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Category:Sequel: Difference between revisions
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{{IndexTrope}}
{{quote|''"God willing, we'll all meet again in Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money."''|'''[[Mel Brooks|Yogurt]]''', ''[[Spaceballs]]''}}
Sequels are stories that take place after the original, often with most if not all of the same cast and frequently in the same setting if not the same location. If a work gets enough sequels, it becomes a [[Film Serial]] or [[Serial Novel]]. If they turn out to be bad, it's because of [[Sequelitis]].
There are basically two kinds of sequels, planned and unplanned. An unplanned sequel is often the result of an author discovering, much to their delight, that the original did well and readers want more stories with their favorite dashing hero. In these cases the original is very likely a self contained stand alone story that does not require having read a [[Prequel]] to understand, often leaving no hints at what a sequel may have in store (or that there would even ''be'' one). This gives the author two choices for where to take the sequel: [[It's the Same, Now It Sucks|a simple rehash of the last adventure, with new locales and villains but with the same characters]] (plus a new [[Sidekick]] or [[Love Interest]] as an [[Audience Surrogate]] for those who didn't see the original), or try to go for [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks|a more epic arcing story]]. This is done by exploring the existing mythology and [[Backstory]] that the original establishes (or weaving one in wholecloth if the original didn't have one). As you can tell, these are [[Unpleasable Fanbase|foolproof]] choices.
If it's a planned sequel then the savvy author will have at least a rough draft or idea of what happens in the sequel(s), what happened in the prequel, and leave in various [[Sequel Hook]]s and [[Schrodinger's Gun|Schrodingers Guns]] in the original to later link it with any following stories. These plot hooks will likely be vague enough that the sequel(s) aren't constrained to go in one specific direction. If you ever run into a film that has an unusual, [[What Happened to the Mouse?|niggling plot detail that is never solved]], it may well be because the author hoped for a sequel that never happened. [[Too Good to Last|And that makes us sad]].
The relationship between a sequel and [[Prequel]] is a close one. Like the sequel, the prequel is by definition made after the original has been released, but takes an earlier place chronologically inside the same story while the sequel takes place after. Essentially, all prequels are sequels of a sort.
For much the same reason Hollywood likes to make [[The Film of the Book|adaptations of existing works from other media]] or [[R Emake|Remakes]] of older films, big film studios would ''love'' for every film they have to become a series and earn lots of cash. There are a lot of marketing advantages to this: a pre-existing fan base, is easier to write (especially if the film series is going on a novel-per-film rate) and the actors likely had a popularity boost from the original, bringing more viewers in.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Derivative Works]]
[[Category:Index Index]]
[[Category:Sequel]]
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