Franchise Killer: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:franchisekiller 2015.png|link=Superman (film)|
{{quote|''"I think we might have killed the franchise."''
|'''[[George Clooney]]''' on ''[[Batman and Robin (film)|Batman and Robin]]'' (and [[Batman Begins|until 2005]], he was right)}}
Sometimes a sequel [[Sequelitis|sucks.]] Sometimes it sucks, but leaves the possibility open that the [[Surprisingly Improved Sequel|followup will be better]] and that this is just [[Dork Age|a blip in the quality]] of the franchise. Then sometimes it sucks ''so much'' that it kills the franchise stone dead, destroying the producers'/publishers' hopes for further sequels.
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Occasionally a few Franchise Killers over too short a period (or one ''really'' bad one) [[Genre Killer|can put a whole genre out of favour for a while]]. Even the executives could tell when it's time to stop [[Follow the Leader|following the leader]].
Note that sometimes the franchise turns out to be [[Not Quite Dead]], and can be salvaged with a [[Continuity Reboot]]. If the franchise experiences what ''should'' have been a '''Franchise Killer''' but carries on regardless, it's a [[Franchise Zombie]]. Occasionally it's a [[Stillborn Franchise]], an all-new product for which plans for sequels were made and then scrapped when it was discovered that the product was crap, or so [[Hype Backlash|hyped up]] that the creators have unrealistic expectations of its success. Or it just didn't profit enough, even though it was a [[Cult Classic]]. If the Franchise that was killed also happened right as the creators were setting up for a new installment to the series, it will overlap with [[
{{examples}}
▲== Anime & Manga ==
* ''[[El Hazard]]: The Alternative World'' performed poorly to the point that it was [[Cut Short]] with the show's [[Kudzu Plot|way too many plots]] being wrapped up (very poorly) in only a single episode. It also killed the ''El Hazard'' franchise, with no further work of any kind being done in the decade since. And we never saw the [[Stable Time Loop]] established in the original ''[[El Hazard]]: The Magnificent World'' through to its completion.
* Post-''[[Chars Counterattack]]'', ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]'s'' Universal Century continuity entered an agonizing death-spiral. This started off with ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam F91]]'' being developed as a TV series, but crammed into a movie loaded with [[Kudzu Plot|so many dangling plot threads]] that it took a manga-only sequel to resolve them all. The next series, ''[[Mobile Suit Victory Gundam|Victory Gundam]]'', was [[Yoshiyuki Tomino]]'s [[Creator Breakdown|gigantic middle-finger to the franchise]] before departing. However, the true death blow was when ''Gaia Gear'' and ''G-Saviour'' were produced; [[Sunrise (company)|Sunrise]] [[Canon Discontinuity|does not list them with other UC productions]]. While the continuity continued to live on in [[OVA]]s covering events from the One Year War to the Gryps conflict, most subsequent TV production has been in an [[Alternate Continuity]], with the UC timeline being revisited in OVAs like ''[[Gundam Unicorn]]'', ''Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt'', and ''Gundam Reconguista in G'', the latter taking place in the distant future of UC.
** This probably has something to do with the fact that Tomino was planning on ending it with ''Counterattack'' (in fact, he'd never even wanted to do ''any'' sequels in the first place, as his original plan had been to kill off pretty much any future threat from Zeon), but his sponsors just kept trying to squeeze blood from the stone. It's very telling that when they finally wised up and let Tomino bow out of the franchise and hired directors who were actually enthusiastic about the material they produced some of the most highly regarded work not only in the ''Gundam'' franchise, but in all of '90s anime.
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* The [[Animated Adaptation]] of CLAMP's ''[[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle]]'' came to a screeching halt after a lackluster second season that had almost nothing but [[Filler]] episodes (when there was so much more material left to adapt). They tried to [[Retcon]] it in the ''Tokyo Revelations'' OVA (the adaptation of the Acid Tokyo arc in the manga), but the damage had already been done.
* ''[[Zoids]]: Fuzors'' is often accused of being one of these by the English-speaking Zoids fanbase, but it was in fact the fan favourite ''[[Zoids: Chaotic Century]]'' that killed the franchise, having gotten such low ratings during its run on [[Cartoon Network]] that it was cancelled, with the final four episodes only being shown after complaints from the fanbase. ''Fuzors'' was more of a last-ditch effort to salvage what was already a doomed franchise.
** Similarly, in Japan, ''Zoids Genesis'' was a franchise killer; the anime got a [[So Okay It's Average|so-so reception]], but [[The Merch]] failed to sell, effectively dooming the chances of another ''Zoids'' anime being made any time soon, and causing Tomy to change its marketing strategy by pandering exclusively to Otaku rather than general audiences as they did before.
