It’s occurred earlier than and it’ll occur once more. As beloved IPs are scraped for additional content, studios pore over every line of the supply materials for inspiration. In the precise arms, every reference or seemingly innocuous assertion uttered by a Bryce Dallas Howard might probably launch the following Jurassic World trilogy.
Just some years in the past, Ghostbusters: Afterlife actually raided the tomb of Ivo Shandor, the briefly talked about occult architect who designed Dana’s residence constructing, for a hook to launch a brand new franchise. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story took a line of textual content from the opening crawl of Episode IV and developed its personal movie and TV sequence. To not point out the lately launched A Quiet Place: Day One, a prequel impressed by a line of Djimon Hounsou’s dialogue in A Quiet Place Half II, or the the upcoming Beetlejuice Beetlejuice–which, as evidenced by Monica Bellucci’s jilted bride character, developed a complete story round a single gag from the unique film.
At this time, we current some very unusual, off-handedly talked about strains from well-known sci-fi movies and franchises that really beg to be their very own tales.
King Kong (1976)
“In 1605, Fernando De Queres was blown south from Tenotang. He wrote of piercing the white veil. That’s the cloud financial institution. And touchdown on the seashore of the cranium, the place he heard the roar of the best beast… the remainder of that log entry was suppressed by Rome. In 1749, a waterIogged lifeboat was present in the identical space. It was empty, however drawn in blood on the port was a likeness of an enormous, slouchy humanoid factor. And this unusual warning: ‘From thy wedding ceremony with the creature who touches heaven, girl—God protect thee.’”
After all, there are a number of small, Predator-esque vignettes to unpack from the above, however the main takeaway right here is the suggestion the Vatican has been willfully suppressing data of Cranium Island for hundreds of years. Catholicism merely can not sq. the existence of an island of uniquely advanced megafauna, and a complete narrative exploring this concept might very effectively be the best film by no means made.
As movies about exorcisms and the church stay standard, a narrative changing Devil with the specter of a large gorilla appears like a slam dunk. The beloved Shin Godzilla explored the politics surrounding the destruction of the Fukushima reactor by way of the medium of a kaiju story, so it solely feels proper King Kong ought to get a crack at one thing related—specifically, a non secular political thriller. Take into account the newest Omen film, and its shot of a candle-lined tabernacle, framed in such a strategy to resemble a human cranium. Now, think about a complete film utilizing the identical conceit with Catholic imagery to create summary renderings of King Kong beside the Pope.
The Matrix Reloaded
“Each time you’ve heard somebody say they noticed a ghost, or an angel. Each story you’ve ever heard about vampires, werewolves, or aliens, is the system assimilating some program that’s doing one thing they’re not speculated to be doing.”
Whereas the primary Matrix proposed experiencing deja vu was merely a “glitch” in our simulated actuality, its sequel went a step additional, suggesting each brush with the supernatural in recorded historical past was the system responding to criminal activity on the web. That is such a bombastic piece of lore to drop on us and never revisit (there was an Underworld-inspired gang battle within the video video games) it ought to have precipitated the Matrix itself to hemorrhage in course-correcting disbelief. The implication a household’s generational werewolf curse might have originated from a teen downloading Cannibal Holocaust on Limewire is golden. Was Trinity the Mothman? Might Bigfoot be the bodily incarnation of a shared Disney+ password? The idea might justify a second Matrix trilogy, to not point out a monster-of-the-week police procedural.
RoboCop 2 and 3
“On the worldwide scene, the Amazon nuclear energy facility has blown its stack, irradiating the world’s largest rain forest. Environmentalists name it a catastrophe. However don’t they all the time?”
“From the blazing fields of the Amazon battle comes state-of-the-art city pacification…”
As talked about in RoboCop 2 and expounded upon in RoboCop 3, the explosion of a nuclear facility in South America owned by North American pursuits led to a battle known as the “Amazon Struggle.” Although particulars are hazy, an OCP-backed paramilitary drive often known as the “Rehabs” have been identified to take part—of which Cain, the chief of a designer drug-influenced cult, was a former member. An episode of RoboCop: The Sequence moreover notes OCP developed a plasma cannon for the incident with which to disrupt enemy plane and armored autos alike.
The Amazon Struggle is such an enchanting thought, however we’re left to our personal imaginations to determine what adopted in its wake. Provided that that is set within the continuity of RoboCop, radioactive sloths and jaguars are a given in a brutal, bloody battle movie set in opposition to the unexplored territory of an irradiated rainforest, populated with continually mutating natural world. Type of like Annihilation meets Salvador. Couple this with corporate-sponsored U.S. mercenaries in another country they haven’t any enterprise being in, and you’ve got the license to print cash in any international forex.
Rollerball (1975)
“You understand how the sport serves us. It has a particular social objective. Nations are bankrupt, gone. None of that tribal warfare any extra. Even the company wars are a factor of the previous.”
By an identical token, the post-apocalyptic world of Rollerball is acknowledged to be set some years after the world’s largest firms determined to take up arms in opposition to one another. The victor, apparently, was the titular “rollerball”—a extremely worthwhile recreation offering a violent distraction to a inhabitants dominated by a handful of highly effective masters, the place every match is preceded by the solemn “Company Anthem.” After all, we’d like to see a film through which Johnson & Johnson kinds a queasy alliance with Basic Electrical to stage a crushing blow in opposition to Nestle foot troopers. To cite Ned Beatty in Community, “There isn’t a America. There isn’t a democracy. There’s solely IBM, and ITT, and AT&T, and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. These are the nations of the world as we speak!” Our solely concern is that it might be a little bit too preachy.
28 Weeks Later
“Why isn’t she exhibiting any signs?”
“I don’t know.
“Speculate.”
“A genetic abnormality which acts as some kind of pure immunity.”
“However the virus remains to be in her blood and saliva, so… technically, she’s not immune.”
“She’s a service.”
Within the sequel to 28 Days Later—and soon-to-be prequel to 28 Years Later—it’s speculated a mom and daughter sharing heterochromatic eyes (one inexperienced, one brown) are by some means resistant to the consequences of the zombifying “Rage Virus.” How, precisely, the distribution of melanin might defend oneself in opposition to the virus stays totally speculative and open to look assessment, however let’s think about what the invention implies: a bunch of celebrities together with, however certainly not restricted to, Dan Aykroyd, Jane Seymour, Simon Pegg, Henry Cavill, Christopher Walken, Kiefer Sutherland, and Riverdance’s Michael Flatley would change into the inheritors of the Earth.
Forgetting for a second somebody would absolutely discover that a number of of those individuals weren’t changing into rage zombies pretty early on within the pandemic, it’s simple to examine their inventory would rise exponentially among the many few who handle to stay it out on this post-apocalyptic world. Their eye shade could be famous, finally, however doubtless not at first. Phrase would unfold. Superstar sightings could be mentioned amongst every pocket of survivors—”I noticed Kate Bosworth get bitten, and she or he’s nice!” Conspiracies, religions, and potential fiefdoms would observe. It’s estimated six individuals out of each 10,000 shares this identical mutation. If a vaccine might really be developed from their blood, then there are fairly a number of candidates on document. Nevertheless, somebody must discover this shared trait forward of their superstar—and would that occur, after they’re them, you’re you… and everybody else is useless?
We flip it over to you, readers. Was there an intriguing, bizarre ,or inconsequential line from a film, guide, or TV sequence you’ve by no means been capable of fully neglect? Pitch us your sequel concepts within the feedback.
Need extra io9 information? Take a look at when to anticipate the newest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on film and TV, and the whole lot you have to learn about the way forward for Doctor Who.
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