Say you've got a work that gets successful enough that it's greenlit for a sequel, new season, or the like. How would you differentiate its logo from that of the previous installment? Some of the easiest ways are simply tacking on a number or giving it a subtitle. However, one of the flashier ways of getting the point across that a work is a sequel is either slightly modifying or changing wholecloth the series logo (Often in tandem with the earlier mentioned examples) so that it in some way reflects the sequel's subject matter.
This is a Supertrope to Sequel Logo in Ruins, which is when a sequel or prequel has the work logo either partially or fully destroyed to represent its Darker and Edgier or more dire nature, so examples where that is the primary focus should go there. A Pictorial Letter Substitution can count as an example if done for thematic purposes. Compare Variant Cover. Logo Joke is a closely related trope but for publisher logos and Vanity Plates.
Since this trope deals with sequels, all spoilers on the page will remain unmarked.
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Other examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Four Knights of the Apocalypse: The logo for its prequel The Seven Deadly Sins, which was sunset-colored and unbordered, is replaced with a rectangle of night sky, perhaps signifying the death of Sunshine-wielder Escanor. Percival's helmet is perched on one of the letters.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
- Golden Wind: The anime logo contains one of Giorno's ladybug jacket pins to reflect his motif.
- Stone Ocean: The logo's subtitle is crossed with string behind the butterfly seen on Jolyne's shirt, representing the power of her Stand, Stone Free.
- Yu-Gi-Oh!:
- Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds: The logo has a stylized dragon to represent the Signer Dragons the first portion of the plot revolves around.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS: The logo is partially glitched out to represent the story partially taking place within cyberspace.
Films — Animated
- The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part: The "2" in the logo is made of transparent blue bricks similar to the Glassteroids that Emmet encounters trying to go through the Stairgate.
- Toy Story 4: The film's logo is sometimes stylized to look like a lit fairground sign due to a fair taking place in the town where most of the film is set in.
Films — Live-Action
- Avatar: The Way of Water has the logo lettering change to an ocean blue to represent the setting shifting to Pandora's seas as opposed to the jungle of the first film.
- The Batman film franchise is very fond of doing this, with various variations of the Bat logo incorporating nods to the film's themes or antagonists.
- Batman Returns changes the yellow of the symbol to white, representing how it is set during winter and its subdued color palette with contrasting white and black.
- Batman Forever replaces the oval around the symbol with the curve of a question mark, representing the Riddler, and gives it green and blue highlights representing Two-Face.
- Batman & Robin has Robin's new Nightwing inspired logo overlaid onto Batman's.
- The Dark Knight Trilogy has variations of the logo for each film, beginning with the rusted Bat representing the decay of Gotham. The Dark Knight has it backlit, with the poster featuring a version burned onto a skyscraper representing Joker's reign of chaos. The Dark Knight Rises features the logo shattering apart, representing the fracture that occurs within Gotham.
- Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice features the merging of the two protagonists' logos.
- Jurassic Park III: The usual Tyrannosaurus has been replaced by a Spinosaurus and the "III" is gouged out with its three-clawed hand (T. rex only has two clawed hands) to represent the latter being the story's new Big Bad.
- Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- Ant-Man and the Wasp: Unlike the pure red first movie logo, the sequel's logo is half red to represent Ant-Man and half yellow to represent The Wasp and her involvement in the plot.
- Avengers: Infinity War: The logo is turned gold to represent the golden Infinity Gauntlet.
- Thor: Ragnarok and Thor: Love and Thunder both have colorful and ostentatious logos to represent their more comedic nature, as well as the inspiration taken from '80s Rock and Metal. Additionally, the Ragnarok logo has technological details to represent the planet of Sakaar where half of the movie is set.
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022): The "2" added to the logo is orange and has Tails' twin tails sticking out of it to represent his involvement in the plot.
Live-Action TV
- Doctor Who: The first half of Series 7 has a Couch Gag where the logo of the show would appear different each week with a texture appropriate to the episode. For instance, "Asylum of the Daleks" has Dalek bumps, "A Town Called Mercy" is textured with bullet-riddled wood panels to represent the Western setting of the episode, and "The Power of Three" uses a tessellated cubic pattern to represent the fact that the enemy is a slow invasion of cubes.
- Each season of Star Trek: Discovery changes the visual elements during the main title sequence to reflect elements of that season (such as having a picture of the Red Angel in Season 2, or changing from a 23rd century phaser pistol to a 32nd century one in Season 3). The series title is also rendered in a harsh, Klingon-like font for the first two seasons, but changes to a rounder, more "futuristic" one starting in Season 3 to reflect the setting change to the 32nd century.
Tabletop Games
- Vampire: The Masquerade: The stylized logo of the first edition remained unchanged all the way to the 20th Anniversary version of the game. This finally changed with the announcement of Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition, which added damage to the font and the frame around the word "vampire" as a way to emphasize the changes in the status quo of the setting, like the rise of the Second Inquisition.
Toys
- Three LEGO toy ranges have used altered versions of the original Classic LEGO Space logo (a spaceship breaking out of its orbit around a cratered planet):
- The 2022 LEGO City Space range use a version where the planet is Earthlike and the spaceship hasn't travelled so far, implying that this is earlier in the history of space exploration.
- The Ice Planet 2002 sets carry a version where the planet has a prominent icecap and the spaceship is in a static orbit.
- In the Dreamzzz range, Mr Oz's Spacebus carries a version where the planet is replaced with the Dream Chasers' hourglass logo.
Western Animation
- Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero has the Bat symbol made from ice with the title carved into it representing the confrontation with Mr Freeze.
- Ben 10: Omniverse: The "Galactic Monsters" arc gives the subtitle a purple, bubbling font to represent the season plot centering around aliens based on horror movie monsters like the vampire-esque Lord Transyl.
- Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous: The logo is completely wooden to represent the fact that the story begins in an adventure camp before the events of Jurassic World (Of which this story is an Interquel to) make things go completely off the rails.
- Legends of Chima: Season 2 has the logo resemble vines with thorns to establish the season takes place in the Outlands, and Season 3 has the logo be made of ice with the Chi in the "i" replaced with a Fire Chi due to both elements playing a major part in the season.
- Steven Universe: The logo for Future has a sharpened font with its subtitle colored in pink to signify the new changes after the fifth season.
