Sequelitis: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"[[Creator Backlash|You can't top pigs with pigs]]."''|'''[[Walt Disney]]''''s [[Older Than Television|response to the failures]] of the three follow up shorts of the ''[[Three Little Pigs (Disney film)|Three Little Pigs]]''}}

As the number of films in a series swells, the probability of an entry that is unmitigated crap [[Sturgeon's Law|jumps to a number greater than 50% with the second installmentinstalment, and approaches 100% thereafter]]. For example, a successful film has a sequel that is decent but nothing compared to the original film. Suddenly a third movie appears and is may not even be produced or directed by the same people as the other two. If there are any more sequels, it just goes downhill from there if none of them are entertaining.

[[Sequel|Sequels]]s to movies, generally unplanned ones (as opposed to a planned trilogy for example) and created on the impetus of box office revenue ([[Roger Ebert]], in his ''Bigger Little Movie Glossary'', defines "sequel" as "a filmed deal"), are rarely as good as the movie they're a sequel to. If there is a ''third'' installmentinstalment, it will frequently mark a sharp downhill turn even when the second movie turned out all right. And even if there's a good trilogy, going beyond ''that'' has an even greater chance of crap.

Note, however, that this only applies to ''unplanned'' sequels. Numerous examples exist of planned sequels which have been extremely good. It ''can'' also happen in the case of unplanned sequels (''[[Ghostbusters]] 2'' comes to mind as a sequel that, while perhaps not stellar, at least wasn't completely horrible) as well; it's just a lot more rare in that case, as noted above.

Common symptoms of [['''Sequelitis]]''' (that is, things which contribute to a sequel not being as well received as the original) include, but are not limited to:

** Occasionally the reverse situation happens -- thehappens—the filmmakers bumped off a beloved character in the ''first'' film, but find a [[Ass Pull|contrived way]] to bring them back.

* TYPE III: [[Wacky Wayside Tribe|Wacky Wayside Tribes]]s begin choking the plot to conceal the fact that the writers have basically run out of story.

* TYPE V: A tendency for the property to [[Denser and Wackier|escalate into more science fiction, fantasy, or all around ''cartoonish'' elements]], when the original at least made some attempt at being [[Sliding Scale of Realistic Versus Fantastic|realistic]] (or at least [[Low Fantasy|low-key]] and [[Magic aA Is Magic A|consistent]] in its unrealism).

* TYPE VI: Many sequels begin to suffer from [[Pandering to the Base]]. Although it may ''seem'' like a good idea at the time -- whotime—who better to try and get onside than the fans of the franchise? -- this rarely ends well; usually, trying to please the fans ends up both (a) [[Continuity Lock Out|isolating a potential new audience]] and (b) annoying the fans, who are often made to realize that what they ''think'' they want isn't necessarily what they ''actually'' want, and are [[Serious Business|very quick and loud to say so]]. Many filmmakers often have little actual understanding of what fans ''do'' want, having merely perused a handful of message boards and assuming they speak for all fandom, if they even do ''that'' much research; in essence they end up catering to a [[Straw Fan]]. This is particularly the case when bringing back a much beloved character who [[Ensemble Darkhorse|unexpectedly won the audience over]] in the first movie, only to do nothing interesting with them or, worse, [[Flanderization|Flanderize]] them so much that they end up being a one-dimensional caricature of the charming and multi-faceted character they fell in love with in the first place.

[[Name's the Same|Not to be confused with]] [[Awesome Series|Egoraptor's]] new web series, which discusses this exact trope in video games.

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* ''[[Tokyo Mew Mew]] a la mode'', a two-volume manga sequel, ended up being penned by a different writer (the artist of the original series), but taking place in a universe explicitly the same as the original, something many anime [[Alternate Continuity|explicitly avoid]] in order to start fresh. And that's the mildest of its [[Wimpification|many]], [[Romantic Plot Tumor|many]] [[Marty Stu|problems]].

* If the subpar ratings in Japan and overall lack of accrediationaccreditation beyond loads of magazine previews (keyword here) are anything to say, the [[Un CancelledUncancelled]] fourth (''Revolution'') and fifth (''Evolution-R'') seasons of the ''[[Slayers]]'' anime are this. Most countries outside Japan (including the States) gave the seasons positive reviews, but 'most' of the viewers were ''older fans'' of the series, so that still doesn't help in the long run.

** A bizarre [[A Worldwide Punomenon|inverse]] of this trope occurs with the ''Slayers Smash'' novels, which are a part of the book series that takes place ''before'' the main storyline. Whereas the main series ended in 2000, the prequel books came out two years after the first original novel came out and are ''still ongoing.''{{when}} Sales have been dropping, and many fans agree that the adventures of Lina and [[Goldfish Poop Gang|Naga]] are being uncessesarilyunnecessarily dragged out. Unfortunately, the man who created the novels has no intention of continuing the main storyline.

