History Main / StillBornFranchise

[[folder: Eastern Animation]]
* David Hand's Animaland series, a lushly animated series of [[TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation Golden Age shorts]], was supposed to be a full fledged series. But since it was unable to find a distributor in the US, it died after just nine shorts. David Hand's son has tried to revive the series, but nothing ever came from that.
[[/folder]]

* Just about every review of ''PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians: The Lightning Thief'' includes a variation of "They're saving that for the sequel, [[SarcasmMode which be surely be made!]]"

** Larry Cohen intended to make a few sequels to his 1982 remake of I, the Jury. The script for one of them served as the basis for 1987's Deadly Illusion, but as of 2010 no further Spillane based films have reached theaters.

* ''{{PN 03}}'' recieved mixed reviews and HypeBacklash due to its somewhat cumbersome control system, and sold rather poorly, so Capcom aborted the franchise. Although some of the developers later worked on ''{{Bayonetta}}'' and ''{{Vanquish}}''.

* ''{{PN 03}}'' recieved mixed reviews and HypeBacklash due to its somewhat cumbersome control system, and sold rather poorly, so Capcom aborted the franchise.

-->--'''''AgonyBooth.com''', Hulk recap''

** Similarly ''{{Psychonauts}}'' and ''{{Anachronox }}'', good games that ended with a sequel hook that will probably never be followed-up on due to bad sales.

** Other authors who wrote various reasonalby prolific series adapted into only one film-John D. [=MacDonald=] and Travis [=McGee=] (one theatrical film, Darker Than Amber), Walter Mosely and Easy Rawlins (one theatrical film, Devil in a Blue Dress), Lawrence Block and Matthew Scudder (one theatrical film, Eight Million Ways to Die). James Lee Burke's Heaven's Prisoners featuring Dave Robicheaux had a only direct to DVD follow-up, In the Electric Mist, with Tommy Lee Jones taking over from Alec Baldwin.

** Other authors who wrote various reasonalby prolific series adapted into only one film-John D. MacDonald and Travis McGee (one theatrical film, Darker Than Amber), Walter Mosely and Easy Rawlins (one theatrical film, Devil in a Blue Dress), Lawrence Block and Matthew Scudder (one theatrical film, Eight Million Ways to Die). James Lee Burke's Heaven's Prisoners featuring Dave Robicheaux had a only direct to DVD follow-up, In the Electric Mist, with Tommy Lee Jones taking over from Alec Baldwin.

[[folder: Western Animation]]
* While technically made in Britain, David Hand's Animaland series, a lushly animated series of [[TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation Golden Age shorts]], was supposed to be a full fledged series. But since it was unable to find a distributor in the US, it died after just nine shorts. David Hand's son has tried to revive the series, but nothing ever came from that.

* The animated version of ''Animated/{{The Lord of the Rings}}'' by RalphBakshi made it halfway through the second volume of [[TheLordOfTheRings the novel]] (''The Two Towers''), and failed to finish the story.

* RayHarryhausen's ''Film/JasonAndTheArgonauts'' ends with Zeus saying "For Jason there will be other adventures..." which sounds like a sequel hook, but there wasn't one.

** Similarly it burned ''{{X-Play}}'', which had done a single preview episode devoted to the game based on that show's editorial staff and Adam Sessler's excitement over the game's cel-shaded graphics and underlying story. When it turned out to be a [[SoOkayIt's Average run-of-the-mill "3...out of 5"]] shooter featuring bored voice acting by David Duchovny, the show wouldn't do a single game preview episode for another five years.

* ''MartianSuccessorNadesico'' was planned to have a trilogy of movies to tie up loose ends, along with a video game to explain how things ended up that way. ''The Prince of Darkness'' bombed quite badly and not more effort has been put into the series.
** The videogame, [[AllThereInTheManual covering the events between the series]] and ''The Prince of Darkness'', was released, [[NoExportForYou but in Japan only]].

* The ''Film/BattlefieldEarth'' [[TheFilmOfTheBook movie is an adaptation]] of the first half of the book. Despite Travolta's (decade-old) claims, it is probably safe to say that the sequel is not forthcoming.

