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{{trope}}
{{quote|''Coming soon from Paramount Pictures - '''[[Airplane!]] III
'''[[William Shatner]]:''' Wait! That's EXACTLY what they'll expect us to do! }}
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The result of this is that the original ''Foomovie'' will become known as ''Foomovie 1'', and on occasion will actually be rereleased this way (see [[Retronym]]). This is actually a recent practice, beginning in the 1970s.
If the movies in a series were made out of chronological order, the numbering can refer either to the order in which they were made or the order in which they take place. The latter gets you titles like ''[[Resident Evil]] Zero'' and ''[[The Lion King]] 1½''. Very rarely, you'll see a prequel with a negative number. The print version of the webcomic ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'' has two prequels, numbered #0 and #-1, and the French comic ''Donjon'' (planned to run from #1-#100) has spinoff series planned to run from #-99 to #0 and #101 to #200.
Some series use Arabic numerals, some use Roman numerals, and some use either. The distinction between Roman numerals and Arabic seems to be the distinction between grand-scale affairs that take themselves very seriously (and thus borrow a bit of grandeur from the western world's most prominent [[Vestigial Empire]]), and stories that either don't take themselves entirely seriously, or have a futuristic bent that makes the Arabic numerals look all sciency and mathematical.
This trope [[Stopped Numbering Sequels|can be subverted]]: The ''[[Marathon Trilogy|Marathon]]'' series started with ''Marathon'' and ''Marathon 2'' but then jumped to ''Marathon '''Infinity'''''. The subsequent release and open-source development of ''Marathon 2''{{'}}s game engine restored sequential numbering by naming the engine ''Aleph One'', [[Up to Eleven|the next largest infinity]]. (See below.)
This is, if anything, even more common in video games than in movies, although the "Part 2" variation is absent there. Literary examples, on the other hand, are very, very rare.
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Contrast [[Oddly-Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo]], [[Recycled Title]], [[Trope 2000]] and [[Super Title 64 Advance]].
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==▼
▲== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[Macross 7]]'' is not the seventh ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross|Macross]]'' series—it's the third in the official continuity, after ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]'' and ''[[Macross Plus]]''. Confusingly, a different production group created an unofficial sequel called ''[[Macross II]]''. It wasn't well received. The prequel series ''[[Macross Zero]]'' really does come first chronologically.
* Not a movie series, but deserving of mention, are the cyborgs of ''[[Cyborg 009]]''. The protagonists are [[Hollywood Cyborg|cyborgs]] designated 001-009. But the one that follows 009 ("zero zero nine") is named ''0010'' ("zero zero ten"), rather than the logical 010. The series also does this with {{spoiler|all subsequent cyborg characters.}}
* ''[[Digimon Adventure 02]]'' looks like this, as it ''is'' after all the second ''[[Digimon]]'' series, but the number actually derives from its status as being [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future|set in the year 2002]]. One could assume the number doubles as this.
== [[Comic Books]] ==▼
* ''[[100 Bullets]]'' has an interesting twist on this
▲== Comic Books ==
▲* ''100 Bullets'' has an interesting twist on this- every story arc/trade paperback has a title that either incorporates its number into it (eg- book 4 is ''A Foregone Tomorrow'', book 9 is ''Strychnine Lives'') or uses part of a known phrase that includes the number, but leaving the actual number out (eg- book 7 is ''[[Seven Samurai|Samurai]]'' and book 12 is ''[[Dirty Dozen|Dirty]]'')
* ''[[The Ultimates]]'' 2 and 3.
* ''[[Kick-Ass]]'' 2.
* The first major film to start using this technique was ''[[The Godfather]]'' in ''The Godfather Part II''. It was one of [[Francis Ford Coppola]]'s three demands for working on the sequel. His two other demands were approved, but the studio highly objected to simply following the title with a number. Its success began the tradition of numbered sequels.▼
== Films -- Live-Action ==▼
▲* The first major film to start using this technique was ''[[The Godfather]]'' in ''The Godfather Part II''. It was one of Francis Ford Coppola's three demands for working on the sequel. His two other demands were approved, but the studio highly objected to simply following the title with a number. Its success began the tradition of numbered sequels.