** One of the conditions [[Pixar]] put when they joined with Disney was that they wouldn't be [[Executive Meddling|required]] to make sequels. In fact, because one of the parts of the merger was putting Pixar's people in charge of Disney's animation studio, one of the first things they did was halted production of Disney's own ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]] 3'' and began working on the title in-house. Consequently, both the third movie and the entire ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]]'' trilogy have been lauded as cinema classics; however, [[Trilogy Creep|the fourth film]] wasn't particularly appreciated. They did, however, make a sequel to ''[[Cars]]'', widely considered [[Redheaded Stepchild|one of their worst movies]], resulting in what is widely considered their ''worst'' movie, ''Cars 2''. They eventually did a third movie in said franchise that, while not particularly good, at least was not as reviled as '''Cars 2'' . Pixar's other forays into sequels, ''[[Finding Nemo|Finding Dory]]'' and ''[[The Incredibles|Incredibles II]]'', and their one prequel, ''[[Monsters University]]'', at most stumble on how [[Tough Act to Follow|how highly regarded the originals are]], and thus there are those who bash them simply for being [[So Okay It's Average]] follow-ups.

** ''[[The Emperor's New Groove|The Emperors New Groove]]'' managed to really break the mold in terms of Disney animated movies, but its sequel was rather generic, playing out more like three episodes of a TV show strung together than an actual movie. Fittingly enough, there actually was later a TV series called ''The Emperor's New School'', complete with a [[The Other Darrin|new voice actor for Kuzco]] and apparently having all of the soul of the first movie surgically removed and replaced with [[The Same but More|more slapstick]].

** Downplayed by the two DTV sequels to ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'', ''The Return of Jafar'' and ''The Prince of Thieves''. While clearly inferior to the original, they were nowwherenowhere ''near'' horrible.

** [[The Lion King]]'s sequels were more favored than most other Disney sequels for their plot (''Simba's Pride'') and their theatrical-like animation (''1 1/2½''/''Hakuna Matata'').

* ''[[The Land Before Time]]'' was a great movie. However, although the quality of the series is up and down from movie to movie (rather than a permanent nosedive, as some may have been led to believe) and may range from good to utter crap [[Your Mileage May Vary|depending on who you ask]], one constant is that none of the twelvethirteen(!!!) sequels (or [[Recycled: the Series|the TV show]], for that matter) can hold a candle to Bluth's original film. Not even close. MostThe peoplefourteenth willmovie bewas gladthought to hearbe thatan anyunlikely wordrumor ofafter a fourteenthnearly moviedecade-long isgap strictlysince aXIII rumorand thusthe farseries, andbut thatnope -- it'll'The probablyLand neverBefore happenTime: Journey of the Brave'' was released in '''2016''', keeping the franchise going almost ''three decades'' after the original. General consensus is that the series starts off weak with ''Great Valley Adventure'' being [[So Okay It's Average|not bad but not great]], gets a bit better with ''Time of Great Giving'', nosedives with ''Journey Through the Mists'' gets slowly better through ''Mysterious Island'', ''Secret of Saurus Rock'' and ''Stone of Cold Fire'', vastly improves with ''Big Freeze'', ''Journey to Big Water'', and ''Great Longneck Migration'', becomes even less serious with ''Invasion of the Tinysauruses'', improves a bit with ''Great Day of the Fliers'', and completely loses any respect with the last sequel ''Wisdom of Friends''. The fans seemed to give backlash to the very last sequels more so then even the earlier ones due to it getting [[Lighter and Softer]] each sequel. In the end, you know sequelitis has set in when they [[Stopped Numbering Sequels|stop mentioning]] the number it is. They even went as far as to retroactively remove the numbering from the older movies, too.

* All of [[Don Bluth]]'s classic films got hit with Sequelitis: in addition to the above-mentioned ''Land Before Time'', there were also sequels for ''[[An American Tail]]'', ''[[All Dogs Go to Heaven]]'' (which also got a TV series), and ''[[The Secret of NIMH]]''. ''An American Tail 2: Fievel Goes West'' though [[Lighter and Softer]] than the original is actually considered a quality follow up due to a higher budget theatrical release, ''The Secret Of NIMH 2: Timmy To The Rescue'' however is considered terrible by the majority of fans of the original. In all of those cases, Bluth was not involved with any of the sequels; the only sequels he was ever actually involved with making were the video game ''[[Dragon's Lair|Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp]]'' and the ''[[Anastasia]]'' direct-to-DVD sequel ''[[Bartok the Magnificent]]'', which became a classic that we've all heard of. [[What Could Have Been|Incidentally Bluth was originally to have involvement in the other aforementioned sequels, but had to turn it down to due to heavy development on his own projects at the time]].

* The first ''[[Shrek]]'' movie is a much beloved hit. The second movie was a worthy follow-up, or even better than the original, YMMV (it certainly grossed almost twice as much). The third movie is...[[Internet Backdraft|kinda]] [[Broken Base|polarizing]]. Consensus on the fourth is that it's... okay, but far better than the third. AndAverted soby far,''[[Puss wordin onBoots the ''(animation)|Puss in Boots]]'', prequeldeemed isa thatgood it'sspin-off, actuallyand prettyespecially goodits widely praised sequel.

