History SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome / LiveActionFilms

* ''Film/Scream3}': Cotton Weary, a recurring character who helped Sidney in the second movie (despite the fact that she mistakenly sent him to jail about a year before the first) and killed the BigBad, died in the first 10 minutes of the third movie to enforce one of the "rules" of a threequel: In the third movie all bets are off and AnyoneCanDie.

* ''Film/{{Scream 3}}'': Cotton Weary, a recurring character who helped Sidney in the second movie (despite the fact that she mistakenly sent him to jail about a year before the first) and killed the BigBad, died in the first 10 minutes of the third movie to enforce one of the "rules" of a threequel: In the third movie all bets are off and AnyoneCanDie.

* "The Mummy's Tomb," sequel to Film/TheMummysHand, part of a series of 4 movies starring the mummy Kharis [[note]](which are sort-of sequels to Film/TheMummy1932, or at least use lots of stock footage from them)[[/note]] killed off archaeologist Steve Banning, his LoveInterest Marta, and his comic relief sidekick Babe Jenson, who survived the first film. Marta was said to have died offscreen between films (since her actress didn't return) while the aforementioned Kharis killed the other two.[[note]] Oddly, the movies' also [[AvertedTrope avert]] this as well, as the villain of the first movie would appear in the next two [[UnexplainedRecovery having somehow survived his earlier death.]] [[/note]]
* Vanessa in ''Film/{{Deadpool 2}}''. Marketing made a big deal out of her, but she dies in the prologue. By the end of the film, her death is reversed by Wade's time travel antics.

* ''Film/TheExorcistIII'' has Father Dyer, who survived the [[Film/TheExorcist original film]], be killed by the Gemini Killer, like in the book that the film adapts, ''Legion''. Father Kanavan, who was also in the original film, also dies early.

* ''Film/TheExorcistIII'' has Father Dyer, who survived the [[Film/TheExorcist original film]], be killed by the Gemini Killer, like in the book that the film adapts ''Legion''. Father Kanavan, who was also in the original film, also dies early.

* ''Film/TheExorcistIII'' has Father Dyer, who survived the [[Film/TheExorcist original film]], be killed by the Gemini Killer, like in the book that the film adapts ''Legion''.

* Several major characters have died in the ''Franchise/{{Rocky}}'' sequels. Rocky's coach Mickey died of a heart attack in ''Film/RockyIII'', his former rival turned best friend Apollo Creed is beaten to death by Ivan Drago in ''Film/RockyIV'', his wife Adrian dies of breast cancer prior to ''Film/RockyBalboa'', and his brother-in-law Paulie passes away prior to the events of ''Film/{{Creed|2015}}''. Duke, who was trainer to Apollo and later Rocky, is implied to have passed away by the time of ''Film/CreedII'', due to [[TheCharacterDiedWithHim the death of his actor Tony Burton]], and in ''Film/CreedIII'', Apollo's widow Mary-Anne would later die of a stroke.

** While Laurie Strode survived ''Film/HalloweenII1981'', she is mentioned to have died by the time of the next movie in the timeline.

** And Laurie Strode's death in the opening of ''Film/HalloweenResurrection''.

** In [[Film/Halloween2018 the 2018 film]], which ignores all films with the exception of [[Film/Halloween1978 the very first one]], it's mentioned that Dr. Loomis died of natural causes during the 40-year TimeSkip. This is because Creator/DonaldPleasence [[TheCharacterDiedWithHim died long before it began filming]].

* Several major characters have died in the ''Franchise/{{Rocky}}'' sequels. Rocky's coach Mickey died of a heart attack in ''Film/RockyIII'', his former rival turned best friend Apollo Creed is beaten to death by Ivan Drago in ''Film/RockyIV'', his wife Adrian dies of breast cancer prior to ''Film/RockyBalboa'', and his brother-in-law Paulie passes away prior to the events of ''Film/{{Creed|2015}}''. Duke, who was trainer to Apollo and later
Rocky, is implied to have passed away by the time of ''Film/CreedII'', due to [[TheCharacterDiedWithHim the death of his actor Tony Burton]], and in ''Film/CreedIII'', Apollo's widow Mary-Anne would later die of a stroke.

* Several major characters have died in the ''Franchise/{{Rocky}}'' sequels. Rocky's coach Mickey died of a heart attack in ''Film/RockyIII'', his former rival turned best friend Apollo Creed is beaten to death by Ivan Drago in ''Film/RockyIV'', his wife Adrian dies of breast cancer prior to ''Film/RockyBalboa'', and his brother-in-law Paulie passes away prior to the events of ''Film/{{Creed|2015}}''. Duke is implied to have passed away by the time of ''Film/CreedII'', due to [[TheCharacterDiedWithHim the death of his actor Tony Burton]] and in ''Film/CreedIII'', Apollo's widow Mary-Anne would later die of a stroke.

* Several major characters have died in the ''Franchise/{{Rocky}}'' sequels. Rocky's coach Mickey died of a heart attack in ''Film/RockyIII'', his former rival turned best friend Apollo Creed is beaten to death by Ivan Drago in ''Film/RockyIV'', his wife Adrian dies of breast cancer prior to ''Film/RockyBalboa'', and his brother-in-law Paulie passes away prior to the events of ''Film/{{Creed}}''. And in ''Film/CreedIII'', Apollo’s widow Mary-Anne would later die of a stroke.

