does in the comics. “Yeah, there was at one point: ‘Nightwing,'” O’Donnell told ETonline. “When the reviews came out on ‘Batman & Robin,’ that was shut down immediately. This has been a great opportunity for me and I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.”

While superhero films were in shambles in the late ’90s, it’s possible that “Nightwing” could have been on a smaller scale and allowed the filmmakers to play outside of the studio’s sandbox and definition of what comic book movies should be. Dick is the best parts of Batman and Spider-Man combined — and having his own solo film could have elevated the character’s stock among moviegoers to see him as more than just the Dark Knight’s trusty sidekick.

In 2016’s “The Conjuring 2,” filmmaker James Wan unleashes all the terror. While the demonic nun Valak (Bonnie Aarons) receives the most attention for looking like a member of Marilyn Manson, there’s also another frightening character in the movie, the Crooked Man (Javier Botet). To this day, it’s still chilling to hear a music box turn and be met with the haunting lyrics: “There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile …”

Valak received two spin-off movies, and there were plans for the crooked one to receive his own starring film too. As a matter of fact, Mike Van Waes, who actually penned the screenplay for the live-action “Lilo & Stitch” movie, was recruited to write the screenplay based on a story from Wan. Alas, the Crooked Man contorted himself into an inescapable corner, as Wan revealed the project was dead in 2022. “[U]nfortunately the spin-off movie with this character isn’t happening,” Wan wrote on Instagram. “Outside of my control. But maybe one day.”

What’s sad is to think that Annabelle received three movies and Valak had two standalone features, but the Crooked Man couldn’t even get one. Seeing what Wan did with the character’s limited screentime in “The Conjuring 2” made you appreciate there was potential to do so much more with this creepy dude. Furthermore, the movies in “The Conjuring” Universe haven’t always maintained the high quality of the first two entries, but it’s difficult to fathom “The Crooked Man” film being worse than something like 2014’s “Annabelle.”

The “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies are pure money. Over five films, they brought in over $4.5 billion at the box office. If an IP generates that kind of cash, a studio would want to continue making more of those movies until the audience forces it to walk the plank. There was one problem, though: The face of the franchise, Johnny Depp, found himself embroiled in a highly publicized court case with his ex-wife Amber Heard. According to Depp, Disney didn’t want him to return to “Pirates of the Caribbean” because of the bad publicity.

The backup plan? A spin-off starring Margot Robbie as a new lead character. According to Robbie’s comments to Vanity Fair in 2022, the proposed film wasn’t moving forward anymore. “We had an idea and we were developing it for a while, ages ago, to have more of a female-led — not totally female-led, but just a different kind of story — which we thought would’ve been really cool, but I guess they don’t want to do it,” she said.

Not so fast, though. In September 2025, producer Jerry Bruckheimer insisted that the project wasn’t entirely dead, adding that Robbie was still attached to it, so who knows. It’s an interesting proposition to see where else “Pirates of the Caribbean” can go, and everyone knows Robbie is a bona fide superstar, but the question is: Does Robbie still want to do it with everything else she has going on?

How can anyone despise 2016’s “Bad Moms”? Sure, the film falls into the raunchier side of comedy, but it never fails to entertain — plus, it contains an important message: That mothers are more than their roles as parents and caregivers; they’re fully fledged human beings who also want to experience other aspects of life. The formula works, balancing heart and humor to create a film with infinite rewatchability potential.

A sequel was always a given, especially after the movie made $183.9 million from a $20 million budget, but did you know there were plans for a spin-off titled “Bad Dads”? Yeah, it isn’t too difficult to figure out what the plot of this would have been, though it still would have been fun to see the premise from another parent’s perspective. Announced for release in 2017, not many details were revealed about “Bad Dads,” except that STX Entertainment would also be behind it. In the end, 2017 came and went, but “Bad Dads” didn’t show up — maybe they went bowling instead. The only “Bad” Universe movie released that year was “A Bad Moms Christmas.”

“Bad Dads” isn’t the only canceled spin-off in this franchise either. There was also talk of “Bad Moms’ Moms,” starring Susan Sarandon, Cheryl Hines, and Christine Baranski who all appeared in “A Bad Moms Christmas.” In 2021, Sarandon revealed that COVID-19 halted the momentum of the production, and she was uncertain about its status.

Adam Driver’s Ben Solo, aka Kylo Ren, reigned as one of the standouts in the final trilogy of the Skywalker Saga. However, the character didn’t receive the best ending in 2019’s “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.” He deserved a far better and more satisfying conclusion — and he might have gotten a second chance at it too had the powers that be at Disney greenlit the spin-off film, “The Hunt for Ben Solo.”

Speaking to Associated Press, Driver confirmed that he’d been in talks about returning as the character, so he spoke to Steven Soderbergh and Rebecca Blunt about an idea he had for a follow-up movie that would complete Ben’s arc. They floated the concept to the big cheeses at Lucasfilm, who expressed their interest in making a movie about it. According to Driver, they enlisted the help of Scott Z. Burns to pen a script for a story everyone was excited about. Unfortunately, they hit an insurmountable roadblock, as the spin-off experienced its own Order 66.

“We presented the script to Lucasfilm,” Driver said. “They loved the idea. They totally understood our angle and why we were doing it. We took it to Bob Iger and Alan Bergman [at Disney] and they said no. They didn’t see how Ben Solo was alive. And that was that.”