* ''[[The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat]]'' was not written or directed by [[Ralph Bakshi]], the maker of ''[[Fritz the Cat (animation)|Fritz the Cat]]'', or [[Robert Crumb]], who created [[Fritz the Cat (comics)|the original comic]]. The only people involved with the first film who returned for the sequel are producer Steve Krantz and voice actor Skip Hinnant. Even Duke, one of the characters from the first film, is [[The Other Darrin|voiced by a different actor]].

* The ''[[Police Academy]]'' series. The first movie was a critical and commercial success, and jumpstarted the careers of several actors who would go on to bigger projects ([[Steve Guttenberg]], [[Kim Cattrall]], [[Bobcat Goldthwait]]), but as the sequels progressed, the humor became increasingly lowbrow and cast members started leaving throughout the franchise. By the time the seventh and final film, ''Mission To Moscow'', was released in 1994, only a handful of original characters remained, and it failed to surpass the $200,000 mark.

* Most [[Superhero]] film franchises follow the same formula: The first film introduces the characters and usually goes through the [[Super-Hero Origin|origin story]]. It meets with general approval. The second film, not being burdened by the need to rehash all that old stuff, is very good and is considered by many to be better than the original. The third film makes you wonder why they didn't stop at two. If a fourth film is even made, it makes the third film look like ''[[Citizen Kane]]''. Then the series is dead for several years until another sequel is made with massive [[Retcon]] (sometimes to the point of [[ReContinuity BootReboot]]).

** [[Batman]] and [[Superman]] have taken separate paths after their fifth installmentsinstalments, with ''[[Batman Begins]]'' a massive success and ''[[Superman Returns]]'' a [[Contested Sequel]]; while the Batman series later went on to produce the [[The Dark Knight|one of the most popular movies ever]], the Superman series is now enacting what is essentially ''[[Man of Steel|another]]'' reboot.

** The spinoffs of the franchise have been even worse, starting with ''Date Movie'', billed as "from [[Seltzer and Friedberg|two]] of the six writers of ''[[Scary Movie]]''", and somehow running on to threefour more (soand far...that's only the theatrical installments).

* ''[[Jaws 2]]'', ''3'', ''4'', ad nauseam. Ken Begg's series of reviews chronicles the slide in quality from ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20131030220111/http://www.jabootu.com/jaws.htm Jaws]'' to ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20061115025009/http://www.jabootu.com/jaws2.htm Jaws 2]'' to ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20061205232401/http://www.jabootu.com/jaws3-D.htm Jaws 3-D]'' to the completely awful ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20131030224622/http://www.jabootu.com/jaws4.htm Jaws: The Revenge]''.

* The first ''[[Weekend at BerniesBernie's]]'' is a amusing little comedy, with Terry Kiser [[Ensemble Darkhorse|stealing the show]] as the titular dead guy. Then they went and made a sequel. The female character one of the heroes spent the entire first movie obsessing over/wooing vanishes without even the most cursory attempt at [[Hand Wave|Handwaving]], and it was all downhill from there.

** Of course, [[Your Mileage May Vary]]. Some viewers felt that ''[[Film/Weekend At Bernie|Weekend Atat Bernie's]]'s 2'' pulled off the rare feat of being so unbelievably stupid that it came back around the other side and was [[Actually Pretty Funny]].

* Opinions are divided over whether ''The Lost World: [[Jurassic Park]]'' or ''Jurassic Park 3'' is worse, although the latter usually wins out in such arguments. Neither of them holds a candle to the original, despite several actors [[Money, Dear Boy|inexplicably]] agreeing to reprise their roles. ''Jurassic World'' was considered a [[Surprisingly Improved Sequel]], but then its two follow-ups could not get the same good reception (''Jurassic World Dominion'' getting particularly bashed for focusing less on the dinosaurs than on giant locusts and a cloned girl).

* ''[[The Matrix]]'' was generally well-received and a major game-changer for action movies. The second and third movies are usually seen as overly long and pretentious, while the prequel ''[[The Animatrix]]'' ranges from decent to bad. Word is still out on whether the [[Trilogy Creep]] ''The Matrix Resurrections'' is any good.

* Movies based on video games aren't exempt from this rule, either, even though very few of them get sequels in the first place (and [[Video Game Movies Suck|usually deservedly so]]). Just ask anyone who paid to watch ''[[Mortal Kombat]]: Annihilation'' or ''[[Tomb Raider]]: The Cradle Of Life''. The only exceptions so far are ''The [[Angry Birds]] Movie 2'' and ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]] 2''.

** Atari released [[Ghostbusters: The Video Game|a ''Ghostbusters'' video game]] that reunited the cast and acts as the third story. So far it's been well received. It expands on things from the first movie, provides closure on the Librarian ghost and explains where the mood slime from GB2 came from. The experience was so good that an actual ''Ghostbusters 3'' is in the works.