* In a similar vein to ''[[El Hazard]]: The Alternative World'', ''Great Dangaioh'''s performance was bad enough to have the show get cancelled and leave things hanging in episode 12 (out of a planned 26). This effectively ensured that the ''[[Dangaioh]]'' franchise would never get a proper ending (let alone resolve the OVA's events).
* ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' had two franchise killers happen. The first was the anime, which was dealing with declining ratings and it ended after exactly 200 episodes. Then six years later, a live action version of the show. After a year later, it ended and effectively killed off what was left of the ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' franchise for about a decade until ''[[Sailor Moon Crystal]]'' attempted to revive it again.
== Films -- Animation ==
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* Speaking of ''[[The Black Cauldron]]'', that movie itself almost became the franchise killer of the ''entire'' [[Disney Animated Canon]]. It cost the studio so much money they could only barely manage to get back up. Understandably, it took ''Cauldron'' till 1998 to get released on home video.
** To a lesser extent, ''[[Home on the Range]]'' temporarily killed Disney's traditional animation department and made them move into CGI.. until they got back on their feet with ''[[The Princess and the Frog]]'' and ''[[Winnie the Pooh]]''.
* The failure of the ''[[DuckTales (1987)]]'' movie, ''[[DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the
* The critical failure of ''[[Rugrats Go Wild]]'' (a crossover film between ''[[Rugrats]]'' and ''[[The Wild Thornberrys]]'') actually prevented the making of a fourth ''Rugrats'' film and a third ''Wild Thornberries'' film.
** Despite the success of ''[[The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie]]'', the failure of ''[[Rugrats Go Wild]]'' and the ''The'' ''[[Hey Arnold!]]'' ''Movie'' was enough to kill off Nicktoon movies.
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* ''[[Planet of the Apes]]'' initially died with the terrible ''Battle for the Planet of the Apes''. [[Tim Burton]]'s movie in 2001 made some money, but the proposed sequel was scrapped. In all fairness, each ''Apes'' sequel was written to be the last in the series, and [[Franchise Zombie|further movies were only created because 20th Century Fox demanded them]]. ''Battle'' merely put a end to needlessly prolonging the series, which had already wrapped up its loose ends in the previous films anyway.
** The franchise has been successfully rebooted, with the critically-acclaimed release of ''[[Rise of the Planet of the Apes]]'' in 2011.
* The negative critical reception and underwhelming (but still relatively successful) box office intake for ''[[Charlie's Angels|Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle]]'' (not to mention the deaths of Bosley #2 Bernie Mac and Charlie himself, John Forsythe) means that the prospects for a third movie in the foreseeable future are unlikely. And with the new TV series burned at the stake by critics and cancelled after four episodes were aired,<ref>possibly an instance of [[Screwed by the Network]], as [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] had to know it wasn't going to get much of anything by dumping the show against [[The X Factor]] and [[The Big Bang Theory]]</ref> it's not so much "Good morning, Angels" as "Goodbye, Angels."
* ''[[Licence to Kill]]'', the 16th official [[James Bond (film)|James Bond]] movie (and the second and last one to star [[Timothy Dalton]]) seemed to do this for a while. With inflation in account, it's the lowest grossing film in the franchise. The franchise was already entering uncertain territory as production had to be moved from England to Mexico in order to save money. Not only that, but the marketing for the movie was subpar at best (it's to date, the last Bond movie to be released during summer). Add that to ''LTK'' itself, being one of the most polarizing Bond movies of recent memory due to its decidedly [[Darker and Edgier]], ''[[Miami Vice]]''-influenced plot (especially considering the [[Lighter and Softer]] Roger Moore era was still fresh in the general public's mind). ''LTK'' felt like an end of an era (dating back to the [[Sean Connery]] era) as it was the last Bond movie to have any involvement from director John Glen, screenwriter Richard Maibaum, title designer Maurice Binder, cinematographer Alec Mills, and producer Albert "Cubby" Broccoli (not to mention the last Bond movie to take place during the [[Cold War]]). There wouldn't be a Bond movie [[Development Hell|released for six years]] (the longest such delay in franchise history) due to legal wrangling over control of the series. In the meantime, Dalton's contract expired, [[Pierce Brosnan]] was hired, and [[GoldenEye (film)
** While ''[[Die Another Day]]'' by no means performed badly (it was the best performing of the series until ''[[Casino Royale]]'') it was deemed ridiculous by many, and received at best mixed reviews. Soon after, Brosnan was dismissed and the franchise rebooted with a back-to-basics movie starring [[Daniel Craig]] as Bond.
* The [[Adaptation Decay|film of]] ''[[Eragon]]'' inexplicably altered so many plotlines and cut so much (even given it is based on a [[Doorstopper]]), including the ''entire Dwarf race'' that a sequel based on the plot of the second book would have been impossible, even if it wasn't an awful film.
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=== [[Electronic Arts]] ===
* Though ''[[Ultima IX]]'' was already planned to be the last game in the third trilogy, the way it turned out ensured that there would be no fourth trilogy.
