B Team Sequel / Live-Action Films

• While there was no official reboot, the tone of the Batman Film Series shifted notably between the Tim Burton–helmed Batman (1989) and Batman Returns and the Joel Schumacher–helmed Batman Forever and Batman & Robin. Most fans consider the latter of two films to be an irredeemable Audience-Alienating Era, although a minority find it So Bad, It's Good. Fans are divided on Returns and Forever.
• Superman movies:
  • After Richard Donner left partway through the filming of Superman II, Superman III and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace were helmed by the B-teams of Richard Lester and Sidney J. Furie, respectively. Reactions were so bad that Bryan Singer considered them Canon Discontinuity when he directed Superman Returns almost twenty years later, although that one fared only slightly better.
  • Richard Lester was supposed to direct Supergirl (1984), but it didn't pan out.
• Ridley Scott had moved on by the time the producers got serious about making a sequel to Alien, so they tapped then-newcomer James Cameron for Aliens instead. Both films are well-regarded, although questions of which is the better film often become heated. Other B-teams took over for Alien³ and beyond.
• Bryan Singer left the X-Men Film Series for Superman Returns after directing the well-regarded X-Men and X2: X-Men United; the Brett Ratner–directed X-Men: The Last Stand and subsequent spinoffs under various other B-teams were... somewhat more poorly regarded. The franchise got back on track with Matthew Vaughn's prequel X-Men: First Class, and Singer returned for X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-Men: Apocalypse.
• James Cameron declined to return to write and direct Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, saying that he had finished the story with the classic Even Better Sequel Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The rights having changed hands a couple times since T2, this didn't stop various B-teams from taking a crack at sequels anyway, with hotly contested but generally less-well-received results. Cameron returned to the franchise in a producer role for Terminator: Dark Fate.
• Star Trek:
  • Star Trek went through this quite a bit. After the disappointing Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Roddenberry was Kicked Upstairs and largely locked out of the production process as essentially Producer Emeritus for about seven years (especially after the film ran way over budget and Roddenberry's pitch for a sequel had the Enterprise crew have to ensure the assassination of John F. Kennedy). The B-team consisted of producer Harve Bennett during these years, with Nicholas Meyer and then Leonard Nimoy helming the vastly improved Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Roddenberry wouldn't return himself to the center seat until Star Trek: The Next Generation, with his death in the '90s necessitating another B-team, Berman and Braga, taking over.
  • After near–Franchise Killer Star Trek: Nemesis, the torch was passed again, this time to J. J. Abrams, who used some Timey-Wimey Ball magic to softly reboot the franchise with Star Trek (2009) and follow up with Contested Sequel Star Trek Into Darkness.
• Star Wars:
  • Lucas' involvement with The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi was minimal, as he had such a miserable time directing A New Hope that he decided to take a producer role.
  • Gary Kurtz was the producer for the first two installments of the original trilogy, but he left Star Wars after Empire due to creative differences. Kurtz had wanted to continue with the darker tone of Empire, and he felt Jedi was shaping up to be a light-hearted rehash of A New Hope. Instead, he did The Dark Crystal, and Howard Kazanjian took over as producer for Jedi. Rick McCallum was producer for the special editions and the prequels, but he retired from Lucasfilm after Disney took over. Kathleen Kennedy was producer for all five Star Wars films produced under Disney.
  • The Force Awakens is the first full-fledged film not to directly involve George Lucas, instead created by J. J. Abrams. Due to the severely Broken Base over the Prequel Trilogy, this is a rare case of the B-Team Sequel being more anticipated because of a changing of the guard from the original creator.
  • Neither Abrams nor Lawrence Kasdan returned for The Last Jedi.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Iron Man: Iron Man and Iron Man 2 were both directed by Jon Favreau. Favreau refused to direct the third installment thanks to all the Executive Meddling he put up with on the first one, so Iron Man 3 ended up being directed by Shane Black.
  • Captain America: Captain America: The First Avenger was directed by Joe Johnston. The two sequels, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War, were both directed by Joe and Anthony Russo.
  • Thor: Thor was directed by Kenneth Branagh. Patty Jenkins was brought in to direct Thor: The Dark World but was fired and replaced with Alan Taylor. Taylor criticized Marvel's Executive Meddling, so Thor: Ragnarok was directed by Taika Waititi.