** Oddly, enough, this was [[Inverted Trope|inverted]] for ''The Godfather Part III''. Coppola wanted to call it ''The Death of Michael Corleone'' but the studio wouldn't let him.
* The ''[[Rocky (film)|Rocky]]'' series followed this trope until the sixth installment which was called ''Rocky Balboa'' (as if the other movies were about some other guy named "Rocky").
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** Another sequel, provisionally titled ''The Naked Gun 444.4'' or ''The Naked Gun 4 Score and 3 Sequels Ago'' was in development in the late '90s, although obviously nothing came of it.
* ZAZ didn't want to have anything to do with ''[[Airplane!]] II - The Sequel'', (and even claim to this day to have never watched it), even though they'd later make sequels to ''Naked Gun'' and ''[[Hot Shots]]!''. ''Airplane II'' lampshades the trope with the announcement at the end of the credits "Coming soon from Paramount Pictures : ''Airplane III''" followed by William Shatner saying "Wait! That's exactly what they'll be expecting us to do!"
** Speaking of ''[[Hot Shots]]!'': its sequel was ''Hot Shots! Part Deux'',<ref>[[Everything Sounds Sexier in French|French]] for two</ref> with the tagline, "Just [[
* The ''[[Ocean's Eleven]]'' remake proved popular enough to warrant a couple of sequels. Instead of using the rather cumbersome ''Ocean's Eleven Two'' or
** And the titles end up being spot-on with the number of people involved in the main heist (12 adds Ocean's wife, 13 adds [[Enemy Mine|the antagonist of the other movies]] and a technical expert).
* Likewise, the second live-action ''101 Dalmatians'' film was titled ''102 Dalmatians''.
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* Many ''[[Star Wars]]'' fans were rather confused when the 1977 original, simply titled ''Star Wars'', was followed by Episode '''Five''', ''[[The Empire Strikes Back]]''. A rerelease of the original rechristened it "Episode Four: [[A New Hope]]", paving the way for later prequels.
* For its European release, Italian director [[Lucio Fulci]] heavily re-cut George Romero's ''[[Dawn of the Dead (film)|Dawn of the Dead]]'' to produce what was essentially a completely different movie, which he titled ''Zombi''. After its success, Fulci went on to produce five sequels, which were titled ''[[Zombi 2]]'', ''Zombi 3'', and so forth. ''Zombi 2'' was simply retitled ''Zombie'' for its North American release, but the later sequels shared their numbering on both sides of the pond - meaning that while you can find ''Zombie'', ''Zombie 3'', and ''Zombie 4'' at your local video rental outlet, there is no movie available in North America titled ''Zombie 2''.
** No longer true on DVD. ''Zombie'' is available as ''Zombie''
* According to popular myth, the reason the play ''[[The Madness of George III]]'' was filmed as ''[[The Madness of King George]]'' was in case people avoided it until they'd seen ''The Madness of George'' and ''The Madness of George II''.
** Along similar lines, though this was just a joke, was the story of people wondering how they had missed seeing the nine prequels to Spike Lee's ''Malcolm X''.
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* In the [[Jerry Stiller]] film ''[[The Independent]]'', long-time exploitation film director Morty Fineman is asked by the filmmaker—it's a [[Mockumentary]] about Fineman's fictional career—if it's true he invented the sequel. Fineman corrects that, saying he invented the roman numeral after the title. The film then shows the title card from his post-nuclear sequel, ''World War III II''.
* The ''[[Pokémon]]'' movies go like this: "Pokémon: The First Movie", "Pokémon The Movie 2000", "Pokémon 3 The Movie", "Pokémon 4Ever", and then they stop trying to incorporate the numbers into the title and just go to straight subtitles.
