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This entry is trivia, which is cool and all, but not a trope. On a work, it goes on the Trivia tab.

Sequel Gap

"Sorry to keep you waiting!"

A film or other literary work where a sequel is released long, long after the original work. May sometimes be a Trilogy Creep, very often related to Development Hell. Does not apply to Sequels In Name Only, Sequel Series, or Franchise Reboots. This Trope is for honest-to-goodness sequels. See also Capcom Sequel Stagnation, and a related Webcomic trope, Schedule Slip.

Examples

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Anime and Manga

Slayers Try (1997) and Slayers Revolution (2008) — 11 years.
Both in-universe and out-of-universe, there was a Sequel Gap between Mobile Suit Gundam and Mobile Suit Z Gundam. Real life: 7 years. In-universe, 5 years. This happened again later with Char's Counterattack, which came out 8 years after Z Gundam, and then after that, a couple of years later, came F91. Another, even bigger Sequel Gap is between Char's Counterattack and its direct sequel, Mobile Suit Gundam UC, which had its first episode launched about 17 years after CCA. The Universal Century certainly loves Sequel Gaps a lot.
Ghost in the Shell (1995) and Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004) — 9 years.
Last Exile (2003) and Last Exile: Fam, the Silver Wing (2011) — 8 years.
Gunbuster (1988-89) and Diebuster (2004-05) — 14 years.

Films — Animation

Toy Story 3, a gap of 11 years from Toy Story 2.
Hayao Miyazaki's Porco Rosso was released in 1992, and he's planning on making a sequel set years later with the titular pilot being older. As of now, it's been at least 20 years.
Monsters Inc will be getting a prequel, Monsters University in 2013 — 12 years after it was released.
If rumors of a Finding Nemo (2003) sequel coming in 2016 are true that will be a gap of 13 years.
The Secret Of NIMH (1982) and The Secret of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue (1998) — 16 years.
A number of Disney Animated Canon Direct-to-Video examples:
- The Fox and the Hound (1981) and Fox and the Hound 2 (2006) — 25 years.
- Cinderella (1950) and Cinderella 2: Dreams Come True (2002) — 52 years.
- 101 Dalmatians (1961) and 101 Dalmatians 2: Patch's London Adventure (2003) — 42 years.
- Lady and the Tramp (1955) and Lady and the Tramp 2: Scamp's Adventure (2001) — 46 years.
- Bambi (1942) and Bambi II (2006) — 64 years, a record for the longest gap in film.
And Disney theatrical ones:
- Peter Pan (1953) and Return to Neverland (2002) — 49 years.
- The Jungle Book (1967) and Jungle Book 2 (2003) — 36 years.
- Fantasia (1940) and Fantasia 2000 (1999) — 59 years.
- The Rescuers (1977) and The Rescuers Down Under (1990) — 13 years.
Cat City (1986) and Cat City 2: The Cat of Satan (2007) — 21 years.
Vuk The Little Fox (1981) and Kis Vuk (A Fox's Tale) (2008) — 27 years.
The Sponge Bob Square Pants Movie (2004) and The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie 2 (2014) — 10 years.
The third sequel to The Swan Princess comes out in 2012, 14 years after the previous sequel.
The Land Before Time,where 8 years passed before the first sequel. From there, the numerous sequels came like clockwork, though, only stopping when Universal shut down their animation studio.