  • The Avengers: The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron were both directed by Joss Whedon. However, once again, Executive Meddling reared its ugly head during filming of the second film, and Whedon declined to direct the third installment. The above-mentioned Russo brothers replaced him as the directors of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
  • Doctor Strange: Doctor Strange (2016) was directed by Scott Derrickson, who stepped down from Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness due to Creative Differences. Sam Raimi stepped in as director.
• Planned for the The Pink Panther film series. Originator/Director Blake Edwards and star Peter Sellers were not getting along during the production of Revenge of the Pink Panther so Sellers was in the middle of arranging for another Pink Panther to be made without Edwards' involvement. But then Sellers died, and Edwards made the sequel without Sellers instead.
  • Neither Edwards nor Sellers had anything to do with 1968's Inspector Clouseau, as they had both moved on to The Party.
• The first Jaws is largely regarded as a great movie and was directed by a young Steven Spielberg. Jaws 2 was a mediocre sequel helmed by Jeannot Szwarc, but it has its fans, and then the series went downhill with Jaws 3-D and Jaws: The Revenge being helmed by Joe Alves and Joseph Sargent, respectively. Additionally, Roy Scheider and John Williams returned for Jaws 2, but left the series after that. In fact, Scheider signed onto Blue Thunder just so he would be contractually unavailable for Jaws 3D. Richard Dreyfuss didn't do any of the Jaws sequels, having made Close Encounters of the Third Kind with Spielberg while Jaws 2 was in production.
• A similar creative team were behind both Jurassic Park and The Lost World: Jurassic Park: both were based on novels by Michael Crichton, adapted for the screen by David Koepp, directed by Steven Spielberg and scored by Spielberg's regular composer John Williams; none of these people were involved with Jurassic Park III. A second B-Team took over for Jurassic World, then another took over for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.
• Exorcist II: The Heretic was made without director William Friedkin or writer William Peter Blatty. The results spoke for themselves. Blatty did write and direct The Exorcist III, which was a vast improvement. Friedkin and Blatty also had no involvement with Exorcist: The Beginning.
• Damien: Omen II was made without director Richard Donner or writer David Seltzer. Donner was busy directing Superman: The Movie, while Seltzer wasn't interested in doing a sequel.
  • Donner also didn't return for Omen III: The Final Conflict, as he was involved in a lawsuit against Warner Bros. following his dismissal from Superman II.
• Neither John Milius nor Oliver Stone had any involvement with Conan the Destroyer. The result was a sequel that went for a PG rating by toning down the violence and nudity.
• Neither John Hughes nor Harold Ramis had any involvement with National Lampoon's European Vacation. Ramis was busy with Ghostbusters (1984), while Hughes had no idea the film had even been made until he saw a TV spot. Hughes did return to write National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, which is widely considered to be the best in the series.
• Predator 2 was made without Arnold Schwarzenegger or director John McTiernan. Arnie didn't have much confidence in the idea, while McTiernan was busy directing The Hunt for Red October.
  • McTiernan didn't return for Die Hard 2 for the same reason.
• Not only did Grease 2 fail to get back John Travolta or Olivia Newton-John, but also the original director and screenwriter.
• The Next Karate Kid was not only made without Ralph Macchio but without the director and screenwriter of the first three films.
• Paul W.S. Anderson had no involvement with Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, as he was busy working on Event Horizon.
  • He didn't return for Resident Evil: Apocalypse, as he was working on AVP: Alien vs. Predator.
• The sequels to RoboCop (1987) were made without Paul Verhoeven or the original screenwriters.
• While John Hughes returned to write Home Alone 3, Chris Columbus did not and neither did John Williams.
• James Whale didn't return to direct Son of Frankenstein, as he had wanted to move away from horror films.
• Kick-Ass 2 was made without Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman, as they had moved on to Kingsman: The Secret Service.
• The Mission: Impossible Film Series has been through several directors, with only Christopher McQuarrie lasting more than one film:
  • Tom Cruise attempted to get Brian De Palma to return for Mission: Impossible II, but he declined.
  • J. J. Abrams was unable to return for Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, as he was committed to Star Trek (2009).
  • Brad Bird was unable to return for Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation as he was busy with Tomorrowland.
• Rocky:
  • John G. Avildsen was unable to return to direct Rocky II, as he had moved on to Saturday Night Fever...which he was later fired from. Sylvester Stallone wound up directing. He attempted to persuade Avildsen to return for Rocky III, but Avildsen convinced him to do it himself. Avildsen did return for Rocky V, the only sequel not directed by Stallone.