** Made absolutely ridiculous by the fact that the subtitle of "The First Movie" is "Mewtwo Strikes Back", clearly implying that it was a sequel. (This had long been what we Americans had been told, but it turns out that this is not totally true, as ''The Origin of Mewtwo'' was just a short featurette of the same length as those ubiquitous Pikachu specials.) The origin story, which had been removed from the American theatrical release of ''Pokemon: The First Movie'' in order to preserve the G rating, was eventually packaged on the direct-to-video release Mewtwo Returns. So we have a "Strikes Back", and then we have a "Returns". Is anyone else sensing a ''[[Star Wars]]'' [[Homage]] here?
* The ''[[Shrek]]'' films seem to be using the same system as ''[[Blackadder]]'' as an [[Homage]]: ''Shrek'', ''Shrek 2'', ''Shrek the Third'', and ''Shrek Forever After''.
** They were supposedly reluctant to use the title "Shrek 3," lest it create confusion with the short "Shrek 3-D" which was released in a box set with the first two films. Apparently [[Viewers are Morons]].
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* The ''[[Saw]]'' film series went from 1 to 6 (using Roman numerals for the second to sixth films). Then an [[Oddly-Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo|Oddly Numbered Sequel]] (at least over here) is the seventh movie, known as ''Saw 3D''.
* ''[[King Kong]] Lives'' was released as ''King Kong 2'' in several countries.
* The
* The first three ''[[Mission: Impossible (film)||Mission Impossible]]'' films do this. Then the fourth was ''Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol''.
* ''[[Men in Black (film)|Men in Black]]'' has two sequel, but the first uses Roman numbers (''Men In Black II'', stylized ''MIIB'') and the latter Arabic ones (''Men In Black 3'', stylized ''MIB<sup>3</sup>'').
== [[Literature]] ==▼
▲== Literature ==
* One of the few literary examples is ''Rama II'', and there the title can also be taken to refer to the spaceship the book features.
* The sequel to [[E. E. "Doc" Smith]]'s ''[[Skylark Series|The Skylark of Space]]'' was called ''Skylark Three'', again after a ship starring in the story.
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* Several [[Marcus Didius Falco|Falco]] novels had a count ''down.'' Thus ''Three Hands in the Fountain'' was followed by ''Two for the Lions'' and then ''One Virgin Too Many''. Since the Romans never got around to inventing the number zero, subsequent novels had to drop the numerical theme.
* David Charney wrote ''Sensei'' and ''Sensei II: The Swordmaster''.
* The second and third ''[[
* Some printings of ''[[The Jungle Book (novel)|The Second Jungle Book]]'' use the title ''The Jungle Book II''.
* [[The BBC]] science fiction comedy series ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' opened its third series with a ''Star Wars'' spoofing scroll past of text ending with the line Red Dwarf III: The Same Generation (Nearly). This led the BBC's official listings magazine, the Radio Times, to list the series as Red Dwarf III. Subsequent series were likewise shown as Red Dwarf IV, Red Dwarf V and so on. Eventually, the creators began numbering the series on screen... after which the Radio Times just called it Red Dwarf. This was dropped for the ''Back to Earth'' three-parter, although it is referred to (usually unofficially) as Series IX.
* Another BBC comedy, ''[[The Black Adder]]'', was followed by Blackadder II, Blackadder the Third and Blackadder Goes Forth (bad pun!)
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** Which is kind of an oxymoron if you think about it.
== [[Music]] ==
▲== Music ==
* [[Led Zeppelin|Led Zeppelin's]] self-titled debut album was followed later the same year by ''Led Zeppelin II'', and by ''Led Zeppelin III'' the following year. The untitled album that followed it is informally called ''Led Zeppelin IV'' by fans.