** The second half of the book basically revolved around getting the paperwork for the first half squared away when the Psyclo's bankers came calling. Seriously.
* Looks like ''{{Eragon}}'' is the only entry in the ''InheritanceCycle'' that's going to receive a film adaptation. In fact, the movie writers [[AdaptationInducedPlotHole changed the plot so much]] that a faithful adaptation of further books would be impossible anyway.
* ''TheGoldenCompass'' made for an okay-ish film, but ExecutiveMeddling and MisaimedMarketing ensure that the rest of the trilogy won't see the light of celluloid.
** Like ''Eragon'' above, some of the changes make it hard to figure how they would have finished it anyway.
*** Apparently the filmmakers were quite determined to make the full trilogy work, it appeared that the late 2000's recession caused New Line to pull the plug.

* All the actors in 1998's ''LostInSpace'' adaptation were contracted for a trilogy. When the first one bombed the rest were canceled.
** Especially sad is the DVD commentary where Akiva Goldsman still seems optimistic that he has a successful franchise on his hands, and gives us a preview of what we can look forward to in future films. Basically, he was saving all the good stuff for the sequels, so naturally the first film had little to recommend and killed our chances of seeing it.

** Actually, it seems that [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemony_Snicket%27s_A_Series_of_Unfortunate_Events#Planned_franchise sequels are still being planned]], only in stop motion instead of live action (because of the child actors getting too old).

* There were several attempts to extend ''TheAdventuresOfBuckarooBanzaiAcrossTheEighthDimension'' into a franchise; all of which failed. The movie ended in a SequelHook, and a TV spinoff was attempted by ABC; but the rights got locked up for nearly a decade by a nutcase studio executive whose paranoia made him believe the filmmakers had tried to rip him off. It wasn't until his suicide that the rights were released. Several attempts were made to create both a movie sequel and a television series spinoff; but [[ExecutiveMeddling studio expectations]], combined with conflict over character and story continuity, effectively killed the projects.

* Just about every review of ''PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians The Lightning Thief'' includes a variation of "They're saving that for the sequel, [[SarcasmMode which be surely be made!]]"

* ''{{XIII}}'', based on the first five volumes of the European comic book series, ends with a CliffHanger. Poor sales, however, erased hopes of a game continuation of the story. A [[VideoGameMoviesSuck TV miniseries]] based on the comic and the game was later produced staring Val Kilmer and Stephen Dorff. It suffered a similar fate as the game it was based on.
** Similarly it burned ''{{X-Play}}'', which had done a single preview episode devoted to the game based on that show's editorial staff and Adam Sessler's excitement over the game's cel-shaded graphics and underlying story. When it turned out to be a run-of-the-mill "3...out of 5" shooter featuring bored voice acting by David Duchovny, the show wouldn't do a single game preview episode for another five years.

* ''Haven: Call Of The King'' was supposed to be the first installment in a revolutionary video game trilogy that would defy all genres. What was actually released was [[SoOkayItsAverage mediocre]]: while it did mix together a lot of genres (action, platforming, RPG, driving) as promised, it didn't do any of them particularly ''well''. The lackluster sales killed the trilogy at the first game.

*** ''ShadowComplex'', based on ''Empire'', has been recently released to glowing reviews.
**** Of course, in order to sell it to people without having a massive backlash strike out, the developers [[AdaptationDecay pretty much had to excise most of the book's plot.]]
* ''BeyondGoodAndEvil'' was a commercial bomb, and ruined any chances of a sequel. Several years later they've apparently started production on one, but as of E3 2010, it's still in DevelopmentHell.

* ''Rygar: The Legendary Adventure''. Good game, but didn't perform well enough to continue the series. It was less-than-spectacularly ported to the Wii several years hereafter, sealing the fate of the franchise. At one point, there was a ''Rygar 2'' announced, but it ended up being {{vaporware}}.
* In 2008, GRIN revived Capcom's ''{{Bionic Commando}}'' franchise with two games; a remake of the NES original, titled Bionic Commando Rearmed for XBLA and PSN, and a big budget 3D sequel simply titled Bionic Commando for XBOX 360, PS3 and PC, which was intended to be the new true beginning for the series. While Bionic Commando was a fairly good game (albeit with some significant flaws and overall being a complete [[MoodWhiplash mood whiplash]] in story, graphics and tone from its predecessor), it suffered average reviews and extremely poor sales which was likely to have heavily contributed to GRIN's demise. It seemed the series would probably die off once again, but luckily the highly praised and much more well recieved Bionic Commando Rearmed will be getting another sequel; this one much more direct with the same gameplay and style. While Rearmed 2 adds certain abilities from the 3D title, it's unknown if it will take place between the two games or simply {{retcon}} it.
* ''Pryzm Chapter One: The Dark Unicorn'' was a PS2 game about Pryzm, a [[TheChosenOne very special young unicorn]], and Karrok, a [[DeadpanSnarker grizzled troll mage]], [[WunzaPlot who team up to defeat]] [[BigBad Zartu the Dark Unicorn]]. The game was presented as DarkerAndEdgier than typical fare involving unicorns, and came with a comic expanding on the backstory. But the game didn't sell well, so all plans for a sequel quickly evaporated.
* ''UltimaOnline'' was pretty much the first ever successful MMORPG… So successful, in fact, that its publisher ElectronicArts killed off two sequels and the mainline ''{{Ultima}}'' series for fear that they would cannibalize subscribers from it.
* Perhaps putting overt franchise aspirations in the ''title'' of the 1988 game ''Sentinel Worlds I: Future Magic'' was an act of hubris. No sequel was ever made for this interesting proto-MassEffect game, though 1990's ''Hard Nova'' was a SpiritualSuccessor.