* Two trivia questions. '''1.''' How many sequels to [[Jim Carrey]] movies has Jim Carrey appeared in? (Answer: 12 - ''[[Ace Ventura]]: When Nature Calls'' and ''Dumb and Dumber To''.) '''2.''' How many sequels to Jim Carrey movies has he ''not'' appeared in? (Answer: 4 - ''[[Son of the Mask]]'', ''[[Dumb and Dumber|Dumb And Dumberer]]'', ''[[Evan Almighty]]'' and ''Ace Ventura Jr.''.)

** Jim Carrey so thoroughly detested working on ''When Nature Calls'' that he declared that he would never do a sequel ever again. (As for ''[[Batman Forever]]'', that predated the ''Ace Ventura'' sequel and didn't follow on from one of his films.) He only opened an exception for ''Dumb and Dumber To'', and even that is considered an inferior follow-up. And the other time it happened in ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (film)|Sonic the Hedgehog]] 2'', it was a different affair given Carrey plays the villain (and the sequel was well-received, for a change).

* In the ''[[Star Wars]]'' series, this started with ''[[Return of the Jedi]]'', which wasn't considered quite as good as the [[A New Hope|two]] [[The Empire Strikes Back|movies]] before it, but still good. Then came ''pre''quelitis, with ''[[The Phantom Menace]]'' and ''[[Attack of the Clones]]'' widely considered the two weakest films in the series. ''[[Revenge of the Sith]]'' (the final film in the series), however, was generally thought to be [[Surprisingly Improved Sequel|an improvement]], but that's not saying much. Regarding the sequel trilogy, ''[[The Force Awakens]]'' was deemed a good start, ''[[The Last Jedi]]'' [[Contested Sequel|splintered the fanbase in incredible ways]], and ''[[The Rise of Skywalker]]'' ultimately closed off things in a sour note, with some fans even considering the worst mainline movie.

* The ''[[Pink Panther]]'' movies escalated the slapstick comedy, wacky disguises, and whatnot quite a bit in the 1970s entries, even bringing in science fiction elements in ''The Pink Panther Strikes Again''. There were also new female leads in each entry, whether they became Inspector Clouseau's love interest or not. The series also hit [[Franchise Zombie]] status with ''Revenge of...'', which United Artists commissioned for summer 1978. Still, they were all hits -- thehits—the franchise jumped the rails in [[The Eighties]] when director-writer-producer Blake Edwards attempted to continue the series in spite of the death of [[Peter Sellers]], who played Clouseau. It turned out that without [[Just Here for Godzilla|Sellers]], people weren't interested in more of the same hijinks.

* ''[[Saw]]'' fans debate whether the series has suffered from [[Sequelitis]], and if so, at what point. This argument is closely tied to the one over Jigsaw's successors.<br /><br />Some fans believe that the series should've stopped at the third movie, which acted as a solid conclusion to what had been until then a trilogy. Others feel that the fourth movie was still good, but that the fifth was the series' [[Jumping the Shark|jump-the-shark]] moment. Oddly enough, even they usually agree that the sixth film was a surprising improvement over the fifth. Opinion on the seventh (and final) film is too wildly varied to pin down any fan consensus. A few believe that there shouldn't have been any sequels, or that only the second film counts as a proper continuation.

* The ''[[JuonJu-On]]''/''[[The Grudge]]'' film series, which began life as a Takashi Shimizu's V-Cinema TV special but is now up to a second special (which recycled most of the first,) two theatrical Japanese films, two Japanese shorts, an American remake, and two American sequels. Special honors to the first American film because it reenacted, almost scene-for-scene in some cases, the exact same plot as the first Japanese theatrical movie, though somehow keeps the main star/character ([[Sarah Michelle Geller]]) alive through the end.

* Similarly, the ''[[The Ring]]'' franchise has suffered from this. While each of the three "original" films has been well-received (Japanese, American, and Korean, respectively,) their sequels have met with various degrees of scorn and failure to the point that the very first sequel, a film adaptation of the novel's follow-up ''Spiral'', is [[Adaptation Decay|so bad]] it's considered [[Canon Dis ContinuityDiscontinuity]] by the Japanese producers, who went on to make ''The Ring 2'' instead.

* The original ''[[Species]]'' was a decent (if not spectacular) sci-fi horror film that had Natasha Henstridge running around (mostly naked, to boot) while a team of scientists tried to stop her. A sequel was inexplicably made five years later that combined a nonsensical plot (the scientists clone the original alien, then act shocked when she escapes to mate with another member of her species), cheesy effects and a cast that appeared to be going through the motions, and the following TV movie, ''[[Species]] III'', was made by filmmakers who thought the entire franchise was composed of gratuitous violence and sex. The fourth film, ''The Awakening'', seemssplits to be an odd inversionopinions, however - mostwith viewers seem tothat regard it as a decent B-movie, and others disappointed at the lack of violence, sex and production values.