Films — Live-Action

There's a three-year gap between Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982). Prior to that, there was a ten-year gap between The Motion Picture and the last broadcasted episode of Star Trek: The Original Series (it went off the air in 1969), and a 'FIFTEEN'-year gap between The Original Series episode that Wrath Of Khan was based on, titled "Space Seed", was last broadcasted (1967).
TRON (1982) and TRON: Legacy (2010) — 28 years.
Wall Street (1987) and Money Never Sleeps (2010) — 23 years.
The Hustler (1961) and The Color of Money (1986) — 25 years.
Psycho (1960) and Psycho II (1983) — 23 years.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) — 19 years.
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983) and The Phantom Menace (1999) — a 16-year Prequel Gap.
- Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (2005) and Star Wars: Episode VII (2015) — 10 years.
Return To Oz was made 46 years after The Wizard of Oz. The stylistic differences are great enough that by some standards it's more of a thematic sequel than a direct one.
An American Werewolf in London (1981) and An American Werewolf in Paris (1997) — 16 years.
Rocky V (1990) and Rocky Balboa (2006) — 16 years.
Chinatown (1974) and The Two Jakes (1990)— 16 years.
Rambo III (1988) and Rambo (2008) — 20 years.
The Blues Brothers (1980) and The Blues Brothers 2000 (1998) — 18 years.
War Games The Dead Code. 1983/2008 — 25 years (with some non-trope-fitters in between).
Common with the Terminator series: 7 years to the second, 12 to the third, and 6 to the fourth.
Also common with the Alien series: 7 years to the second, 6 to the third, and 5 to the fourth (plus 15 to the semi-prequel). And if you count the Alien vs. Predator films in the series, another 7 years to the first of those.
Speaking of which — there's a fourteen-year gap between Predator 2 (1990) and Alien vs. Predator (2004). Or, not counting the Alien vs. Predator films as legitimate, there's a 20-year gap between Predator 2 (1990) and Predators (2010).
The Chronicles of Riddick (2004) and Riddick (2013) - nine years.
The Beastmaster and Beastmaster 2: Through The Portal of Time — 9 years. It may seem short for this list, but by some accounts, it had the longest Sequel Gap as of 1991.
Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles, released 13 years after the second.
The Godfather Part II (1974) and The Godfather Part III (1990) — 16 years.
Superman Returns (2006), released nineteen years after the last Superman film — and chronologically following the second film, released 26 years before.
The Three Musketeers (1973) & The Four Musketeers (1974) and The Return of the Musketeers (1989) — 15 years. (Not unreasonable considering the latter is an adaptation of the book Twenty Years After.)
Bean (1997) and Mr. Bean's Holiday (2007) — 10 years.
An obscure film noir movie Strange Bargain (1949) was given a sequel 38 years later in 1987 — in an episode of Murder, She Wrote, where Jessica Fletcher investigated the original crime.
Scream 3 (2000) and Scream 4 (2011) — 11 years.
Die Hard With A Vengeance (1995) and Live Free Or Die Hard (2007) — 12 years.
There's a 14-year gap between Basic Instinct and its sequel.
Johnny English (2003) and Johnny English Reborn (2011) — 8 years.
Escape From New York (1981) and Escape From LA (1996) — 15 years.
Counting only the main American Pie films (the direct-to-DVD spinoffs are borderline In Name Only anyway), it's 9 years between American Wedding and the 2012 American Reunion.
Before Sunrise (1995) and Before Sunset (2004) and Before Midnight (2013)— 9 years between each.
Bad Boys (1995) and Bad Boys II (2003) — 8 years.
Brazilian filmmaker made a trilogy about his Author Avatar character Coffin Joe. The movies are At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul (1963), This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse (1967), and finally Embodiment of Evil (2008), only 41 YEARS after the second one. Of course, that doesn't mean he did nothing at all this years, even using Coffin joe in minor roles in his other projects.
Spy Kids 3D: Game Over (2003) and Spy Kids 4D: All the Time in the World (2011) — 8 years, by which time Fleeting Demographic had set in. The franchise was more-or-less remarketed as though new.
The Naked Civil Servant (1975) and An Englishman In New York (2009) — 34 years.
Men In Black III (2012) comes 10 years after Men in Black II (2002).
Harold Lloyd's The Sin of Harold Diddlebock (1947) was a sequel to his hit film The Freshman (1925)- 22 Years.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) was released 9 years after The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2013) (see also the Literature entry below).
Carrie (1976) and its sequel The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999) — 23 years.
The Odd Couple (1968) and its sequel The Odd Couple II (1998) — 30 years.
Warriors of Virtue (1997) and Warriors of Virtue: The Return to Tao (2002) — 5 years.
A Christmas Story (1983) and A Christmas Story 2 (2012) — 29 years.^*
The Worlds End (2013) was made 6 years after Hot Fuzz (2007), which in turn was made 3 years after Shaun Of The Dead (2004).
Freddy vs. Jason is a direct sequel to Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday and was supposed to come out not long after, but it wasn't made until a decade later due to Troubled Production.
The original broadcast of Space Seed (1967) and Star Trek The Wrath Of Khan (1982) 15 years.
The Best Man (1999) and The Best Man Holiday (2013) — 14 years.