* ''TheLegendOfKage'' almost became this due to the reputation of its [[PortingDisaster disastrous console ports]], but it recieved a SpiritualSequel in the form of ''Demon Sword'' on the NES, and much later, a SurprisinglyImprovedSequel on the Nintendo DS.

* It's quite evident by the ending that the ''Dungeons and Dragons'' film intended to have more films following it revolving around the same characters. Thankfully for viewing audiences that never came to pass.

* MasterAndCommander had pretty much the entire cast signed on for multiple sequels AND they bought the actual boat they used to make sure it was going to be available. It made enough money for it to be deemed a financial success, as well as being well received critically, but not enough to make the sequel a sure thing, and in the end it never happened.

* A strange variation of this was done for Tim Burton's ''Planet of the Apes''. While he himself had no intentions of doing any more movies, he deliberately left a SequelHook in case another filmmaker decided to do more.
* ''{{Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory}}'' leaves off with Wonka telling Charlie that he [[spoiler:inherited the factory]]. Any plans for this to be followed up with ''Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator'' were scrapped when Dahl was so upset about the film adaptation of his book (''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'') that he left it in his will that ''Elevator'' could not be used for making movies. This explains why Tim Burton's version 30 years later lacks any SequelHook.

* TheLastAirbender may prove to be one of these. While, as of the first of July, 2010, MNightShyamalan [[http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/07/m_night_shyamalan_on_the_last.html was convinced the planned sequels will be made]] there's a noticeable ''lack'' of talk about them from anyone else involved since the film's release.
* Just about every review of PercyJacksonAndTheOlympiansTheLightningThief includes a variation of "They're saving that for the sequel, [[SarcasmMode which be surely be made!]]"

* ''PN 03'' recieved mixed reviews and HypeBacklash due to its somewhat cumbersome control system, and sold rather poorly, so Capcom aborted the franchise.

* TheLastAirbender may prove to be one of these. While as of the end of July, 2010, MNightShyamalan [[http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/07/m_night_shyamalan_on_the_last.html is convinced the planned sequels will be made]] there's a noticeable ''lack'' of talk about them from anyone else involved.

* TheLastAirbender may prove to be one of these. As of the end of July, 2010, [[http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/07/m_night_shyamalan_on_the_last.html the only person who seems convinced]] there will be a sequel is MNightShyamalan himself.

* Considering that TheLastAirbender was, in the words of [[HeadTrip Shinga]], a shit-stain on the universe, the film series becoming this is a fairly smart bet. As of this moment, [[http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/07/m_night_shyamalan_on_the_last.html the only person who seems convinced]] there will be a sequel is MNightShyamalan himself. Everyone else, meanwhile, is too busy getting excited over something with a decent chance of being successful: ''TheLegendOfKorra''.

* ''PN 03'' recieved mixed reviews due to its somewhat cumbersome control system, and didn't sell particularly well, so Capcom aborted the franchise.

* Considering that TheLastAirbender was, in the words of [[HeadTrip Shinga]], a shit-stain on the universe, the film series becoming this is a fairly smart bet.

* ''BeyondGoodAndEvil'' was a commercial bomb, and ruined any chances of a sequel. Several years later they've apparently started production on one, but as of E3 2010, it's still in development hell.

* Just about every review of PercyJacksonandtheLightningThief includes a variation of "They're saving that for the sequel, [[SarcasmMode which be surely be made!]]"