* [[Meat Loaf
* [[Metallica]] released the song "The Unforgiven" on their self-titled album. Six years later, on the album ''Reload'', came the song "The Unforgiven II". Subverted a bit in the lyrics; they are about the Unforgiven from the previous song finding a lifemate and asking "are you unforgiven [[A Worldwide Punomenon|too]]?".
** And another twelve years later, on ''Death Magnetic'', Metallica released "The Unforgiven III". Strangely enough, it's the only song in the cycle that ''doesn't'' contain the word Unforgiven in any of the lyrics, and musically and lyrically it has very little to do with the other two.
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** On the other hand, both Ralph Vaughan Williams and Malcolm Arnold have written 9 symphonies and then died. At a very advanced age in both cases.
== [[Professional Wrestling]] ==▼
* The [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]]'s ''Wrestlemania'' Pay-Per-View events are normally numbered (although they seem to have trouble deciding whether to use Roman or Arabic numerals), with three exceptions: the sixteenth was dubbed ''Wrestlemania 2000'' to capitalize on millennial fever (and because it was in the year 2000), and the seventeenth and eighteenth were ''Wrestlemania X-Seven'' and ''Wrestlemania X8'', respectively, for [[Xtreme Kool Letterz]] effect. Their other Pay-Per-View events don't use any form of numbering, instead being identified by the year in which they were held▼
▲== Professional Wrestling ==
▲* The [[WWE]]'s ''Wrestlemania'' Pay-Per-View events are normally numbered (although they seem to have trouble deciding whether to use Roman or Arabic numerals), with three exceptions: the sixteenth was dubbed ''Wrestlemania 2000'' to capitalize on millennial fever (and because it was in the year 2000), and the seventeenth and eighteenth were ''Wrestlemania X-Seven'' and ''Wrestlemania X8'', respectively, for [[Xtreme Kool Letterz]] effect. Their other Pay-Per-View events don't use any form of numbering, instead being identified by the year in which they were held
** The only other Wrestlemania not to use Roman numerals was XIII - which was promoted with Arabic numerals.
* [[WCW]]'s first nine ''Superbrawl'' PPV events were appropriately numbered, then the next was named ''Superbrawl 2000'' much like WWF did with ''Wrestlemania''. This was followed by ''Superbrawl Revenge'', the final Superbrawl before WCW was closed down.
== [[Theatre]] ==
* William [[Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Henry IV]], part 2'', and ''Henry VI, parts 2 and 3''
** Spoofed by ''The Book of Sequels'', a book consisting of humorous fictional sequels, spinoffs, and adaptations of famous works, with ''Romeo and Juliet Part 2'', which reveals that Romeo's poison was actually a sleeping potion, the knife was [[Actually a Doombot|actually a fake prop knife]], and that Romeo and Juliet [[Sequel Reset|live on]] to go on a bunch of wacky adventures.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* Only three of the first six ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' games were released in North America. Two of those -- ''[[Final Fantasy IV|IV]]'', and ''[[Final Fantasy VI|VI]]''—were renumbered for North American release, making them ''II'', and ''III''. This was made all the more confusing when, starting with ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'', Square decided to release the games with their proper numbers globally, making it seem in North America as though ''Final Fantasy IV-VI'' had simply vanished. This was further muddled when the NES and SNES games were rereleased worldwide on other consoles and given their original numbers.
** The series also features ''[[Final Fantasy X-2]]'', which - perhaps confusingly for some - is neither ''[[Final Fantasy XI]]'' nor ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]''. Or ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'', for that matter.
** ''[[Final Fantasy XI]]'' and ''[[Final Fantasy XIV]]'' are [[Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game|MMORPG]]s; every other ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' game is a single-player [[RPG]]. The former makes this distinction with its official title being "Final Fantasy XI: Online".
** Notably, ''[[Final Fantasy X-2]]'' is the only direct sequel of a game to be named like that. All the others (''[[Advent Children]]'', ''[[Final Fantasy XII|Revenant Wings]]'', ''[[Final Fantasy IV: The After Years|The After Years]]'', ''[[Dirge of Cerberus]]'') are sticking with just a subtitle.