The chemistry between Pierce Brosnan’s James Bond and Halle Berry’s Giacinta “Jinx” Johnson is off the charts in 2002’s “Die Another Day.” The pair work well together in the movie, but there’s something special about the NSA agent known as Jinx. She’s one of the few Bond girls who feels like she’s more than just a love interest for 007; she has the personality and skills to be on her own without Bond in tow.

Apparently, Jinx made quite the impression on the suits too, as a spin-off film for her was mulled. All plans for this movie were likely squashed after a decision was made to reboot 007 for 2006’s “Casino Royale,” as Daniel Craig took the martini — shaken not stirred — from Brosnan.

“It was very disappointing,” Berry told Digital Spy about the decision to cancel the movie. “It was ahead of its time. Nobody was ready to sink that kind of money into a Black female action star. They just weren’t sure of its value. That’s where we were then.” Once she knew that the Jinx film wasn’t happening, Berry took a gamble as Patience Phillips in 2004’s “Catwoman,” widely regarded as the worst version of the character. Fortunately, Berry’s career more than bounced back after rolling around in the kitty litter and the Jinx spin-off disappointment.

In 2018’s “Aquaman,” there’s a scene in which James Wan goes full James Wan. As a modern master of horror, the filmmaker flips the script in the film as a group of amphibious creatures attack Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa) and Queen Mera’s (Amber Heard) boat once they enter the Trench. It’s a frightening moment that forces the audience to hold their collective breath as they witness the sheer terror of these monsters on screen. It’s something that Warner Bros. noticed as well.

Not too long after the debut of “Aquaman” and its billion dollar success, news broke that the studio hired Noah Gardner and Aidan Fitzgerald to write a script all about the Trench. Okay, but what about it? Was there really enough to turn this cool concept into its own DC movie? Yes, there was, because Wan let fans in on the ruse in 2021. “I’ll let you in on a secret,” he replied to a follower on Instagram. “The canceled Trench spin-off was really going to be a secret Black Manta movie.”

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II’s Black Manta received his time to shine in 2023’s “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,” but one wonders how different it might have been had he had his own solo film set purely in the Trench. A horror-themed DC superhero film could have felt pretty unique for its era and brought something new to the big screen.

In rare cases, it’s possible to get a spin-off from a spin-off in the film industry. That’s exactly what happened after 2014’s “The LEGO Movie” exploded into a major hit and resulted in 2017’s “The LEGO Batman Movie.” As it turns out, there were plans to build upon the bricks of the DC Universe with the release of “LEGO Superfriends,” which would have been based on the “Super Friends” animated series and seen the Brick Knight team up with some familiar faces.

In an interview with Collider in 2021, “The LEGO Batman Movie” director Chris McKay spilled the beans about the film’s failure to launch. McKay explained how Universal Pictures had secured the exclusive film rights deals for LEGO, making it complicated and highly unlikely for the studio to continue using Warner Bros.-owned property like DC moving forward. Nonetheless, McKay praised the script and what could have been, which sounds like a real missed opportunity for fans and filmmakers alike.

“Dan [Harmon] and [Michael] Waldron had done a first draft of the script that was really great,” McKay said. “It was truly epic … Both from an action standpoint and from a story standpoint. The structure was ‘Godfather Part 2’ … A story about Batman’s relationship to the Justice League [and Superman] now as well as the formative moments of the Justice League [and Batman’s relationship with Superman] then.”

The vampire Spike (James Marsters) might have started off as a foe for Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar), but his unmatched wit and loyalty transformed him into a friend (and more) in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” A mainstay on the show and its spin-off, “Angel,” the beloved Spike has become as synonymous with the franchise as any other character. When “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Angel” concluded, the franchise’s creator, Joss Whedon, pondered a potential Spike movie and approached Marsters about the idea.

“Joss had called me up and asked if I wanted to do a Spike TV movie and I said, ‘Yes of course. Do you have any ideas?'” Marsters told Gizmodo in 2013. “And he said he didn’t really have a lot, and I said that I actually did, and I said that we’ve never really seen Spike actively go out and get something for himself.”

The film never materialized, but fans are able to see the idea that Marsters pitched to Whedon in a different format: comics. In 2014, Dark Horse Comics published “Spike: Into the Light,” which is written by Marsters and illustrated by Derlis Santacruz. As Marsters confirmed, it’s the story that was meant to serve as the basis for the Spike film.

When people discuss all the Pixar movies, the “Cars” franchise often features lower on the totem pole. Say what you want about them, but it doesn’t change the fact that the three films gobbled up over $1.4 billion at the box office. With that type of money in the bank, it’s unsurprising that Disneytoon produced a spin-off titled “Planes,” which is self-explanatory and produced its own mini-franchise. However, that wasn’t the only planned way to capitalize on the goodwill of “Cars,” as there was another spin-off in mind: “Metro.”

Developed alongside “Planes 3,” “Metro” would have taken place in the subways. Steve Loter, who co-developed “Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur,” revealed a few details about the film on his X account. Initially set for release in 2021, Loter explained how he had worked on the project for around four years before the plug was pulled on it. He was set to co-direct the feature film with Sunil Hall, while actor and comedian Jermaine Fowler had been cast in a leading role. In terms of the story, Loter called it “a cross between a specific Walter Hill film from the ’70s and a specific Scorsese film from the ’80s. Also, most of the film would have been real time with no time jump.”

In the end, “Metro” ran out of track and disappeared as yet another canceled spin-off movie. Having said that, don’t be surprised if this is one idea that gets revisited at some point in the future.