11 highly anticipated movie sequels that never happened — and why

Brianna ZiglerWed, August 19, 2026 at 6:39 PM UTC

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Will Ferrell in ‘Elf’; Leonardo DiCaprio in ‘The Departed’; Tobey Maguire in ‘Spider-Man 3’Credit: Everett (3)

Hollywood loves a sure thing, which is why the movie landscape is littered with unnecessary sequels to critical and commercial hits. But development is a long process, and sometimes even the most promising sequels find themselves lost to the sands of time.

Sometimes, as in the case of the 2003 holiday classic Elf, the filmmakers ultimately decided they had told the story they wanted to tell. But even franchises with plenty of gas still left in the tank — like Sam Raimi’s Spider-Manseries — can hit roadblocks that lead to an entire reboot.

Below, Entertainment Weekly digs into 11 sequels that never came to be — and what caused them to crash and burn.

01 of 11

The Breakfast Club (1985)

Ally Sheedy and Molly Ringwald in ‘The Breakfast Club’Credit: Everett Collection

Anthony Michael Hall, a frequent collaborator of the late filmmaker John Hughes, appeared on The Rich Eisen Show in August 2026 and dropped a huge bombshell: The late director had an idea for a sequel to The Breakfast Club, the 1985 teen classic he wrote and directed.

“You know what’s crazy?” Hall began. “The last time I spoke to Mr. Hughes, Rich, he called me with John Candy on the phone, and it was about 1988, and we just hung out on the phone for a couple hours, and he talked about it at that time.”

Hall said Hughes had been considering “the idea of bringing back The Breakfast Club.”

He elaborated, “Like, those five characters reunited somehow later in their life, and they’re in the workforce and they’re in their 30s. I mean, it’s a long time ago. So I think that it was something he was playing with. I don’t know if he had written it or not.”

02 of 11

10 Things I Hate About You (1999)

‘10 Things I Hate About You’Credit: Touchstone Pictures/ Courtesy Everett

In the early 2010s, production was well underway on a follow-up to the ‘90s teen rom-com 10 Things I Hate About You, itself an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew.  While not a direct sequel, 10 Things I Hate About Life was planned as a “story that advances the situations” of the original film, per Variety. Hayley Atwell was initially attached to star before being replaced by Evan Rachel Wood.

“It is the story of two relatable, ordinary people with normal jobs and normal desires whose seemingly great lives have become unmanageable,” director Gil Junger told Variety in 2012 (via Collider). “Two people who go to the same place at the same time to end it. … Their chance meeting is so awkward, so raw, and so funny, they postpone their intentions and go their separate ways.”

Production halted in early 2013, and that November, it was announced that filming would recommence in December with a planned wrap in April 2014. But none of that came to pass. In June 2014, the producers sued Wood for more than $30 million, alleging that she had refused to return to the film. Wood’s reps called the lawsuit “preposterous.” The lawsuit appears to have fizzled out without a publicly reported judgment or settlement, and the film was never completed.

Still, another 10 Things I Hate About You follow-up may happen. In May 2025, Junger revealed that he was developing 10 Things I Hate About Dating, intended as the first installment in a new trilogy. “10 Things I Hate About Dating is definitively in the works as a feature film. We’re developing it right now,” Junger told PEOPLE. If all goes according to plan, it would be followed by 10 Things I Hate About Marriage and 10 Things I Hate About Kids.

03 of 11

World War Z (2013)

Brad Pitt, Sterling Jerins, and Mireille Enos in ‘World War Z’Credit: Jaap Buitendijk/Paramount Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection

While a sequel was in the works for Marc Forster’s 2013 zombie action film World War Z starring Brad Pitt, the film was halted indefinitely in 2019. It was originally planned with The Orphanage director J.A. Bayona at the helm, but David Fincher was brought on in 2017 after Bayona departed the year prior.