*** ''[[Final Fantasy X-2]]'' may have started a trend within the franchise since ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]'' is getting a direct sequel named ''Final Fantasy XIII-2''.
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* The sequels to ''[[Sakura Wars]]'' are ''[[Sakura Wars]] 2'', ''3'', ''4''... and ''V''.
* The ''[[Frasnchise/Sonic The Hedgehog|Sonic The Hedgehog]]'' series has become very cluttered with sequel numbers. The games for the [[Sega Genesis]] include ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (video game)|Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' (also called ''Sonic 1''), ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog 2]]'', ''Sonic the Hedgehog 3'' and ''Sonic & Knuckles'', [[One Game for the Price of Two|the two halves]] of [[Sonic 3 and Knuckles|one game]]. Three console generations later, a fourth game was added to the series, called [[Sonic the Hedgehog 4]].
** Sonic 1, of course, should not be confused with the [[Recycled Title|identically named]] ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (2006 video game)
** Numerous other games in the franchise have their own sequels, some more straightforward than others:
*** ''[[Sonic Drift]]'' 1 & 2
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* ''[[Assassin's Creed]]'', which consists of the [[Assassin's Creed (video game)|original game]], ''[[Assassin's Creed II]]'', and the upcoming ''[[Assassin's Creed III]]''. Also includes a pair of sequels, ''[[Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood|Assassin's Creed Brotherhood]]'' and ''[[Assassin's Creed: Revelations]]'' to the second game.
* The three Compile-developed sequels to ''[[Puyo Puyo]]'' have puns on numbers. ''Tsū'', the Japanese word for expert, also sounds like the English word two; ''SUN'', when pronounced in English, sounds like the Japanese word for three; and the "yon" in ''Puyo Puyo~n'' means four.
* Namco [[Four Is Death|really, really didn't want to make a fourth game]] in the ''[[Ace Combat]]'' series. When they had to, it was only under condition that its number was padded to ''[[Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies]]''. They finally [[Stopped Numbering Sequels|gave it up]] after ''[[Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation]]'', only to bring it back with ''[[Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown]]'', having released several games in between.
* ''[[Gauntlet (1985 video game)]]'' was followed by ''Gauntlet II'', ''Gauntlet: The Third Encounter'' and ''Gauntlet IV''. ''The Third Encounter'' is an oddball not only in title; it was only released for a handheld system, namely the [[Atari Lynx]].
* The ''[[Ys]]'' series had two different fourth installments produced concurrently: ''Ys IV: Mask of the Sun'' for the Super Famicom and ''Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys'' for the [[TurboGrafx-16]]. Only the former seems to be canonical, though.
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* Rather than going with the obvious name of [[Pokémon|Pokémon Grey]], the sequels/remakes/reimaginings to [[Pokémon Black and White]] are, get this, [[Pokémon Black 2 and White 2]].
▲== Webcomics and Web Animation ==
* ''[[Homestar Runner]]'' spoofs this with its movie, "Dangeresque 2: This Time, It's Not Dangeresque 1". The end of that e-mail announced "Dangeresque 3: The Criminal Projective" (in 3D). In an e-mail concerning Dangeresque 3, Dangeresque 1 was revealed as "Dangeresque 1: Dangeresque, Too?" (not in 3D).
** Also, in the Halloween cartoon "Three Times Halloween Funjob", Coach Z tells Homestar he's dressed as Kool Moe Dee of the Treacherous Three (and not "Wesley Snakes"), and Homestar remarks "I only saw Treacherous 1 and 2, so I wouldn't know."
** The most recent Halloween cartoon is titled ''Jibblies 2'', although it is pointed out that there was no original ''Jibblies''. Quoth the Strong Sad: "Original? Horror movie? Not these days."
* The ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' Story Arc "KITTEN" was based around parodying horror movie tropes. Naturally, it was given a sequel titled "KITTEN II."