* ''[[Terminator]]'': The first was iconic. The second, one of the [[Even Better Sequel|single greatest sequels of all time]]. The third was a [[Base Breaker]], and resulted in an entire [[The Sarah Connor Chronicles|TV series]] being made on the principle that T3 [[Alternate Continuity|never happened]]. The fourth, while visually impressive, lacked substance and ended up being an underperformer at the box office, which then led to the death of its production company and the rights being sold off. AlthoughThe fifth disappointed many people with its [[ArnoldTimey Wimey SchwarzeneggerBall]] hasapproach signedthat onthrew forthe aseries' fifthcontinuity filmout (whichthe iswindow. delayedFinally, whilethe hesixth sortswas outsupposed histo maritalturn issues)things around by bringing back creator [[James Cameron]] to write and produce, theand while futureit ofearned the franchisebest isreviews since anyone's'T3'', split opinions with decisions like {{spoiler|killing John Connor in the opening scene}}, and was such a box office disappointment that it cancelled any planned guesssequels.

* A few [[James Bond (film)|James Bond]] films suffered from this, specially ''[[You Only Live Twice]]'' (the [[Strictly Formula|formula]] is starting to age), ''[[Diamonds Are Forever]]'', ''[[The Man with the Golden Gun]]'', ''[[Moonraker]]'' (all three for being overtly stupid), ''[[A View to a Kill]]'' (Bond is too old, girl is annoying, plot is a rehash), and ''[[Die Another Day]]'' (silliness, dodgy special effects), ''[[Quantum of Solace]]'' ([[Darker and Edgier|too serious]] for its own good, resembling ''[[The Bourne Series|Bourne]]'' more than Bond) and ''[[Spectre]]'' (incoherent plot).

* ''[[Star Trek]]'' has the "odd-number curse" - [[Star Trek: The Motion Picture|the first]] (which can be considered a sequel to [[Star Trek: The Original Series|the series]]), [[Star Trek III: The Search For Spock|third]] (This one in actually alrightall right, but still not as good as 2II), [[Star Trek V: The Final Frontier|fifth]], [[Star Trek Generations|seventh]] and [[Star Trek: Insurrection|ninth]] films are considered letdowns. It was broken when the [[Star Trek: Nemesis|tenth]] was a disappointment, leading to a [[Star Trek (film)|wildly successful reboot]] (though [https://web.archive.org/web/20121103085229/http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/mwop/moviefile/2009/05/galaxy-quest-best-star-trek-mo.php some try] to make the curse still work by considering the [[Affectionate Parody]] ''[[Galaxy Quest]]'' the tenth movie)

* The sequel to ''[[Miss Congeniality]]'' arguably suffers from sequelitis, as many a fan (girl) was probably very disappointed that the second film did not see the return of {{spoiler|Benjamin Bratt as Eric Matthews, along with weaker jokes and plot developments.}}

* Averted in the ''[[Mad Max]]'' series.had ''[[Madat Max]]''most wasone acase veryof well-receivedthis, ifas slightlyafter Aussie-indiean revenge[[Even tale.Better TheSequel]] first sequel,in ''Mad Max 2: [[The Road Warrior]]'' not only defined the post-apocalyptic genre but is universally hailed as one of the best movies from the 80s. It's even one of just a handful of movies that, as of this writing, holds a 100% Fresh rating on [[Rotten Tomatoes]]. The second sequel, ''Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome'' was nowhere near as good, (and hadbetween Tina Turner's infamous hair), butand stillan aunexpected solid movie. A third[[Lighter (and fourth!)Softer]] sequel,detour ''Furyregarding Road''Max andmentoring ''Furasia''a havecolony beenof greenlitchildren. afterBut yearsmost offans [[Developmentstill Hell]],regard withit [[Inception|Toma Hardy]]solid playing the lead charactermovie.

* Let's not forget ''[[Final Destination]]'', the first of which was as "final" as ''[[Final Fantasy]]''. No matter if it's a series about Death itself killing people who evaded dying the first time around, [[Necro Non Sequitur|the over-the-top nature of the deaths]] was reaching absurd levels by the fifth and final movie.

* First played straight, then turned on its head, by the ''[[Transformers (film)|Transformers]]'' movies. Critical consensus has the first being nothing special and, the [[Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen|second]] downright bad]], while the [[Transformers: Dark of the Moon|third]] and [[Transformers: Age of Extinction|fourth]] [[Contested Sequel|hashave no]] [[Broken Base|real consensus]], and [[Transformers: The Last Knight|the fifth]] was deemed the worst of the bunch.

** Let me explain, the first movie was a solid sci-fi action-thriller that gave a semi-realistic tone to the franchise along with recognizing that most fans are in their teens/college years leading to some well sprinkled moments of humor (such as the famous [[A Date with Rosie Palms|"Sam's happy fun time"]] scene). But the second movie lost that touch and became an over the top action movie with tons of [[Refuge in Audacity|unneeded adult humor]] (Such as the pot smoking mom, the [[Unfortunate Implications|racist robots]] and mechanical testicles) not to mention the generic plot. Finally the third movie tried to please everyone and lowered the screen time for the robots (even though they are the title characters), made the first half almost a sort of parody (which led to the return of Sam's parent'sparents who by now are nothing more than [[The Artifact]]) and the second half a sci-fi war movie that [[Dropped a Bridge on Him|dropped Bridges]] on many characters. The fourth tried to go on a different route, down to replacing the whole human cast and giving more focus on the robots, but couldn't win everyone, particularly with its bloated running time nearing three hours. The fifth marked the point where audiences were tired of the incoherent plots and loud action, with the box office not even approaching the first movie's.

