10 Movie Endings That Set Up Sequels We Never Got

P.T. Barnum often said the path to success was to leave your audience wanting more, and indeed the best films leave their viewers demanding a sequel. But sometimes filmmakers and studios can’t help but try to add a little fuel to the fire and tease sequels in the hopes of riling up more interest in future installments.

Sometimes this works out, like the famous post-credits sequence at the end of “Iron Man” that revealed Marvel’s ambitions to assemble the Avengers on screen, an ambition that more than paid off in the long run. Other times … not so much. Whether it’s because the film became a box office bomb or creative differences kept another entry from ever seeing the light of day, some movies have to learn the hard way that a follow-up isn’t always guaranteed. On this list, we’ll deep dive into 10 of the most egregious examples of movie endings that set up sequels we never got.

As far as anime adaptations go, “Alita: Battle Angel” stands as one of the best. Written and produced by James Cameron and directed by Robert Rodriguez, “Alita” admirably translates the spectacle of anime to live action, with the big eyed Rose Salazar heading a star-studded cast including Oscar winners Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, and Mahershala Ali.

Set in a dystopian future, “Alita” sees the rich and powerful reside in the floating city of Zalem controlled by the unseen villain Nova. That is, until the final frames of the film, in which Alita raises her sword to the sky and vows to get her revenge. We then see Nova, played by Edward Norton, looking down on her with a bemused expression.

But despite this promised showdown and a number of sequel-setting cameos, a new “Alita” has yet to come to fruition. Cameron’s late producing partner John Landau held out hope that they would continue the live action anime, while Rodriguez wished his work on “The Book of Boba Fett” would convince Disney (which now owns “Alita” thanks to its merger with 20th Century) to green light a sequel. Nevertheless, Cameron remains optimistic, telling Empire that he and Rodriguez are determined to get at least one more sequel made. Perhaps a revisit to Zalem will be just what Cameron needs after his latest trek to Pandora. 

“District 9” had an unlikely journey to the big screen. Writer and director Neill Blomkamp’s short film “Alive in Joburg” got the attention of Peter Jackson, and he was brought on board to direct an adaptation of the “Halo” video game franchise. But when financing on “Halo” stalled out, they turned lemons into lemonade by using the discarded props in a feature-length adaptation of “Alive in Joburg.”

The initial concept, of a transplanted alien prawn race who land outside of Johannesburg seeking a home only to be imprisoned by the hostile human population, was transformed into “District 9.” The feature follows Wikus (Sharlto Copley), a South African civil servant, who finds himself slowly transforming into an extraterrestrial and meets an unlikely ally in an alien he’s tasked with evicting named Christopher Johnson (Jason Cope).

By the end, Wikus sacrifices his humanity to help Christopher escape, promising to return in three years. After premiering to massive international success and receiving four Academy Award nominations, including best picture,  “District 10” seemed right around the corner. However, Blomkamp’s many other creative endeavors have put the project on extended hiatus. Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter in 2023, the director shared that a sequel won’t be made anytime soon and he may not even be the one to helm it.

Hergé wrote 24 books in his Tintin series, following the titular globe-trotting plucky journalist and his comic adventures with his trusty dog Snowy and drunken sailor Captain Haddock. Despite being a celebrated pop culture figure, Tintin has only starred in one big budget film with 2011’s “The Adventures of Tintin.”

Steven Spielberg envisioned an ambitious feature film adaptation of the book series, joining forces with none other than Peter Jackson and the team at WETA Digital to utilize the then-nascant motion capture technology to meld the real world with Hergé’s unique art style. The result is one of Spielberg’s most underrated films, filled with jaw-dropping sequences that would have been impossible in live action. 

Unfortunately, “Tintin” was maybe too ahead of its time, with some feeling the computer animation fell into the uncanny valley. While still profitable, it wasn’t exactly a humongous hit, and despite ending with the promise of future adventures, we’ve yet to see a sequel for “The Adventures of Tintin.” Co-star Andy Serkis, who played Haddock, insists a sequel is still being worked on, which would reportedly be directed by Peter Jackson. But so far, that promise remains unfulfilled.

Dwayne Johnson made a lofty promise that “Black Adam” would change the hierarchy of the DC universe forever. And in a way, he was right, albeit not how he expected. “Black Adam” was supposed to tee up Johnson as a future opponent to the one and only Superman (Henry Cavill), ending with a post-credits stinger teasing an eventual battle against the two macho men.

Instead, “Black Adam” faltered at the box office amidst middling reception. Johnson insisted that the future of “Black Adam” was solid and that its biggest unanswered questions would be cleared up in subsequent movies, TV shows, and Fortnite collabs (okay, we’re just joking about that last one). But in the end, DC went in a completely new direction, with James Gunn and Peter Safran taking the reins and ushering in a new era for DC Studios.

Johnson held out hope that Black Adam would find his way back into the DC Universe, but with Henry Cavill’s Superman replaced by David Corenswet, it’s clear that there’s no more room for the angry antihero in this new, kinder iteration of the DC Universe.

New Line Cinema turned J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” into a critical darling and box office juggernaut. Following “The Return of the King,” the studio hunted down its next book series to turn into a mega franchise. They landed on “His Dark Materials,” Philip Pullman’s seminal fantasy series about wayward children, armored polar bears, and a villainous church.

Given the success of “The Lord of the Rings,” it’s unsurprising that New Line bet everything on “The Golden Compass,” the first novel in the series. But even with their “Lord of the Rings” war chest, financing proved to be too much for the studio to do alone, so New Line pre-sold the international rights, betting on the North American box office to recoup their costs.

