Revenge of the Sequel

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

In many sequel names, particularly in schlock horror, the title, or sub-title, describes some kind of return, revenge, reaction, counter-force, backlash, etc. that usually implies it's a direct consequence of one of the previous installments. The movie's tagline might even be something like "And this time, It's Personal."

Also expect "Son of _____" and "Bride of _____".

Compare There's No B in Movie. Subtrope of both The Joy of X and Stock Subtitle.

Examples of Revenge of the Sequel include:

Anime and Manga

Comic Books

Film

Literature

  • C. J. Cherryh's novel The Kif Strike Back. Cherryh was shocked that her publisher took her joking suggestion seriously.
  • It's worth noting that Return of the King is not an example of this trope because: 1) it's not a trilogy but the third volume of a single story, 2) the titular return is something that's been hundreds (?) of years in the making, and not a direct follow-up to the two previous installments.
    • Return of the Shadow was a rejected title for The Fellowship of the Ring, and eventually turned up as the title of the sixth volume in The History of Middle-Earth, Christopher Tolkien's Making Of dodecalogy.
  • The Cat in the Hat Comes Back
  • Stationery Voyagers follows up "The Rage of Cybomec" with "The Return of Cybomec." More subtly, the episodes revolving around Marlack's cowboy origins are titled "Rodeo" and "Roundup." There's also an episode titled "Broken" followed by "All Falls Apart." Preceding them is one in a prior season titled "All That Remains."
  • Many Goosebumps books: "Return of the Mummy", "Say Cheese and Die - Again!", "Return to HorrorLand", "Return to Ghost Camp", "Return to the Carnival of Horrors", "Return to Terror Tower", "Revenge of the Body Squeezers" and "Bride of the Living Dummy". The "Goosebumps HorrorLand" series includes several non-numbered sequels, starting with "Revenge of the Living Dummy". The nineteenth (and last announced) book in the series is "Return to Chiller House", which is the last installment in a seven-book storyline.
  • Arthur Conan Doyle's first collection of Sherlock Holmes stories after bringing the character back to life was titled - what else? - The Return of Sherlock Holmes.

Live-Action TV

  • The Quantum Leap episodes "Return of the Evil Leaper" and "Revenge of the Evil Leaper."
  • Whatever Happened to The Likely Lads? is kind of a variation on this.
  • Several Mr. Bean episodes: "The Return of Mr. Bean", "The Curse of Mr. Bean", "Mr. Bean Rides Again", etc.
  • From How I Met Your Mother comes "Slapgiving: Revenge of the Slap".

Music

  • The O.C. Supertones' second studio album was titled Supertones Strike Back, and their sixth was titled Revenge of the O.C. Supertones.
  • Son of Schmilsson, Harry Nilsson's followup album to Nilsson Schmilsson.
  • The Frank Zappa instrumental trilogy Shut Up 'n' Play Yer Guitar, Shut Up 'n' Play Yer Guitar Some More, and Return of the Son of Shut Up 'n' Play Yer Guitar.
    • The song title Return of the Son of Monster Magnet (predating the above trilogy) parodies this trope.

Parodies


Video Games

Western Animation

Real Life

  • "Pojan koston paluu" is used quite a lot in Finnish. It literally means "The return of the revenge of the son".
  • Similarly, in Spain "X 2: La Venganza" (X 2: The Revenge) is basically the Spanish equivalent of Oddly-Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo.
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