* ''Film/TheExorcistIII'' has Father Dyer, who survived the [[Film/TheExorcist original film]], be killed by the Gemini Killer.

* In ''Film/JawsTheRevenge'', it's revealed that Martin Brody died prior to the film. His son Sean also dies early on.

* The Chinese man who originally owned Gizmo returned to reclaim him at the end of the original ''Film/{{Gremlins}}'', and dies about ten minutes into [[Film/Gremlins2TheNewBatch the sequel]]. This, of course, ensures that he is [[ThePlotReaper out of the way]] so Gizmo could end up being reunited with Billy. It's possible that actor Keye Luke was in too poor of health to have an extended role in the film, as he died a year after the film's release.

* Several major characters have died in the ''Franchise/{{Rocky}}'' sequels. Rocky's coach Mickey died of a heart attack in ''Film/RockyIII'', his former rival turned best friend Apollo Creed is beaten to death by Ivan Drago in ''Film/RockyIV'', his wife Adrian dies of breast cancer prior to ''Film/RockyBalboa'', and Paulie passes away prior to the events of ''Film/{{Creed}}''. And in ''Film/CreedIII'', Apollo’s widow Mary-Anne would later die of a stroke.

* Several major characters have died in the ''Franchise/{{Rocky}}'' sequels. Rocky's coach Mickey died of a heart attack in ''Film/RockyIII'', his former rival turned best friend Apollo Creed is beaten to death by Ivan Drago in ''Film/RockyIV'', his wife Adrian dies of breast cancer prior to ''Film/RockyBalboa'', and Paulie passes away prior to the events of ''Film/{{Creed}}''. And in ''Film/CreedIII'', Mary-Anne would later die of a stroke.

** At the beginning of ''Film/{{Alien 3}}'', the ''Sulaco'' launches an escape pod that lands on a planet. Newt and Hicks are both killed in gruesome ways (the gory aftermath is shown), and Bishop has one scene in which he asks to be turned off. The Comic Canon (quite a lot of which was written before ''3'') sees Hicks and Newt survive, and quite a few fans consider it superior for that reason.

** In ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'', Count Dooku can fight both Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker to a standstill, effortlessly [[IncrediblyLamePun disarms]] Anakin one-on-one, and [[SadisticChoice he forces Yoda to save Anakin and Obi-Wan]] so [[KarmaHoudini he can run away]]. In the next movie, he's killed in a duel with Anakin with little fanfare during the ActionPrologue to show how much more powerful (and closer to the Dark Side) Anakin has become in the intervening years. Behind the scenes information also suggests that one reason this may have occurred was because Creator/ChristopherLee found the fight scenes physically straining due to his advanced age since he was 80 at the time the first film was released and 83 by the second.

** In ''Film/{{Attack of the Clones}}'', Count Dooku can fight both Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker to a standstill, effortlessly [[IncrediblyLamePun disarms]] Anakin one-on-one, and [[SadisticChoice he forces Yoda to save Anakin and Obi-Wan]] so [[KarmaHoudini he can run away]]. In the next movie, he's killed in a duel with Anakin with little fanfare during the ActionPrologue to show how much more powerful (and closer to the Dark Side) Anakin has become in the intervening years. Behind the scenes information also suggests that one reason this may have occurred was because Creator/ChristopherLee found the fight scenes physically straining due to his advanced age since he was 80 at the time the first film was released and 83 by the second.

** In ''Film/{{Attack of the Clones}}'', Count Dooku can fight both Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker to a standstill, effortlessly [[IncrediblyLamePun disarms]] Anakin one-on-one, and [[SadisticChoice he forces Yoda to save Anakin and Obi-Wan]] so [[KarmaHoudini he can run away]]. In the next movie, he's killed in a duel with Anakin with little fanfare during the ActionPrologue to show how much more powerful (and closer to the Dark Side) Anakin has become in the intervening years. Behind the scenes information also suggests that one reason this may have occurred was because Creator/ChristopherLee found the fight scenes physically straining due to his advanced age since he was 80 at the time the first film was shot and 83 by the second.

* In ''Film/DamienOmenII'', the old archaeologist from the first movie (played by Leo [=McKern=]) who was the only character to know the truth about Damien to survive from the first movie is killed in the opening minutes. In this case, it actually served to wrap up a loose end from the first film.
** But how did he get his daggers back? They should have been in an evidence vault somewhere in London, surely.

* Kraven, the ManipulativeBastard who survived all the reversals and betrayals of ''Film/{{Underworld}}'', dies barely 10 minutes into ''Film/UnderworldEvolution'' when Marcus, the new big bad, learns of his treachery and gruesomely slaughters him. He also slaughters everyone else in the mansion, albeit off-screen, including Erika.

* As this is very common in horror movies, ''Film/ScaryMovie'' series makes fun of this by having Charlie Sheen's character from the [[Film/ScaryMovie3 third movie]] die in the first scene of the [[Film/ScaryMovie4 fourth]] via [[ItMakesSenseInContext giant erection]]. Brenda from the first two films also dies in the first and early in the third, but since she seems to die ''[[TheyKilledKenny a lot]]'' and come back [[NegativeContinuity it doesn't really count.]]

* Charon is killed off a few minutes early in ''Film/JohnWickChapter4'' by the [[BigBad Marquis de Gramont]]. Though it's justified as Creator/LanceReddick passed away in real life.