All they needed was for “The Golden Compass” to get near the $320 million domestic performance of “The Fellowship of the Ring” for the bet to pay off. Instead, it barely crossed $70 million. Not only did it fail to launch a sequel, as director Chris Weitz had wanted, but became a bomb so historic that it bankrupted the studio. Luckily for fans of the novels, they got a second chance when the HBO and BBC teamed up to adapt the entirety of “His Dark Materials” as a TV series, making good on the promise “The Golden Compass” had made more than a decade prior.

A recurring theme throughout these entries are book series adaptations that never got a follow up, and that is once again the case for “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.” Adapting Patrick O’Brian’s series of novels centered on Captain Jack Aubrey (Russell Crowe) and his ship’s surgeon Stephen Maturin (Paul Bettany), Peter Weir crafted one of the best historical movies of all time, largely thanks to the camaraderie between stars Crowe and Bettany.

There are 20 novels in O’Brian’s series, each deepening the relationship between the unlikely pair as they sail in battle with Napoleon’s navy. Unfortunately, that battle was short-lived. Maturin dreams of visiting the Galápagos islands to study the famed Dodo bird, but at the end gives that up to join Aubrey on the next leg of the fight against Napoleon. The promise of future adventures left tantalizingly open, the film wasn’t successful enough to warrant an immediate sequel, especially in the wake of the similarly nautical “Pirates of the Caribbean.”

In 2021, reports of a prequel film broke, but even if that sets sail, it wouldn’t make good on Aubrey’s promise to visit the Galápagos. Here’s hoping he gets there before the dodo goes extinct.

Marvel, especially in recent years, has had plenty of post-credits scenes with no pay off. Of the many examples, however, “Eternals” is the ultimate embodiment of this recurring problem. See, “Eternals” didn’t just tease us with a sequel, introducing countless characters with more meaning than you might realize, but also had grander implications for the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole. In the first post-credit scene, none other than Harry Styles waltzes in as Thanos’ brother Eros, the royal prince of Titan. The pop star was intended to join the Avengers as fun-loving superhero Starfox, but years later, it appears Eros has been too busy partying to show up in another Marvel movie.

But surprise: There’s an even more frustratingly unfulfilled post-credits stinger. This scene features Dane Whitman (Kit Harrington), who mostly exists to romance Sersi (Gemma Chan), about to take hold of the Ebony Blade and become Black Knight, one of the heroes who stands up to Kang the Conqueror in the Marvel comics. Here, he is stopped by an off-screen Blade, voiced by Mahershala Ali.

So here we have a twofer of unfulfilled promises, given the Black Knight is never going to face off against Kang, and the Ali-starring “Blade” has been stuck in development hell since it was announced back in 2019.

Marvel isn’t the only studio making promises it can’t quite keep. Matthew Vaughn’s Kingsman series traveled back in time to an origin story set during World War I, with Orlando Oxford (Ralph Fiennes) battling Rasputin (Rhys Ifans) and bringing the Kingsman organization to life.

But whereas Marvel teases its supervillains, “The King’s Man” went one step further by presenting the ultimate real world villain, with Erik Hanussen (Daniel Bruhl) meeting in an underground bunker with Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin (August Diehl). The unlikely duo are then joined by a mysterious, shadowy figure who dramatically announces he is Adolf Hitler (David Kross).

The film already played fast and loose with history (Hanussen is a real historical figure who reportedly instructed Hitler on how to give public speeches), but this post-credit scene completely jumps the shark by inventing a completely absurd partnership between Hitler and Lenin, resulting in one of the worst moments in “The King’s Man.” Similarly to the prequel, “The Kingsman 3: The Blue Blood”  is also nowhere to be seen.

Most of the movies on this list are epic blockbusters that promise franchises before falling short. Broken Lizard’s “Beerfest” makes a mockery of them, while unintentionally backing itself into a corner in the process. At the end of the 2006 comedy, the crew head backstage after, against all odds, prevailing in the drinking contest. There, they encounter none other than country music superstar and super stoner Willie Nelson on his way to Potfest. The final moments promise to see the crew ride again in a sequel aptly titled “Potfest.”

While the Broken Lizard crew admitted that this tease was intended to poke fun at the idea of making a sequel to their silly movie, the idea has stuck around enough for them to talk about potentially making “Potfest” an R-rated animated comedy.

This project never came to fruition, although a second “Beerfest” movie does technically exist. “Beerfest: Thirst for Victory” was a 2018 television film made without the involvement of Broken Lizard. They did eventually make a sequel to their biggest hit, “Super Troopers” but the less said about that the better.

Her web connects them all, but it doesn’t look like “Madame Web” will ever be connected to a sequel. Along with sibling films “Morbius,” “Kraven,” and the “Venom” series, “Madame Web” was positioned to usher in the next evolution of Sony’s Spider-Man universe (a legally distinct offering from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, albeit ever so slightly interconnected). It ends its bafflingly convoluted story with the tease of Cassie (Dakota Johnson) taking up the Madame Web mantle, leading a new generation of Spider-Women.

But the reception to “Madame Web” made “Venom” look like “Spider-Man 2,” with critics and audiences going out of their way to take down the superhero flick. Johnson has even poked fun at the film’s messiness from time to time. Maybe Sony will give us a sequel in hopes audiences will show up for a good laugh, though that mindset proved disastrous for the similarly-mocked “Morbius” when it was re-released.  At this point, only Madame Web can look into the future to see what’s to come.