  • Rocky IV is the only film in the series not to be scored by Bill Conti, as he was busy working on The Karate Kid Part II, also directed by Avildsen. Vince DiCola scored the film instead.
  • Ryan Coogler didn't return for Creed II, as he was busy working on Black Panther (2018). Steven Caple Jr. directed instead. Michael B. Jordan took over for Creed III.
• Zack Snyder only wrote the 300 sequel, 300: Rise of an Empire, as he was very busy working on the DC Extended Universe with Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. The film was directed by Noam Murro instead.
• Stephen Sommers had no involvement with The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.
• Guillermo del Toro didn't return for Pacific Rim: Uprising as he was busy with The Shape of Water.
• David Ayer wrote and directed the 2016 movie Suicide Squad. A follow-up titled The Suicide Squad was written by James Gunn as a soft reboot focusing on a largely new cast with little or no connections to the prior film.
• Johnny English changed directorial hands three times: The first film was directed by Peter Howitt; Reborn was by Oliver Parker; Strikes Again was by David Kerr.
• The Beverly Hills Cop trilogy had different directors. The first had Martin Brest, the second had Tony Scott and the third had John Landis. The third also wasn't produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson, nor was it scored by Harold Faltermyer.
• James Bond:
  • Terence Young didn't return to direct Goldfinger after directing Dr. No and From Russia with Love due to a dispute with the producers that saw him denied a percentage of the film's profits. He did The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders instead. He came back for Thunderball however, which therefore was this for Guy Hamilton.
  • Maurice Binder, who designed the title sequences for the majority of the Bond films, didn't work on From Russia with Love or Goldfinger due to a dispute with the producers.
  • Lewis Gilbert replaced both Young and Hamilton on You Only Live Twice and The Spy Who Loved Me respectively.
  • Editor and second unit director Peter R. Hunt replaced Gilbert on On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Guy Hamilton came back for Diamonds Are Forever and the first two Roger Moore films.
  • John Glen took over from Gilbert on For Your Eyes Only and directed all of the Bond films of The '80s.
  • Martin Campbell replaced John Glen and didn't return to direct Tomorrow Never Dies after GoldenEye, as he didn't want to do two Bond films in a row. He did The Mask of Zorro instead. This is most likely the reason he didn't return for Quantum of Solace after directing Casino Royale, with Marc Forster replacing him. He was also offered The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day, but declined.
  • Roger Spottiswoode didn't return to direct The World Is Not Enough due to the Troubled Production of Tomorrow Never Dies, Michael Apted replaced him.
  • Lee Tamahori took over for Die Another Day.
  • Sam Mendes, who replaced Marc Forster, stepped down from directing No Time to Die after directing Skyfall and Spectre (in fact, it was reported that it took Barbara Broccoli quite some time to convince for him to direct the latter). Cary Fukunaga replaced Mendes, after Creative Differences threw Danny Boyle out of the picture.
• Because David Cronenberg and his Production Posse had moved on to Dead Ringers, The Fly II was directed by Chris Walas, the makeup/special effects designer from the first film, and written, scored, etc. by other hands. Crosses over with Changing of the Guard as it deals with a mostly new set of characters headed up by the Spin-Offspring of the first film's protagonist.
• For obvious reasons, Roman Polański had no involvement in Chinatown's sequel The Two Jakes. Jack Nicholson directed it himself.
• John Woo didn't return for A Better Tomorrow: Love and Death in Saigon, due to a falling out with producer Tsai Hark.
• Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker initially agreed to make Airplane II: The Sequel, and then balked at the idea at a later date. The movie went ahead without their permission, and despite their protests - thus, they refused to watch a single frame of it upon its release - and still have not over twenty years later.
• Wes Craven refused to work on A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge because he never wanted or intended to have the first film become an ongoing franchise (and even wanted it to have a happy ending). He also didn't like the idea of Freddy manipulating the protagonist into committing the murders.
• Tim Burton stepped down as director on Alice Through the Looking Glass, though he still produced, and James Bobin took over as director.
• Tim Burton had no involvement with Big Top Pee-wee, as he was transitioning from completing Beetlejuice to beginning pre-production on Batman (1989).
