5 Sci-Fi Movies That Set Up Sequels That Were Never Made

Sometimes Hollywood studios, for all their genius moves, can get a little too overconfident in a project they've got in the pipeline. They'll get all the right talent, a decent budget, and think they're onto a winner. So much so that they'll be bold enough to end their project on a cliffhanger, or even worse, hint at a sequel that has yet to be made. Then the worst thing happens — the movie either gets a welcome comparable to a wet fart, or alternatively, it gains cult status and fails to get the sequel its fanbase is desperate to see.

When that happens, the tease that was left at the end of the movie they had high hopes for alludes to absolutely nothing. There's no "Part II" to the franchise they hoped would flourish, and the small audience that backed the movie is left with their hopes dashed. Keeping that in mind, we've compiled some movies that committed such a crime: speaking too soon in cinemas, only to never be heard from again. To start things off, we've got one movie that tarnished the reputation of a DC legend for years, which has thankfully found some redemption recently. Be that as it may, the movie in question did give us one of the best comic book movie castings we never got to see more of. We did get plenty of meta "Deadpool" jokes out of it, though.

Ryan Reynolds might've run the joke about how bad his take on "Green Lantern" was into the ground, but at the time of release, Warner Bros. was still confident enough in the adventures of the Emerald Knight to hint at a sequel we never got. In the case of the 2011 film, it featured a post-credit scene with a perfect casting choice who was bubbling with potential.

As much of a tough, green-tinted watch as Martin Campbell's comic book movie might've been, one shining light was Mark Strong as the mentor and liability of a Green Lantern, Sinestro. An esteemed member of the GLC who had issues with authority, Sinestro had seeds planted in the movie to hint at his eventual heel-turn, culminating in his donning of a brand-new yellow ring that would become the weapon to rival Hal and the rest of the corps.

For die-hard DC fans, setting this up is like the Joker card reveal at the end of "Batman Begins" — that's how big a deal Sinestro eventually becomes in that corner of the comic book universe. Unfortunately, due to a woeful reaction from fans and critics alike, a second "Green Lantern" never got the go-ahead, and Hal Jordan's nemesis never got his shot. The good thing is that "Lanterns" has remedied the reputation of DC's space cops within its first two episodes on HBO Max, and with the inclusion of a new Sinestro played by Ulrich Thomsen, Hal's friend-turned-foe might get redeemed as well.

With a small budget and an unknown cast, Neill Blomkamp blew sci-fi fans' minds with his brilliantly effective alien invasion movie, "District 9." Set in Johannesburg and shot like a documentary, the film marked Sharlto Copley's big-screen debut as Wikus van de Merwe, a clipboard stooge working for the company that's keeping an alien occupation under control, only to see what life is like on the other side of the fence when he slowly begins to transform into one himself.

Exploring a brilliantly detailed world with alien tech so wild, Blomkamp ended the film with a lot of promise. Devoted alien Christopher Johnson and his son CJ escape on the mothership in the film's third act, leaving Wikus behind to stay in District 9, with the promise that they'd return to help him. The final moments reveal Wikus as a fully transformed Prawn, with his future unknown.

Following the film's release, talk continued about churning out a sequel titled "District 10," based on the new area created at the end of the film. Rumors continued to circulate for years, with the most recent being in 2023 when Blomkamp was asked by The Hollywood Reporter if all hope was lost for Wikus and District 10, to which he replied, "I don't know if I even want to make that right now, but at some point down the line, it'll probably get made." We'll keep our alien fingers crossed, then.

Fans of the original group of teenagers with attitude couldn't believe their luck in 2017 when director Dean Israelite took a fresh swing at the "Power Rangers" and delivered a Marvel-like movie that packed a punch. The cast was full of perfect picks, including Bryan Cranston as Zordon, Bill Hader voicing the movie's robot sidekick, Alpha 5, and Elizabeth Banks as Rita Repulsa. However, the real highlights were the rangers themselves, with Dacre Montgomery, Naomi Scott, RJ Cyler, Becky G, and Ludi Lin as the Red, Pink, Blue, Yellow, and Black Rangers. In the movie's final minutes, though, we were teased with the future leader of the rangers and one of its most powerful members: Tommy Oliver, the Green Ranger.

Even before the film was released, plans were in place to make multiple "Power Rangers" movies, beyond the one hinted at in 2017 (per Variety). Unfortunately, the drawn-out journey to make it happen was littered with ups and downs. Initially, even after checking the boxes for fans, the box-office receipts weren't enough to turn the movie into the monster franchise it was meant to be, earning only $142.3 million against a $100 million budget (via Box Office Mojo). However, at the same time, merchandise sales and eventually, home media sales were suggesting there was interest in a second chapter, after all.

Power crystals got even more mixed up, however, when in 2018 it was announced that the franchise's owner, Saban Entertainment, was selling the rights of the rangers to Hasbro, snuffing chances of a sequel entirely. Ay ay ay.

As much as fans might have harped on about how great the new "Masters of the Universe" was, the box-office reception puts it at risk of facing the same issues the one from 1987 faced when it had Dolph Lundgren in the loincloth. Just as the latest that starred Nicholas Galitzine hinted at future adventures with post-credits scenes, the previous iteration also squeezed in one of its own, to a film that never happened. Initially, the movie ended with Frank Langella's Skeletor being thrown into a black chasm à la Emperor Palpatine in "Return of the Jedi," seemingly meeting his demise. However, just like Palpatine, somehow Skeletor returned at the end of the movie, rearing his head from a bubbling pool and promising, "I'll be back."

He wasn't. Not even a little. Instead, the studio that had a crack at bringing Eternia to life never ventured back to "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe," even after building sets for the film before it got the green light. With this fumbled future planning in mind, it begs the question of whether history will repeat itself with the new "Masters of the Universe." Currently, the new version is at the top of Prime Video's streaming charts, suggesting that there really is interest. Here's hoping then that it has the power to continue and go further than Lundgren's stint with the sword.

Long before Monarch was ticking off every titan they came across in Legendary Pictures' MonsterVerse, esteemed director of cinematic disasters Roland Emmerich tried to tackle the first version of the U.S.-bred Godzilla, resulting in an enormous disappointment. Hated by critics and fans, this version of Godzilla didn't quite move the needle as intended, and as a result, a sequel that got hinted at in its closing moments never got the go-ahead either.

For those that might not remember, Matthew Broderick, Hank Azaria, and Jean Reno saved the day, defeating Godzilla along with its dozens of offspring that had been nestled within Madison Square Garden. However, the final seconds of the movie revealed one more egg left undamaged, which hatched and leaped at the screen, as should be the case for any self-respecting monster movie.

After its disappointing reception, Sony Pictures scrapped not just a sequel, but a trilogy it had in store. The proposed follow-up was set to involve the second generation of Godzilla fighting a giant insect in Sydney, not unlike what we ended up with in Gareth Edwards' 2014 reboot. Fans of Emmerich's version weren't completely out of luck, though, as they did get an animated series that followed on from the events of the movie and saw Godzilla as a monstrous ally for the planet.