== [[Web Original]] ==
▲== Web Originals ==
* ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'', a RP board, is split up into "versions" by [[Big Bad|Danya]]. Each version takes place on a different island with ~150 characters trying to be the [[Kill'Em All|last one standing]]. Version 0 refers to the final "test run" which was only shown on an obscure channel, and Version 1 was shown nation-wide (and the first where people started writing). These were followed a year later by Version 2 and another year later by Version 3. The fourth version takes place [[Webcomic Time|in 2008.]]
* Each [[Super Bowl]] is known by its Roman numbered ordinal. This began with Super Bowl III in 1969, after the first two were simply known as the "AFL-NFL Championship Game" and later retconned into Super Bowls.▼
* The [[Olympic Games]] are officially referred to by number. The 2008 Summer Games in Beijing were the Games of the XXIX [29th] Olympiad of the modern era. (it's worth noticing the ones cancelled due to World Wars still count)▼
* In boxing and mixed martial arts, rematches between notable competitors are often numbered, such as Ali-Frazier 2.▼
* The [[Mixed Martial Arts|Ultimate Fighting Championship]] began using numbered sequels after the first event, which was retroactively renamed "UFC 1: The Beginning." Interestingly, there was much fanfare over UFC 100, even though it was actually the 105th UFC event due to the fact that five previous events did not follow the traditional numbering scheme. The smaller Ultimate Fight Night series of events used a numbering scheme until UFN 6, after which they were usually named after their headliners. The Ultimate Fighter reality series is numbered based on season. A new line of free events airing on the Versus channel is set to debut with "UFC Live on Versus 1," a rare instance of a work receiving a number before it has any sequels. Many other mixed martial arts promotions have followed suit by numbering each of their events.▼
▲== Real Life -- Other ==
* [[World War II]], the "sequel" to the Great War also known as the War to End All Wars that is now commonly referred to as World War I. Of course, there is also the as yet hypothetical [[World War III]]. Higher numbered World Wars are occasionally referenced in media set far enough into the future.
{{quote|'''Albert Einstein:''' "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."}}
* [[The Crusades]] were numbered retroactively by historians, from the First Crusade (1096–99) to the Ninth Crusade (1271–72) and many unnumbered Crusades also.
* The European alliances that were fighting against France during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars were successively numbered coalitions of various countries opposing the expansion of French power. The coterminous military conflicts between the two sides are subsequently also most often referred to as "The War Of the First/Second/etc. Coalition".
▲* Each [[Super Bowl]] is known by its Roman numbered ordinal. This began with Super Bowl III in 1969, after the first two were simply known as the "AFL-NFL Championship Game" and later retconned into Super Bowls.
▲* The [[Olympic Games]] are officially referred to by number. The 2008 Summer Games in Beijing were the Games of the XXIX [29th] Olympiad of the modern era. (it's worth noticing the ones cancelled due to World Wars still count.)
▲* In boxing and mixed martial arts, rematches between notable competitors are often numbered, such as Ali-Frazier 2.
▲* The [[Mixed Martial Arts|Ultimate Fighting Championship]] began using numbered sequels after the first event, which was retroactively renamed "UFC 1: The Beginning." Interestingly, there was much fanfare over UFC 100, even though it was actually the 105th UFC event due to the fact that five previous events did not follow the traditional numbering scheme. The smaller Ultimate Fight Night series of events used a numbering scheme until UFN 6, after which they were usually named after their headliners. The Ultimate Fighter reality series is numbered based on season. A new{{when}} line of free events airing on the Versus channel is set to debut{{verify}} with "UFC Live on Versus 1," a rare instance of a work receiving a number before it has any sequels. Many other mixed martial arts promotions have followed suit by numbering each of their events.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Title Tropes]]
[[Category:Older Than
[[Category:Sequel]]
[[Category:Film Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Numbered Sequels]]
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