In 2023, Fincher opened up to GQ UK about what he envisioned for the project — and it sounded like a hugely popular HBO series that premiered that same year. “Well, it was a little like The Last of Us,” Fincher said. “I’m glad that we didn’t do what we were doing, because The Last of Us has a lot more real estate to explore the same stuff.”

He added, “In our title sequence, we were going to use the little parasite… they used it in their title sequence, and in that wonderful opening with the Dick Cavett, David Frost-style talk show.”

That same year, World War Z costar Mireille Enos said she was still eager for a sequel. Speaking about the abandoned follow-up with TheWrap, she said, “The script for the second movie was great. I wish the world could get to see it. We got really close to making a sequel. At one point David Fincher was signed on there was a completed script which was excellent and then one thing and another you know [and it never got made]. But never say never. I still think it would be great.”

Enos’ optimism may have been warranted: In April 2026, Paramount announced that a new World War Z movie was officially in development, though it remains unclear whether Pitt, Fincher, or any elements of the abandoned sequel will be involved.

04 of 11

Fantastic Four (2015)

Kate Mara and Miles Teller in ‘Fantastic Four’Credit: Alan Markfield/FOX

Slated before the first film’s release to open in June 2017, a sequel to Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four was effectively doomed once the 2015 reboot hit theaters. The film, starring Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, Kate Mara, and Jamie Bell, was a disaster, plagued by months of behind-the-scenes reports about clashes between Trank and Fox. It earned scathing reviews across the board and bombed at the box office.

Trank had envisioned the first Fantastic Four as the setup for a very different sequel. He explained his vision in a 2020 profile for Polygon. “The end of the Fantastic Four was going to very organically set up the adventure and the weirdness and the fun,” he explained. “That would be the wish fulfillment of the sequel. Because obviously, the sequel would be, ‘OK, now we are [superpowered] forever and it’s weird and funny and there’s adventure lurking around every corner.’ But the first movie was going to basically be the filmic version of how I saw myself all the time: the metaphor of these characters crawling out of hell.”

Of course, that sequel never happened, and the vitriol Trank received following the movie’s release scarred him deeply. In that same profile, coinciding with the release of his follow-up film, Capone, Trank reflected, “I had been exposed to a permanent version of reality where I had no reason to live because there was nothing that I desired. I didn’t want to be a big filmmaker anymore. That’s all I ever wanted. I didn’t know what I was anymore.”

05 of 11

The Departed (2006)

Leonardo DiCaprio and Jack Nicholson in ‘The Departed’Credit: Warner Bros./courtesy Everett Collection

Though Infernal Affairs, the Hong Kong film that inspired The Departed, is part of a trilogy, Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-winning remake never received a sequel — though one was discussed. In fact, Warner Bros. was so interested in turning The Departed into a franchise that Scorsese later claimed the studio wanted him to spare one of the film’s doomed leads.

In 2011, screenwriter William Monahan spoke with /Film about his idea for a sequel, which he said would be set “before, during, and after the action of the first film.” Mark Wahlberg, who costarred as Sean Dignam, was also keen on the project, which would have reportedly featured Robert De Niro and Brad Pitt.

The Departed producer Roy Lee spoke about Monahan’s sequel idea with Collider in 2016, but said “it would be so expensive and Scorsese didn’t want to do a sequel.”

That same year, Deadline reported that a series inspired by The Departed was being developed at Amazon. It would have been set in Chicago, per the outlet, and follow a young cop who goes undercover in a Latino gang while the gang plants its own mole in the police department. However, there have been no significant updates on the project since its announcement.

06 of 11

Elf (2003)

Will Ferrell in ‘Elf’Credit: Everett Collection

In 2021, Elf star Will Ferrell spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about why the holiday comedy never got a sequel, despite having a script ready to go.

Ferrell said that, despite being offered a hefty $29 million payday to don his yellow tights a second time, he wasn’t invested in the story, which THR described as having a “rehashed premise.”

“I would have had to promote the movie from an honest place, which would’ve been, like, ‘Oh no, it’s not good. I just couldn’t turn down that much money,’” he said. “And I thought, ‘Can I actually say those words? I don’t think I can, so I guess I can’t do the movie.’”