* Both the ''[[Dirty Harry]]'' series and the ''[[Death Wish]]'' series suffer heavily from this, getting sillier and sillier with each installmentinstalment.

* The second ''[[Dungeons and& Dragons (film)||Dungeons and Dragons]]'' movie is often said to have inverted this trope in spite of being released as a [[Sy FySyfy]] Channel Original, which is normally a step worse than [[Direct to Video]].

* The original ''[[Men in Black]]'' was well received by both critics and audiences, but the sequel (while still being a hit at the box office) was generally considered to be a dud. After a decade in [[Development Hell]], ''Men In Black 3'' was released, and managed to not only be another big hit at the box office, but got very good reviews from the critics as well. Too bad that 7 years later, ''Men in Black: International'' was tepidly received for its uninspired attempt at recreating the original movie's magic.

* ''River God'', by Wilbur Smith, was quite interesting and different to mainstream fiction. The sequel ''Warlock'' went from the engaging and amusing first-person narrative style to third-person, which allowed for us to see scenes from several characters' perspectives, but mostly allowed for gratuitous shoehorning- in of sex scenes to pad out the already inflated-but-largely-empty plot. The most recent{{when}} installmentinstalment, ''The Quest'', has almost completely dispensed with any ties to the Ancient Egypt pantheon, instead substituting some vaguely New-Agey mumbo-jumbo universally-recognised quasi-religious belief system.

* Robert Aspirin's ''[[PhulesPhule's Company]]'' series; the first two books are decent, the rest can go rot. But this is partly the fault of [[Real Life Writes the Plot]] issues.

* The ''[[Ring WorldRingworld]]'' series by [[Larry Niven]] has succumbed to this as Niven has caught [[Retcon]] Fever and begun tearing down the conventions of his own universe.

* Most(?) people have the latter half of [[Stephen King]]'s ''Dark Tower'' series falling into this trope. It became especially evident when he had elements of ''DT'' leak into his non-''DT'' novels (especially ''Hearts in Atlantis'' and ''Insomnia''). Even if you do like the later installmentsinstalments for their writing or whatever, it definitely shows by the end that King didn't actually know where he was going with the story to begin with and had to just come up with something without the benefit of having planned in advance.

* ''[[Redwall]]'', partially because the plot that worked for the first five or six books gets a bit stale when it's [[Recycled Premise|pulled out for the twentieth time]]. It does not help that the [[Wacky Wayside Tribe|Wacky Wayside Tribes]]s started to replace "plot relevance" with "annoying habits" around the time of "The Pearls of Lutra".

* The ''[[Doctor Who]] [[Past Doctor Adventures]]'' novel ''The Quantum Archangel'' could be considered a Type IV and VI. A sequel to "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S9 E5/E05 The Time Monster|The Time Monster]]", which the author claimed was intentionally "the ultimate in [[Fan Wank]]", it's basically "The Time Monster" ONLY BIGGER! So the TOMTIT machine that affects space-time is replaced by a more advanced version called the TITAN Array that affects Calabi-Yau space (the "extra" dimensions in superstring theory). TOMTIT was secretly created by the Master to trap a Chronovore; TITAN is comandeered by the Master to wipe the Chronovores out and [[A God Am I|give himself their powers]]. The Third Doctor disrupts TOMTIT with an arangement of forks and winebottles; the Sixth Doctor builds a ''much bigger'' version to disrupt TITAN. The Third Doctor and the Delgado Master go on a jaunt to Ancient Atlantis; the Sixth Doctor and the Ainley Master visit a forgotten planet from the beginning of the universe. Stuart Hyde gets temporarily youthed instead of aged, the Doctor attempts to Time Ram the Master's TARDIS, and Kronos again [[Deus Ex Machina|Deus Ex Machinas]]s everything at the end. Even the throwaway gag that "E = MC cubed" in the Vortex gets reused and amped up; in Calabi-Yau Space, apparently, E = MC to the fourth power. [[Your Mileage May Vary]]: it's so blatant about it that some feel it goes beyond conventional sequelitis and becomes good, or at least successfully does what it wants to do.

* [[Robert E. Howard|Robert E. Howard's]]'s most famous creation [[Conan the Barbarian|Conan The Cimmerian]] suffers horribly from this. Not only are there endless continuations, prequels and other adventurers of vastly varying quality by many different authors but the original stories were rewritten in places to make them sync up with the sequels. However even the original stories occasionally suffer from sequelitis. Because of the characters popularity Howard knew he could sell just about any Conan story to [[Weird Tales]] and wrote some very cliched tales (such as ''The Devil in Iron'') which were effectively knock-offs of his own earlier efforts when he needed quick cash.