* The ''[[Command & Conquer]]'' franchise got killed off after the release of its fourth game of the main series, ''[[Command and Conquer Tiberian Twilight|Tiberian Twilight]],'' due to poor reviews and various ill-received departures from the series' conventions. And that was only a few years after solid hits by the third games of both [[Command
** EA announced that it's developing a sequel to ''[[Command & Conquer: Generals|Generals]]'', which was eventually canceled in 2013 due to [[Executive Meddling]] and alleged negative feedback. The franchise [[Keep Circulating the Tapes|now largely endures through its fanbase and modders]].
* EA Sports' ''NBA Live'' series was renamed ''NBA Elite'' for the 2011 year. However, the game's demo was so awful that they yanked it and cancelled the game weeks from release (as well as the 2012 edition). It didn't help that their primary competitor, Take Two's ''NBA 2K11'', is widely considered one of the best sports games of all time.
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* ''[[Baten Kaitos]]: Origins'' came out near the end of the [[Game Cube]]'s lifespan, four months before the [[Wii]] launch. Despite improving massively on ''EWLO'''s flaws, it was overlooked by a gaming community clamoring for next-gen consoles and never sold particularly well. With the rumored [[Nintendo DS]] installment canceled, the future of the series looks bleak.
* ''[[Majin Tensei]]'' was a decently-received ''[[Mega Ten]]'' spinoff in the Strategy RPG genre, which ended up doing well enough to recieve one more successful [[Majin Tensei II|sequel]]. Then came ''Ronde'' for the Saturn. Development was farmed out to Access while [[Atlus]] worked on other games, resulting in a game so legendarily awful that the release of a preview demo caused literally ''thousands'' of canceled preorders—numbers that were virtually unprecedented in Japan at the time. Not only did it kill the ''Majin Tensei'' series (the only release in the series since was a cell phone game that came out 10 years later), but Atlus wouldn't release another Strategy RPG ''[[Mega Ten]]'' until ''[[Devil Survivor]]'', ''twelve years later'', which had entirely different gameplay from the earlier series to boot.
* [[Operation Flashpoint (Codemasters)|Codemaster's separate successor]] to the original ''[[Operation Flashpoint]]'' series went down the drain already after its second installment, ''Red River''. Unlike the first one, ''Dragon Rising'', ''Red River'' took what made the series unique, threw nearly all of it out and turned itself into a generic ''[[Modern Warfare]]'' clone, a move that appealed to fans of neither series, [[Foregone Conclusion|so guess how well that went...]] Worse yet, ''Red River'' doubled as a [[Creator Killer]], since Codemasters promptly [https://web.archive.org/web/20120126111909/http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/62139/Codemasters-Shuts-Down-Guildford-Studio-Known-For-Operation-Flashpoint closed down its Guildford studio] after the game's failure. Meanwhile, OFP's original creators are still going strong with their ''[[Arm A]]'' series, apparently being the winner in the [[Dueling Games]] affair they had with the Codemasters' [[Spiritual Successor]].
* ''Crystal Kingdom Dizzy'' ended up being this for the ''[[Dizzy (series)|Dizzy]]'' series of [[ZX Spectrum|Spectrum]] games. A full-priced title with a drop in quality from the previous budget titles, its relative failure would mean the planned next game ''Wonderland Dizzy'' would never be released.
* ''Virtual Hydlide'', the attempted reboot of ''[[
* ''[[Rygar]]: The Legendary Adventure'' was a good game, but didn't perform well enough to continue the series. It was less-than-spectacularly ported to the Wii several years hereafter, sealing the fate of the franchise. At one point, there was a ''Rygar 2'' announced, but it ended up being [[Vaporware]].
* ''[[Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League]]'' has become such a financial disaster for [[Warner Bros.| Warner Bros Discovery]] that [[Creator Backlash| CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels claims]] it may well have wrecked their entire video game division. A rushed, ill-conceived attempt to capitalize on the momentum of the ''[[Batman: Arkham Asylum]]'' games, the only positive thing about this installment is that it made those games more popular retroactively. This game has nearly everything fans hate about bad games, including repetitive, uninspired mission design (gameplay wise, every member of the Suicide Squad is the same, the gameplay itself a ''[[Fortnite]]'' rip off), bad user interface, a plot that makes no sense and wrecks the continuity of the previous games (and on top of it, isn’t very interesting) and of course, [[Allegedly Free Game| loads and loads of micro-transactions]] which are both expensive and not the least bit useful. The narrative is a mess, lacking the creativity and depth that made the Arkham series enjoyable. As of February 2024, the peak online player count on Steam was around 13,000 - which ironically, is less than the viewer count of YouTube videos that gave negative reviews of the game. In the end, the Suicide Squad killed a lot more than the Justice League here.
== Western Animation ==
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