• Stephen Herek declined to return as director for Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey because he thought it was "almost a parody of a movie that was already a parody".
• Blade Trilogy:
  • Stephen Norrington declined to return for Blade II, as he wanted to move on to other things. He was asked to direct Blade: Trinity, but declined after reading the script.
  • Guillermo del Toro was asked to direct the third film, but he was busy with Hellboy (2004).
• Ridley Scott was said to be helming Blade Runner 2049 himself back in 2011, but his work on Prometheus, The Counselor, Exodus: Gods and Kings, The Martian and Alien: Covenant resulted in him taking a step back into an executive producer capacity only.
• The only ones to return for Caddyshack II were Chevy Chase and Kenny Loggins. Harold Ramis was involved, though his script was heavily rewritten.
• Death Wish:
  • Michael Winner showed no interest in directing Death Wish 4: The Crackdown because he had heard that Charles Bronson had a terrible experience filming Death Wish 3. He was also preoccupied with filming Appointment With Death.
  • He was available to direct Death Wish V: The Face of Death, but was never asked to do so. According to Winner, his lack of interest in directing the previous film may have led Menahem Golan to count him out.
• The Fast and the Furious:
  • Neither Rob Cohen nor Vin Diesel returned for 2 Fast 2 Furious, as they worked on xXx at the time.
  • Justin Lin didn't return for Furious 7, as the studio wanted to produce the film on an accelerated schedule for release in summer 2014. This would have required Lin to begin pre-production on the sequel while performing post-production on Fast & Furious 6, which he considered would affect the quality of the final product.
  • Diesel attempted to get Cohen to return for The Fate of the Furious.
• Friday the 13th Part 2:
  • Steve Miner, associate producer on the first film, stepped in to direct this film and the next one after Sean S. Cunningham opted not to return to the director's chair.
  • Tom Savini was offered to return to do the effects, but he chose to do The Burning instead.
• The first six Godzilla films were all directed by Ishir⁠ō Honda, scored by Akira Ifukube, and featured special effects by Eiji Tsuburya, with the exception of the second film, Godzilla Raids Again which was directed by Motoyoshi Oda and scored by Masaru Sato. Beginning with the seventh film however, directorial duties were handed over to Jun Fukuda and the music was provided by Sato once more, after which Tsuburaya became less involved with the series to focus on Ultraman. Since then the series has never held onto a main creative team for more than a few movies at a time, with directors, composers, and special effects supervisors coming and going on a regular basis.
  • Gareth Edwards was originally set to return to direct Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) after taking a break from blockbusters, but he decided to take on Rogue One in that time instead, meaning that his break was delayed to the point where it encompasses the time he could have directed this.
• Halloween:
  • John Carpenter left the directing reigns on Halloween II (1981) to Rick Rosenthal, though he did co-write and score the film, as well as directing additional scenes.
  • Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers was where Carpenter bailed on the series. He wanted to turn Halloween into an anthology series, as opposed to continuing the Michael Myers story.
  • Carpenter was originally considered to direct Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later. But Moustapha Akkad balked when he asked for $10 million as his directing fee - which he believed was compensation for the revenue he had never received from the original. Supposedly he stayed on as an uncredited producer.
• The original creative team behind The Silence of the Lambs (primarily Jonathan Demme and Jodie Foster) was enthusiastic about working on Hannibal... right up until the book they would be adapting was finally published. Demme declined to helm the film early on in pre-production, finding the source material excessively "lurid". Screenwriter Ted Tally (who hadn't been as vocal in his enthusiasm for working on a sequel, but had worked well with Demme and did subsequently adapt Red Dragon) also took a pass, simply deeming it "excessive". Foster was more equivocal initially but finally declined to return as well, officially citing scheduling conflicts (with her film Flora Plum). Some years later, she also revealed that she was displeased with Clarice's character arc in the novel, as was Demme. Demme and Foster turned down massive paychecks, with talks of a $15 million salary for Foster (and Anthony Hopkins), and as much as a $20 million director's fee for Demme. Obviously that was enough to entice Hopkins, who (as noted above) subsequently expressed misgivings about the finished film anyway. Had Harris written a more... "acceptable" version of Hannibal, it does seem much likelier that Demme, Foster, and Tally might have all returned alongside Hopkins.
• Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts series:
  • After directing the first two Harry Potter films, Chris Columbus stepped down as director due to family commitments. He stayed on as a producer for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban but vacated the series entirely after that. Azkaban director Alfonso Cuarón was offered the chance to helm Goblet of Fire but declined, as he would still be working on the post-production for Azkaban. Goblet director Mike Newell would similarly stay for only one film. However, Order of the Phoenix director David Yates would stick around, directing not only the rest of the Potter films but also every film in the spin-off Fantastic Beasts series.
  • Steve Kloves, who wrote the screenplays for the first four Potter films, opted out of Phoenix and was replaced by Michael Goldenberg. Kloves left in order to work on a movie version of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, but it ended up in Development Hell. He returned to the series for Half-Blood Prince and the Deathly Hallows films, leaving Phoenix as the only entry he didn't adapt. He stayed on as a producer for the Fantastic Beasts films, the first two of which were written directly for the screen by J. K. Rowling herself. However, Rowling and Kloves would share screenwriting credit for The Secrets of Dumbledore.
  • John Williams scored the first three films, bowing out of the series when he chose to do Memoirs of a Geisha instead of Goblet of Fire. For Goblet, he was replaced by Patrick Doyle, who stuck around for only that film. The first two Yates films were scored by Nicholas Hooper, who was his Associated Composer. However, the two-part Deathly Hallows finale would be scored by Alexandre Desplat. All the Fantastic Beasts films have been scored by James Newton Howard.
• Joe Dante was never offered the chance to direct Howling II: Stirba: Werewolf Bitch. The rights to the book The Howling II was owned by one of the producers and by Gary Brandner, the author of the book. Brandner, who was not a huge fan of Dante at the time, was not likely going to consider him to make the sequel after his displeasure with the director loosely adapting the first The Howling novel.
• Tobe Hooper was originally going to be involved in Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III. He had submitted a treatment to New Line execs, but bowed out of the project due to scheduling conflicts concerning his film Spontaneous Combustion.
• Antoine Fuqua refused to direct London Has Fallen because he didn't like the script.
• Pirates of the Caribbean:
  • Gore Verbinski was unable to return for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides due to his commitment to Rango. He passed on Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, feeling that "there's no reason other than financial" in making the film.
  • Rob Marshall didn't return for Dead Men Tell No Tales, as he was busy with Into the Woods. Hans Zimmer also didn't score the film, as he was busy working on Dunkirk.
• Denis Villeneuve could not return to direct Sicario: Day of the Soldado due to scheduling conflicts with Arrival and Blade Runner 2049.
• Hal Needham and Burt Reynolds were not interested in making Smokey And The Bandit Part 3 as they were developing Stroker Ace. Reynolds ended up making a very brief cameo appearance though, in the final scene.
• Luc Besson still wrote and produced Taxi 5, but no director nor main actor from the first batch of films (bar two supporting roles, Bernard Farcy and Edouard Montoute) returned.
• Hammer Horror stalwart Terence Fisher was originally slated to direct The Evil of Frankenstein and Dracula: Prince of Darkness, but had to bow out after an automobile accident, leaving cameraman Freddie Francis at the helm.
• Stanley Kubrick was offered the chance to direct 2010: The Year We Make Contact, but had zero interest in doing it.
• Penelope Spheeris was approached by Paramount to direct Wayne's World 2. Spheeris immediately declined the offer due to the fact that Mike Myers had been so difficult to work with during the making of the first film. Instead Stephen Surjik was chosen to direct. Spheeris would not make peace with Myers until after the release of Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.
• Vin Diesel and Rob Cohen signed on for xXx: State of the Union two months before the first film opened. Both ended up leaving the project as Diesel disliked the script, while Cohen worked on Stealth. Cohen remained as an executive producer. Diesel would take a while to return.
• John McTiernan was initially attached to direct Patriot Games, but departed when Alec Baldwin dropped out. He moved on to Medicine Man, which reunited him with Sean Connery, the star of The Hunt for Red October.
• Scary Movie: The first two movies were directed by Keenan Ivory Wayans. David Zucker took over for the next two installments, while Malcolm D. Lee directed the fifth one.
• Neither Tobe Hooper nor Steven Spielberg had any involvement in any of the sequels to Poltergeist (1982).
• Neither Terry Zwigoff nor The Coen Brothers had any involvement with Bad Santa 2. The film also had different writers.
• Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is the first Indiana Jones without direct input from Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, who serve only as executive producers.

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