Literature

Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep came out in 1992; the sequel, The Children Of The Sky, was released in 2011 (19 years). A Deepness in the Sky — set in the same universe but not a direct sequel — came out in the interim.
CJ Cherryh's Cyteen and Regenesis (1988/2009) — 21 years. Similar to the Vinge example above, Cherryh had other Alliance Union books come out between the two.
The Time Ships, an official sequel to The Time Machine was published to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the first book (1895/ 1995).
There was a 12-year gap between the third and fourth book in The Demon Princes series. The series was always planned to have 5 books.
The Earth's Children series had a 12 year gap between The Plains of Passage (1990) and The Sheltes of Stone (2002). Assuming The Land of the Painted Caves comes out as scheduled in 2011, that will have been another 9 year gap.
Part I of Goethe's Faust was first published in 1808. Part II (a sequel in all but name) was released in 1832 (24 years).
The Unicorn Chronicles had something like almost 10 years between the 2nd book and the 3rd book being published.
Peter And Wendy (1911) and its authorised sequel Peter Pan in Scarlet (2006) — 95 years.
Closing Time, the sequel to Catch Twenty Two, was published in 1994; 33 years after the original novel.
In the Magic Kingdom Of Landover series, there was a fourteen year gap between the fifth book, Witches' Brew, and the sixth, A Princess of Landover (for reference, there were nine years between the release of the first book and the fifth).
Gone with the Wind (1937) and its authorised sequel Scarlett (1991) have a gap of 54 years and then an officially authorized P.O.V. Sequel Rhett Butler's People (2007) 16 years later.
My Side of the Mountain (1959) by Jean Craighead George had its sequel On the Far Side of the Mountain published in 1990, leaving a gap of 31 years. The third book, Frightful's Mountain, came nine years after that.
Julie of the Wolves (1972) by Jean Craighead George got its sequels Julie and Julie's Wolf Pack in 1994 and 1997, respectively (22 and 25 years).
Psycho, the original Robert Bloch novel (1959), and Psycho II also by Bloch (1982), which was totally unrelated to the film sequel — 23 years.
Magicians of Gor (book 25 in the series): 1988 — Witness of Gor (book 26): 2001. 13 years.
Fans of Isobelle Carmody's Obernewtyn series waited 10 years for the fifth book in the sequence; the fourth book, The Keeping Place was originally published in 1998, The Stone Key in 2008.
In Clare Bell's The Named series, the release of the first four books was spread between 1983 and 1991. Seventeen years later, the series started its re-issue because of its new fifth book, Ratha's Courage (2008). The next year also saw a novelette written on Twitter and a short story in an anthology of speculative fiction.
The fourth book in Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, Foundation's Edge, was published in 1982, 29 years after the original trilogy.
The third book in his "Robot Trilogy", The Robots Of Dawn was published in 1983, 26 years after the second.
The Hobbit (1937), followed by The Lord of the Rings (three volumes, 1954-1955) — 17-18 years.
The Pit Dragon Chronicles by Jane Yolen was originally a trilogy that was published 1982-1987. The fourth book came out in 2009 — 22 years.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books: 8 years between So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (1984) and Mostly Harmless (1992), and 17 years between Mostly Harmless and And Another Thing... (2009). Though the latter was due to Author Existence Failure.
The Iliad and The Odyssey were likely composed some time around 850 BC. The Aeneid, a Continuation Fic, was finished in 19 BC. If both are taken as part of Classical Mythology, that's a Sequel Gap of over 800 years.
The Egypt Game (1967) and The Gypsy Game (1997) — 30 years. Both are set in The Present Day through the use of Comic Book Time.
The Blackcollar (1983), The Backlash Mission (1986) and The Judas Solution (2006).