* A subversion comes with [[J. R. R. Tolkien|JRR Tolkien]]'s abandoned sequel to the ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''. Called ''The New Shadow'' he got as far as coming up with some characters and setting it in the fourth age of Middle-earth where a dark cult rose up in the lands of Gondor. However he abandoned it after only a few pages as he felt it would not be as epic or up to the standards of his other work, then suffered [[Author Existence Failure]]. Meaning it's highly unlikely this will be finished, however there is a fan made mod known as [[Fourth Age Total War]] which makestakes this concept and [[Shown Their Work|expands on it]].

* Even more than the film examples, ''[[Star Trek]]'' suffered this in its series. ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series|The Original Series]]'' was considered an uneven novelty, a series that was either teeth grating crap, or, the very pinnacle of science-fiction, depending on the given episode. ''[[The Next Generation]]'' has been formally recognized as being among the top 100 shows ever made and a crowning achievement of television. Paramount came down with Sequelitis, commissioning '''three''' follow-up series (one of them was a ''pre''quelitis). The critical reception deteriorated with each successive series, along with the ratings (though a few preferred ''[[Deep Space Nine]]'' in later years). The last one only made it to four seasons, the fourth season was only made so that the series could be syndicated, and not end up a total failure.

* Critics wanted [[E.S. Posthumus]]'s work in ''Makara'' to be [[Sequel Escalation|more powerful and action-filled]] songs; this causes the songs to have [[ItsIt's the Same, SoNow It Sucks|less variation]] as well as losing the flow and developed tunes in ''Unearthed'' and ''Cartographer''.

* Many rides in Disney Theme Parks fall prey to this. Perhaps the most puissant example of this trope in a Disney ride is the "Imagination" rides featured at the EPCOT theme park in Disney World. The original ride, Journey Into Imagination, was a much -beloved and very creative ride centering around the world of a child's imagination and starred the Dreamfinder, a red-bearded eccentric who collected dreams and creative thoughts, and his pet purple dragon Figment. [[Executive Meddling]] involving a potential change in sponsors caused the ride to close in 1998 for a complete overhaul. It was reopened in 1999 as "Journey Into Your Imagination", a completely redone ride featuring none of the charm possessed by the original and with both Figment and the Dreamfinder MIA. The new ride set a record for the most complaints received over a new attraction at a Disney Park. The revamp was received so badly, it was closed a mere 2 years later in 2001. In 2002 the ride received its most recent{{when}} update, "Journey Into Imagination With Figment". Though it is a notable improvement over the second version of the ride, most long time Disney parkgoers tend to agree that the ride's first incarnation was by far its best.

* Opinion differs on whether ''[[Master of Orion]]'' or ''Master of Orion II'' is the better game, but almost no-one thinks ''Master of Orion III'' is anything but unmitigated crap.

* ''[[Tomb Raider]] 2'' was generally considered almost equal or an [[Even Better Sequel]] on release, 3 and 4 both involve heavy amounts of [[Your Mileage May Vary]] as to where you place them. By 5 the series had firmly fell into this trope and ''Angel of Darkness'' was the last straw before the series began recovering by being moved to another developer.

* The ''[[Tony Hawk Pro Skater]]'' series has succumbed to this, somewhere around the ''Underground'' era.

* ''[[Devil May Cry]]'' moves back and forth with this. ''Devil May Cry 2'' is generally considered to be far inferior to the original, what with its lousy story, bland combat, and greatly lowered difficulty level. ''Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening'', thank god, is usually seen as much better (sometimes even better than the original). ''Devil May Cry 4'' is also seen by some as inferior, though [[YourContested Mileage May VarySequel|mileage varies more often on that one]]. AsThe for the forthcomingreboot ''DMC: Devil May Cry'', itswas qualityeven remainsworse toin bethat seenregard, althoughwith [[Internetold Backdraft|thefans fanbase already hates it]] forhating [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks|changing Dante's character design]] and a story that tried so hard be edgy [[Narm|it couldn't be taken seriously instead]] (the actual gameplay is divisive). ''Devil May Cry 5'' went back to the old series and managed to [[Win Back the Crowd]].

** The few direct sequels / prequels have had mixed results. Some of them, like ''[[Crisis Core]]'', have been considered worthy follow-ups. Some of them, like ''[[Advent Children]]'', ''Dirge of Cerberus'', and ''[[Final Fantasy X -2]]'', start flame wars.

