Legacy sequels and remakes you think were actually good and worth making?
Studios these days tend to make a lot of movies reusing existing IPs because that's what they know will sell.
You have the "new entry in a long running franchise" kinda IP utilizing movies, like say Alien Romulus or the latest MCU film.
Then you have the "legacy sequel" and "remake", when there might have been only 1-3 original movies, and they bring it back 15+ years later. These are often called "cash grabs", "disrespectful to the original", "unaware of what made the first one good", or something similar. Other times, though, they can be genuinely good, if not better than the first one in some ways.
The Naked Gun (2025) is the one that inspired this post. I went in without any expectations, and I thought it was a great time. They had some really good jokes about life in the 2020s (such as Tesla door handles being death traps, for example) that I thought were delivered very well. Also, since the genre of parody movies in the style of The Naked Gun or Airplane essentially died off, having a new one felt actually necessary unlike many phoned-in legacy sequels.
Another example that comes to mind is Blade Runner 2049. Before it came out, the idea of a Blade Runner 2 was so ridiculous, I believe it was a throwaway South Park gag. People assumed that if it ever came out, it'd be a cash grab. But it ended up being so good, I've heard people argue in places like Tildes that it's better than the original.
The third example I can think of is Top Gun: Maverick. Ever since it's release I've see a lot of people online sing its praises whenever it's come up. In fact, there is a night-and-day difference in the Rotten Tomatoes score for the two films, with the original having a 59% and the legacy sequel having a 96%.
Can you think of any other legacy sequels or remakes that hold a candle to the original film(s), or surpass them? Bonus points if it's one nobody expected to be good until it released.
Quite a few popular movies which were actually just remakes of really old movies - e.g.
Thomas Crown Affair is having its second remake with Michael B Jordan.
How do you make this topic and not mention Tron: Legacy? By far the best example there could ever possibly be.
Other than that? Blade Runner 2049 is still one of the greatest movies ever made in nearly every regard.
I was going to say Tron Legacy but then they went too far and ruined their legacy.
Ares is a great story in the tron universe, and it surprisingly added more lore and logic than even Legacy did. Was it visually as stunning? The story as mesmerizing? No. But, it did more to build the universe than Legacy. Ares is a Dillinger movie, not a Flynn movie.
If you've only seen it once, make sure to watch it again as it is so much better on rewatch. There are so many easter eggs and callblacks that are literally blink and you miss it, so many details and CLU's to be had.
Plus, the soundtrack is killer.
Theres an animated miniseries that I found AFTER watching the new movie, I haven’t actually gotten around to watching it yet but I have a feeling it’ll put the new movie in context for me to enjoy it more.
The thing I felt the new movie was missing actually was world building, they created the entire red world and then spent no time in it. I’m hoping the animated series will spend time there.
Tron Uprising?
I really liked Godzilla Minus One and would highly recommend it over the original from 1954. The classic is definitely worth seeing, but requires a more historical mindset where Minus One has the same core qualities with the addition of being a high budget modern production. With the black and white version it retains the 1950s monster aesthetics as well.
One point: it was actually a rather low budget movie, which was one of the things that made it even better. It did everything it did on a super reasonable budget.
I'm trying to convince my mom to watch Minus One with me. I went in with zero expectations (by which I mean I had no clue there was a new Godzilla film until a friend invited me), and was happily blown away. I feel like it genuinely has a broader appeal than the original given much of it is a period film about life in Japan immediately after WWII.
Also, I loved seeing how excited the crew was at the Oscar's. They were genuinely excited just to be there.
Man 100% across the board!!!
28 Years Later and 28 Years Later The Bone Temple were both great additions to the original film. I really didn't enjoy 28 Weeks Later.
I liked 28 weeks later,
Spoiler
they had me rooting for the kid who’s gonna destroy the planet at the end, which I thought was a neat twist.
I really didn’t like that 28 years later didn’t build on that story at all.
ultimately that just comes down to the fact that alex garland and danny boyle weren't involved in 28 weeks later, but they both came back for 28 years later. not super surprising that they would ignore it.
Interesting I didn’t know that one was written by different people, I guess it did have a different vibe
I think this counts:
I'm grateful we got one more season of Twin Peaks 25 years after the original aired, and I thought they did an amazing job. What the original two seasons were to '80s soap operas, lampooning them while also quintessifying them in beautiful, sincere camp, the third season was to prestige television.
I got to see the last two episodes of season 3 at a theater a few weeks ago. They were doing the whole season over the course of a week. Pure. Fucking. Cinema.
I just finished watching Twin Peaks S3 for the first time yesterday and that was a wild ride. Last Saturday I went and saw Fire Walk With Me in a theater and that was really good, too.
West Side Story (2021) is superior to the original in every way.
A Star is Born (2018) is the best iteration of the story, it feels like everything finally came together as it built on the previous films.
Little Women (2019) is better than the 90s version, feeling both timeless and modern.
None of the original Planet of the Apes films are good, and I’ll stand by that. Only the reboot trilogy: Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and War for the Planet of the Apes are worth watching. Even Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is better than the older films.
And finally, the Daniel Craig era of Bond films is the best era of the franchise. I think the older films tend to be overrated and seen through a nostalgic lens, especially the Moore films which are some of the worst the franchise has to offer.