Video Games

Bionic Commando (1988) and Bionic Commando Rearmed (2008) — 20 years.
Duke Nukem 3 D (1996) and Duke Nukem Forever (2011) — 15 years. There were a few games that played differently a few years after 3D, however. What makes Duke Nukem Forever so infamous in this regard is the fact that the unlike most titles listed here, the game was in active development the entire time!
Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters (1991) and Kid Icarus Uprising (2012) — 21 years. Uprising pokes fun at this by starting the game with Pit saying "Sorry to keep you waiting!"
- Japan had it worse - they didn't get Of Myths and Monsters until its Virtual Console release in 2012, meaning they had to wait 26 years between installments.
Super Metroid (1994) and Metroid Prime / Metroid Fusion (2002) — 8 years.
Marvel Vs Capcom 2 (2000) and Marvel Vs Capcom 3 (2011) — 11 years.
The Great Giana Sisters (1987) and Giana Sisters DS (2009) — 22 years.
Fallout 2 (1998) and Fallout 3 (2008) — 10 years. Although two spinoff titles were released in between: Fallout Tactics (2001) and Fallout Brotherhood Of Steel (2004).
Starcraft (1998) and Starcraft II (2010) — 12 years.
Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike (1999) and Street Fighter IV (2008) — 9 years.
- Although, 3rd Strike was hardly the last Capcom fighting game with Street Fighter characters prior to IV. Capcom were still making fighting games featuring Street Fighter games after 3rd Strike (most notably Marvel Vs Capcom 2 and the Capcom vs. SNK series) and even then Street Fighter EX3 (the last game in the EX spin-off series) was released a year after 3rd Strike. Between the infamous Capcom Fighting Jam and Tatsunoko Vs Capcom, there was really only a four-year gap.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (1994) and Sonic the Hedgehog 4 (2010) — 16 years. Although there were many other Sonic titles released between then.
Mega Man 8 (1996) and 9 (2008) — 12 years. As with Sonic, there were other Mega Man titles released, though nearly all of them falling into the various other sub-series.
Golden Sun: The Lost Age (2003) and Golden Sun Dark Dawn (2010) — 7 years.
Team Fortress Classic (1999) and Team Fortress 2 (2007) — 8 years.
Diablo II (2000) and Diablo III (2012) — 12 years.
Goblins 3 (1993) and Gobliiins 4 (2009) — 16 years.
American Mcgees Alice (2000) and Alice: Madness Returns (2011) — 11 years.
NiGHTS Into Dreams... (1996) and NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams (2007) — 11 years.
The Longest Journey (1999) and Dreamfall (2006) — 7 years. Plus Dreamfall Chapters (still in pre-production in 2011).
Out Run (1986) and Out Run 2 (2003) — 17 years. Although it did have a few other oddly named sequels (notably Turbo OutRun in 1989 and OutRunners in 1992, both arcade releases).
After Burner III (1992) and After Burner Climax (2006) — 14 years.
Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME (2002) and Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA (2006) — only 4 years between those two major arcade releases, but the four years before saw no less than 7 major arcade versions of DDR, as well as Plus versions and spin-offs.
X (a 3D First-Person Shooter for Game Boy, 1992) and X-Scape (DSiWare, 2010) — 18 years.
TRON (1982) / Discs of TRON (1983) and Tron 2.0 (2003) — 20 years.
Raiden III (2005) — 7 years if you count Raiden Fighters JET (1998) as the last entry, 11 if you count Raiden DX (1994) as the last.
G-Darius (1997) and Darius Burst (2009) — 12 years.
Metal Gear 2 Solid Snake (1990) and Metal Gear Solid (1998) — 8 years.
Carmageddon TDR 2000 (2000) and Carmageddon: Reincarnation (scheduled for 2012) — 12 years.
Luigis Mansion (2001) and Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (scheduled for 2013) — 12 years.
Pilotwings 64 (1996) and Pilotwings Resort (2011) — 15 years.
Sam & Max: Hit the Road (1993) and Sam & Max: Culture Shock (2006) — 13 years.
Final Fantasy IV (1991) and Final Fantasy IV The After Years (2008) — 17 years. Note that this is in regards to a direct story sequel, as the Final Fantasy series is non linear with 14 titles in the main series.
Pikmin 2 (2004) and Pikmin 3 (planned to be released for the Wii U in 2013) — 8-9 years.
EarthBound (1994 in Japan) and MOTHER 3 (2006) — 12 years. It should be noted that MOTHER 3 fell victim to vaporware status for a very good chunk of that time - its earliest incarnation was intended for the SNES and at one point was a heavily hyped N64 project. It ultimately ended up emerging at the end of the Game Boy Advance's lifespan.
Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts (1991) and Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins (2006) — 15 years. Not counting the Wonderswan game Capcom licensed to Bandai, the Game Boy Advance port of Super, or the Gargoyle's Quest spin-off series with Firebrand (aka Red Arremer).
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (1995) and New Super Mario Bros (2006) — 11 years. Mario had kept on going in the meantime, but New was a direct return to classic 2D platforming that had been mostly abandoned since Yoshi's Island. If only 2D SMB-style platformers are considered, it's 14 years, with 1992's Super Mario Land 2 Six Golden Coins being the last game of that type.