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Elf director Jon Favreau expressed similar reluctance about a sequel in a 2023 interview with Variety. “I think there’s always room for new Christmas movies,” Favreau said. “That particular film, I don’t know what story would be told after that. It’s very complete.”

James Caan, who costarred in the movie, sang a different tune in 2020. According to the late actor, Ferrell wanted to do the movie — he just didn’t want to work with Favreau again.

“The director and Will didn’t get along very well,” Caan said. “Will wanted to do it, and he didn’t want the director, and [Favreau] had it in his contract. It was one of those things,” he claimed.

07 of 11

Halloween II (2009)

Tyler Mane as Michael Meyers in ‘Halloween II’Credit: Marsha LaMarca/Weinstein Company/Everett

Rob Zombie’s Halloween (2007) and HalloweenII (2009) proved divisive, but Dimension Films was nevertheless eager to continue the story with a third film, Halloween 3D.

Zombie, however, was finished with the franchise after the second movie, so My Bloody Valentine 3D director Patrick Lussier and screenwriter Todd Farmer were brought aboard to develop the follow-up. Preproduction began in 2009, though Deadline reported that the studio decided to hit the brakes amid concerns that the project was being rushed.

According to Scout Taylor-Compton, who played Laurie Strode, Zombie was already done with the franchise by the time she and costar Tyler Mane were approached about returning for a third movie. And she wasn’t exactly heartbroken when it failed to materialize, she explained to SYFY Wire in 2019.

“Rob wasn’t gonna be part of it. And they pretty much cut funds in half,” she said. “It was the strangest phone call I’ve ever gotten in my entire life. When I heard that Rob wasn’t gonna be a part of it, I called Tyler [Mane] and I talked to him. And he said that he had gotten the same offer. We were so hesitant on doing it. And we saw the media, all the different directors that they had attached to it and all this stuff.”

She continued, “I was indifferent with what I wanted to do; it seemed so unorganized and so up in the air. But then I was like, ‘Well if I don’t do [the movie], they’re gonna get someone else to train what I’ve worked so hard on.’ But I’m kinda glad that it didn’t happen, because the way that the offer came in, it was not from loving hands.”

08 of 11

Spider-Man 3 (2007)

Tobey Maguire in ‘Spider-Man 3’Credit: Merie W. Wallace/Columbia

After the decidedly mixed bag that was Spider-Man 3, Sony scrapped plans for a fourth film in Sam Raimi’s Tobey Maguire-fronted series. Instead, the studio shifted its focus to a reboot set for 2012, which ended up being The Amazing Spider-Man, starring Andrew Garfield.

When Spider-Man 4 was canceled, the project was already deep in development, with storyboards completed and casting underway. But it never made it in front of cameras. Raimi got candid about exactly what went down in an interview with Vulturein 2013.

“It really was the most amicable and undramatic of breakups: It was simply that we had a deadline and I couldn’t get the story to work on a level that I wanted it to work,” Raimi explained. “I was very unhappy with Spider-Man 3, and I wanted to make Spider-Man 4 to end on a very high note, the best Spider-Man of them all.”

Unfortunately, Raimi “couldn’t get the script together in time,” which he attributed to his own “failings.”

“I said to Sony, ‘I don’t want to make a movie that is less than great, so I think we shouldn’t make this picture. Go ahead with your reboot, which you’ve been planning anyway.’ And [Sony co-chairman] Amy Pascal said, ‘Thank you. Thank you for not wasting the studio’s money, and I appreciate your candor.’ So we left on the best of terms, both of us trying to do the best thing for fans, the good name of Spider-Man, and Sony Studios.”

In a 2023 conversation on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Anne Hathaway spoke about having been cast as Felicia Hardy/Black Cat in Raimi’s film that never was. “I did not get into costume and did not read a script past the audition sides,” Hathaway explained. “I got the part and, yeah, it just… I think that’s probably more the producers’ story to tell than mine should they ever decide to tell it.”