While this is true and Little Women (2019) is a phenomenal movie, I'm not sure it really counts as what OP is talking about, since all the movie versions of Little Women (there are many) are adaptations of the book, not directly remakes of each other.
The best that come to mind have already been mentioned here. I just wanted to add that Patrick H Willems explored this topic in two recent videos and are well worth the watch if interested.
Anatomy of a Legacy Sequel
Have We Reached Peak Legacy Sequel?
Also on Nebula:
Anatomy of a Legacy Sequel
Have We Reached Peak Legacy Sequel?
Not a film, but does the final season of Samurai Jack count? It was a little bit rushed (could've used a couple more episodes to have some breathing space and develop the romance), but it was great to finally get closure on the series. The show is genuinely cinematic. I particularly loved the episode where Jack was walking through a forest at night so that blood glowed bright red against the blue of the darkness.
And if TV shows are allowed in general: my mom and I are having a GREAT time watching the new Matlock. It's not an exact sequel or reboot (the original is a show in-universe, and the protagonist is a lawyer also named Matlock), but the court scenes are genuinely fantastic. (Go in blind though. Trust me, the first episode has a big twist that blew me away.)
One final show, and the best of the lot: Watchmen on HBO is a FANTASTIC sequel to the original comic. I watched it with my parents, who knew nothing of the original, and got to geek out all the time. It was cool to see more of how the alternate history of Watchmen affected the world (like kids dressing as pirates for Halloween thanks to comics, or the main protagonist having grown up as an orphan in Vietnam), further exploration into the other heroes in Watchmen's history, and just the long-term aftermath of what happened to New York City. One of the main characters was near NYC when it happened, and when one episode opened with a flashback and I realized the date... My parents must have thought I was mildly insane with how excited I was.
Also, fully agree with Naked Gun. I haven't even seen the originals yet (though I did see many clips at the theater before it started), but I could tell it was a great follow-up and kept the humor. Saw it on opening night in a packed theater, and I haven't heard so much laughter in a long time. Honestly spooked me at first how hard everyone was laughing in the opening scene xD
My favorite bit remains the snowman scene. Read that the script originally called for the snowman to come back in the climax, very sad he didn't. We need more films like that, I like this more physical gag-based humor and people just playing it straight way more than most modern comedies.
That's an interesting case! Since it was a TV series that never got a proper ending, rather than a self-contained movie, it's hard to argue that a revival wasn't necessary. There was a legitimate reason to do it other than just "nostalgia sells." On the other hand, it's not quite the same as the other examples I gave. It's less like returning to a hobby after a long hiatus for a new project, and more like dusting off that one project you left in the garage and procrastinated on for years to finally finish it. Either way, I also quite enjoyed it, and was happy to finally get that closure. It wasn't perfect, but I liked how they let the revival of this kid's show be more R rated with blood and stuff, while still feeling like the same series. The audience who loved it as kids are all adults now so might as well. It's kinda like meeting your childhood friend years later; you've both grown up since then.
Watchmen is a bit more in line with the prompt. It is an interesting case, since it's a legacy sequel to the source material, but is in a different medium. I will say, one thing the show made me really upset about in retrospect is that the 2009 film adaptation changed the ending. So for the HBO series, if you've seen the movie but haven't read the full comic (like me), 95% of things will make sense but when they start talking about squids you'll be really confused.
The 1990 remake of Night of the Living Dead was made, in part, because George A. Romero wasn't making any money off the 1968 original due to some kind of copyright screw-up. The OG is undeniably a genre-defining classic, but the remake is also really good and still holds up today (and would maybe be easier to digest for a more general audience today).
Call me silly, but I liked the Mortal Kombat reboot and am pumped for the next one.
Goofy films that take themselves seriously yet to new creative approaches are right up my alley.
Definitely Bill and Ted Face the Music. Now it really fits together as a complete trilogy with a cohesive through line. I think they will continue to grow in esteem with time, all 3 are quite fun to watch.
invasion of the body snatchers (1978 philip kaufman remake)
Dune
Oh absolutely, but that's not quite the same thing? That's a fresh adaptation of the same source material, rather than a remake or legacy sequel of the 80s film. Blade Runner 2049 for example is a sequel to the original film rather than a fresh adaptation of the book.
So in that case, the Nolan-era Batman movies wouldn't count towards what you're talking about?
Yeah, they're great films, but not what I was looking for. Batman (and the rest if DC) is essentially an evergreen multi-media franchise. The next Batman game, movie, or TV show adaptation is more of an inevitability than bringing back something dormant. Compare that to The Naked Gun or Bladerunner, where there wasn't any guarantee we'd get another installment.
Jodorowsky's Dune was such a cool vision of what could have been. Have you seen it?
I have not! I might have seen clips of it if they showed them in the RedLetterMedia video.
Oh, you'd like it. They had a stacked cast of creatives ready to make the film -- Salvadore Dali, HR. Giger to name a few.
As a Toto, Sting, and Dale Cooper fan, I begrudgingly accept this truth.
Though the original credits song is better than the credits song for the remake. And honestly I could do with fewer Hans Zimmer BWOAAAHAHMNMMMMPs at this point.