Donkey Kong (1981), Donkey Kong '94 (1994), and Mario vs. Donkey Kong (2004) — 13 years and 10 years, respectively.
Donkey Kong Country 3 (1996) and Donkey Kong Country Returns (2010) — 14 years. If you count Donkey Kong 64 (1999) in the series, it's 11 years.
Super Smash Bros. Melee (2001) and Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008) — 7 years.
Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves (2005) and Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time (2013) — 8 years.
Thunder Force V (1997) to Thunder Force VI (2008) is another 11 years.
Seiken Densetsu 3 (1995) to Seiken Densetsu 4 (2006) is, again, 11 years. Spin-offs were produced in between but this was the first numbered game since.
Shantae (2002) to Shantae: Risky's Revenge (2010) — 8 years.
Wasteland (1988) to Wasteland 2 (scheduled for 2013) — 25 years.
Yoshi's Island (1995) to Yoshi's Island DS (2006), that's 11 years if you only count games in the direct Yoshi's Island series. If you count other Yoshi games, the gap between Yoshi's Story (1997) and Yoshi's Topsy Turvy/Universal Gravitation (2004) would count instead, with 7 years between games.
Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc (2003) and Rayman Origins (2011) — 8 years. The Raving Rabbids games are only spin-offs.
The Legend Of Kage (1985) and The Legend of Kage 2 (2008) — 23 years.
Spec Ops: Airborne Commando (2002) and Spec Ops The Line (2012) — 10 years.
Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness (1995) and Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos (2002) — 7 years.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II (2004) and Star Wars The Old Republic (2011) — 7 years.
Escape From Monkey Island (2000) and Tales Of Monkey Island (2009) — 9 years.
Deus Ex Invisible War (2003) and Deus Ex Human Revolution (2011) — 8 years.
The Wolfenstein series has seen a few gaps between titles:
- Beyond Castle Wolfenstein (1984) and Wolfenstein 3 D (1992) — 8 years.
- Spear of Destiny (1992) and Return To Castle Wolfenstein (2001) — 9 years.
- Return To Castle Wolfenstein (2001) and Wolfenstein (2009) — 8 years.
Wizardry VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant (1992) and Wizardry 8 (2001) — 9 years. Despite the long gap, it still allowed you to import your save from the previous game.
King's Bounty (1990) and King's Bounty: The Legend (2008) — 18 years.
Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne (2003) and Shin Megami Tensei IV (2013) — 10 years. Though there have been lots of spinoffs in between.
Rampage (1986) and Rampage World Tour (1997) — 11 years.
Tapper (1983) and Tapper World Tour (2011) — 28 years.
Caesar III (1998) and Caesar IV (2006) — 8 years.
Red Faction II (2002) and Red Faction: Guerrilla (2009) — 7 years.
Counter-Strike: Source (2004) and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (2012) — 8 years.
The DonPachi series was supposed to "die peacefully" with DoDonPachi Dai-Ou-Jou in 2002 ("daioujou" = "peaceful death"). But fans wanted more, so it was "resurrected" 6 years later with DoDonPachi Dai-Fukkatsu in 2008 ("daifukkatsu" = "great resurrection").
Max Payne 2 (2003) and Max Payne 3 (2012) — 8 years.
Wario Land 4 (2001) and Wario Land Shake It (2008) — 7 years. Stops being this if you count Wario World and Wario: Master Of Disguise as part of the same series, but as far as traditionally named Wario Land games go, that's quite a gap.
Super Punch-Out!! (1994) and Punch-Out!! for Wii (2009) — 15 years.
You Dont Know Jack Volume 6: The Lost Gold (2003) and You Don't Know Jack 2011 — 8 years, although there was an online beta flash game from 2006 to 2008.
Golden Axe: The Duel (1994) to Golden Axe: Beast Rider (2008) — 14 years.
Panel De Pon (1995) to its GameCube incarnation (technically a sequel as it features different characters) in Nintendo Puzzle Collection (2003) — 8 years. Not the case with its Westernized variants Tetris Attack and Pokemon Puzzle League, which only had a 4-year gap. From Pokemon Puzzle League (2000) to Planet Puzzle League (2007) is seven years - although this only applies in the West, as the latter game came out only four years after NPC. As far as games featuring the traditional fairy character designs go, however, a 10-year gap (so far) is still ongoing.
The Fools Errand (1987) and The Fool and His Money (2012) — 25 years.
Double Dragon (the Neo Geo version released in 1995) to Double Dragon Advance (2003) to Double Dragon Neon (2012) — 8 years and 9 years respectively.
- If we excludes the Neo-Geo version for being a competitive fighter instead of a beat-'em-up, then that leaves Super Double Dragon (1992) as the last true game in the series prior to Advance, which makes it an 11-year gap instead.
- There were other Double Dragon games released between Advance and Neon though, particularly a Zeebo version released in 2009 and an iOS version made by the same developers in 2011, but these were a bit more obscure (especially the Zeebo version, which was a game console only available in Brazil and Mexico).
Apollo Justice Ace Attorney (2007) and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies (2013) — 6 years, in terms of a direct sequel. There were still Ace Attorney games released between them, but two of them were Gaiden Games and the third was a crossover with the Professor Layton series.