* ''[[Homeworld]]'' averted this, barely, with 'standalone expansion' ''Cataclysm'', despite it being a literal [[Mission Pack Sequel]]. It caught some flak for the dramatic shift in narrative tone and the new tech and ship designs were a bit hit-or-miss, but it did some pretty cool stuff with the existing graphics engine and generally came across like the development team at sub-contractee Barking Dog had at least ''played'' the original. ''Homeworld 2'' was a bit less fortunate, however; a lot of the original creative team had moved on in the interim, and Relic massively over-extended themselves trying to create game environments with 'megastructures' straight out of the best kind of [[Space Opera]] and generally go [[Serial Escalation]], and much of the more [[Crazy Awesome]] stuff failed to make the final cut. The end result was by no means ''bad'' -the graphics stand up quite well six years later and it's a ''lot'' more [[Game Mod|mod-friendly]] than the previous two- but the finished product had several minor but annoying bugs and balance issues and generally felt rushed. The gulf between Relic's original vision and what we actually got didn't help.

* ''[[Thunder Force]] VI''. Released over 10 years after ''Thunder Force V'', it came to be a massive disappointment amongst fans. Very short game length (even by shmup standards), the lack of the "direct" control scheme from ''V'', bosses that are made [[Breather Boss|pathetically easy]] thanks to a certain ship's [[Limit Break]], excessive [[Internal Homage|Internal Homages]]s, and stages that pale in comparison to the rest of the series; the last stage, for instance, looks like a cheap version of ''Thunder Force V'''s Stage 4. The developers of this game stated that they might do more games if this game does well. Well, bad news: judging by this game's lackluster sales, you won't be making new games.

* The fourth game in the ''[[Avernum]]'' series switched from the antiquated engine and sketch-like, endearing graphics of the first three to something more powerful and ([[Uncanny Valley|theoretically]]) more realistic, and hence got hit with [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks]]. Since the new engine was taken from ''[[Geneforge]]'', it also got hit with [[They Copied It, So It Sucks]]. And since the plot was quite similar to that of the third game, it was also subject to [[ItsIt's the Same, SoNow It Sucks]]. Then there were the complaints when the game was taken on its own merits...

* ''[[Madden NFL]]'' and similiarsimilar sport game series are notorious for being continued every year, usually with next to no changes in gameplay or even graphics. The main difference is updated statistics and players.

* ''[[Spyro the Dragon]]'' was a great platforming-game with nicely designed, varied levels and really good music. Spyro 2 and 3 were arguably even better. Then came Enter the Dragonfly, which suffered from uninspired level-design, [[Loads and Loads of Loading]], (they even had loading-screens ''for the loading-screens!'') terrible graphics, terrible voice-acting, and being so glitchy that achieving [[One Hundred Percent Completion]] was basically impossible.

* ''[[Bloody Roar]]''. First game: New and unbalanced concept, but some fun novelty. Second game: Takes everything good about the first game, polishes it up, adds a decent story and you have a surprisngly simple yet tactical fighter. Third game: Needlessly dumbed down and possibly worth playing if you can't find Soul Calbiur. Fourth game: extremely dumbed down and unbalanced, with the old staff long since having left, and featuring new (terrible) character designs, and making it much, much easier to spam (this also defining the reputation the series has). Fifth game: As sequels go, its on par with Batman and Robin. But with worse acting.

* ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog|Sonic]]'' fell into this once the series [[Polygon Ceiling|went 3D]]. The ''[[Sonic Adventure]]'' series was considered excellent despite minor flaws. ''[[Sonic Heroes]]'' was considered good, but not as good as ''Sonic Adventure'' and made some of the problems worse. It reached a low point in ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (2006 (video game)||Sonic 2006]]'', a rushed, glitch-ridden mess that is near-universally despised by gamers and critics alike. The trend finally began reversing with ''[[Sonic Unleashed]]'', with the subsequent [[Wii]] version of ''[[Sonic Colors]]'' being lauded by fans as the best 3D title in the franchise.

* A ''[[Super Mario World (video game)|Super Mario World]]'' hack series, [https://web.archive.org/web/20130319003912/http://u9.getuploader.com/SIG/ Super Sig World] is arguably the ultimate example of poorly done sequels in large numbers, with TWENTY FIVE''twenty-five'' installmentsinstalments in about two or three years. It's debatable how terrible each individual game is (although the best ones are merely average, and the amount of reused content is kind of staggering), but still making a 70 level game every three months seems like overkill.

* ''[[Static Shock]]'' and ''[[The Zeta Project]]'' are part of the DCAU, which also contains such well loved classics as ''[[Batman: The Animated Series]]'', ''[[Superman: The Animated Series]]'', ''[[Justice League]]'', and ''[[Batman Beyond]]'', all acclaimed for their mature story lines, great characters and voice actors, and excellent animation. However, those two are considered far less intrugingintriguing, as they are taken to much lighter tone, as they lack many aspects that made the DCAU so memorable. While the two were far from terrible, and they still had their fair share of likeable characters, and a few good episodes, they are far below the other series. Part of this reason is because of the lack of [[Bruce Timm]] and [[Paul Dini]]. (Though Dini wrote a few ''Static Shock episodes.)

* Even though it's still running, thisThis is the general consensus of ''[[Planet Sheen]]'', the spinoff-sequel to ''[[Jimmy Neutron]].''

[[Category:Sequelitis{{PAGENAME}}]]