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09 of 11

Aliens (1986)

Yaphet Kotto, Sigourney Weaver, and Ian Holm in ‘Alien’Credit: everett

In 2015, District 9 director Neill Blomkamp was revealed to be developing a new film in the Alien franchise. A year later, franchise star Sigourney Weaver revealed more details about his movie, which would pick up directly after the second film in the franchise, Aliens.

Speaking at the San Diego Comic Con in 2016, Weaver, who was set to reprise her role as Ellen Ripley, explained, “Well, we have a great script. Fox asked us to delay so Ridley Scott could shoot his [second] Prometheus movie. That was too bad because we would have already done it by now.”

Unfortunately, the sequel with Blomkamp attached never happened. Two years after it was confirmed, it was pronounced dead by Blomkamp himself, in a conversation with The Verge. “I think it’s totally dead, yes. That would be an accurate assumption at this point,” he said. “It’s sad. I spent a long time working on that, and I feel like it was really pretty awesome. But politically, the way it’s gone now, and the way that it all is — it’s just not going to live.”

But perhaps all is not lost for Ripley: Weaver admitted at the 2025 New York Comic Con that she could be interested in returning as Ripley after reading 50 pages of a script written by longtime Alien producer Walter Hill. She also revealed that she had met with Disney about potentially reprising the role, though no new Ripley film has been officially announced.

10 of 11

Eastern Promises (2007)

Viggo Mortensen in ‘Eastern Promises’Credit: Everett

Eastern Promises, David Cronenberg’s gritty gangster thriller starring Viggo Mortensen and Vincent Cassel as Russian mobsters, almost got a second life. According to The Playlist,Eastern Promises 2 had its key players attached: Cronenberg directing, Steven Knight writing, and Mortensen and Cassel returning to star. Speaking with the outlet, Cronenberg revealed that Focus Features had pulled the plug.

“We were supposed to start shooting Eastern Promises 2 in October,” Cronenberg explained. “[But] It’s done… If you don’t like it talk to James Schamus at Focus. It was his decision.”

The Playlist spoke again to Cronenberg about the cancellation four months later, in December, and he further articulated his plans for the unrealized film. “I really wanted to see Nikolai go back to Russia, because one of the things I wanted in the first movie was that you see a bunch of Russians in London but you never see them in Russia,” he said. “In other words you experience their exile and they are trying to recreate some of Russia within London. In the original screenplay there were some scenes in Russia and I thought it was better if we don’t see that — they long for Russia but we never see that.”

He continued, “We would see Nikolai go to Russia and there would be Russian elements and so on and so on. And Steve Knight wrote a lovely script.”

So why did it fall apart? “Focus Features couldn’t agree on a budget, basically,” Cronenberg explained. “I thought it was a very ambitious script and I wanted to do it properly and they really felt the financial restraints of the world in general. It was really a budget disagreement.”

11 of 11

Twins (1988)

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito in ‘Twins’Credit: Universal Pictures/ Everett

In behind-the-scenes footage from a 2025 Actors on Actors conversation between Arnold Schwarzenegger and his son Patrick, the latter jokingly pitched the idea of doing a sequel to his dad’s comedy film, Twins. During a photo shoot with Schwarzenegger’s onscreen brother, Danny DeVito, Patrick quipped, “This could be Triplets.”

However, Triplets almost did happen — and with Eddie Murphy as the third brother. The project was first announced in 2012, with Murphy positioned as the mismatched brothers’ long-lost third sibling. Almost a decade later, the film seemed even closer to coming to fruition, with Twins director Ivan Reitman returning. By that point, Murphy had been swapped out for Tracy Morgan.

But the sequel took a major hit when Reitman died in 2022, and Schwarzenegger later declared the project dead. He told The Hollywood Reporter that Reitman’s son, Jason, stopped it from moving forward. “Jason Reitman f---ed it up!” he said. “Jason Reitman literally stopped the project when his father died.”

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