14 of the finest bequest sequels — and 7 of the worst

"The Devil Wears Prada" is among the most quotable movies of the final 20 years and has rotate into a traditional touchstone since its 2006 release. It earned Meryl Streep her 14th Oscar nomination, cemented Anne Hathaway as a movie star, and introduced us to the icon that is Emily Blunt. Need we say more?

So whenever news of a sequel that would choice up 20 years following Andy remaining Runway and Miranda Priestly behind, fans were understandably nervous. However, those fears are unfounded.

A worse movie would create endless references to the original, feign that the media landscape is the identical as it was in 2006, and decrease Miranda to a quip machine.

Instead, this movie tackles the issues that are facing reporting in 2026 head-on, alongside sometimes depressing accuracy. Besides a few subtle references at the beginning, the movie additionally shows restraint in deploying what several reviewers have termed "key-jangling" — showing the spectators small references and Easter eggs to the archetypal movie as if to say, "Look, recall this thing? You loved it in 2006, and you motionless affection it now!"

All in all, "The Devil Wears Prada 2" is the best-case circumstance for a movie akin this.

Upon its publish in 2002, "28 Days Later" changed the zombie genre everlastingly — equal though, yes, we know, they aren't technically the living deceased — alongside the introduction of operating zombies. It was additionally a brutally entertaining thriller, alongside a gifted cast, firm jump scares, and a slightly hopeful ending.

"28 Years Later" (the small we say concerning "28 Weeks Later," the better) cancels out the hopeful ending of the archetypal film, but for several reason, we don't mind. Instead, it's a bleak and mournful narrative of a young boy, Spike (Alfie Williams), learning that his dad, Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), isn't as heroic as he thought, and that the Rage Virus isn't the lone item that can slay you.

Its sequel, "28 Years Later: The Bone Temple," continues the narrative of Spike. We don't desire to spoil anything, since this movie lone came out before this year, but we'll say that the Ralph Fiennes Oscar run starts anew for his poignant achievement as a erstwhile doctor fair doing his best.

While there aren't any returning characters from the archetypal two films, fear not: Cillian Murphy's Jim returned briefly as a tease for a coming third movie in this sequel series.

"Twister," released in 1996, is the definition of a theme park journey in movie form. The stunts and applicable effects are mind-blowing, as were the ocular effects for the time. Remember whenever the cow flew throughout the street in forefront of a bewildered Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt?

Somehow, it took 28 years to bring storm-chasers rear to the big screen, this period played by Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell in 2024's "Twisters." Once again, it's finest to sit back, relax, and observe the tornadoes blast throughout your screen.

None of the first characters from "Twister" appear in "Twisters" — unless you figure a citation to Dorothy, the first tech from the archetypal movie — although James Paxton, the son of Bill Paxton, makes a cameo to pay tribute to his delayed father, who died in 2017.

The archetypal "Top Gun," released in 1986, was a hyper-masculine fairy narrative concerning US Navy aviator Pete "Maverick" Mitchell (Tom Cruise) getting sent to Top Gun (the escape academy for the finest of the best) during learning lessons, making friends, finding love, experiencing loss, and playing a lot of coast volleyball in jeans.

"Top Gun: Maverick," released a whopping 36 years afterward — following many COVID-related delays — somehow improves upon all aspect of the original. The act is indelible, the new characters are exceedingly charming (we see you, Miles Teller, Glen Powell, and Lewis Pullman), the affection narrative is improved (thank you, Jennifer Connelly), and Maverick is somehow the identical old Maverick several 30-odd years later, taking risks up in the sky anywhere he belongs.

"Maverick" was not lone the second-biggest movie of 2022, but it additionally overtook "Titanic" as Paramount's highest-grossing family film, has a staggering 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, and is now the highest-grossing movie of Cruise's storied career. It's the aureate norm of all bequest sequels from now until the end of time.

We anticipation that the lately confirmed "Top Gun 3" can live up to the norm set by this film.

The saga of Luke Skywalker, his twin sister Princess Leia Organa, their corrupted father, Darth Vader, and their dashing, roguish companion Han Solo ended in 1983 alongside "Return of the Jedi." Or so we thought.

But 32 years later, in 2015, Ford and Fisher came rear to a cosmos far, far distant in "The Force Awakens" (Mark Hamill wouldn't appear really until "The Last Jedi" in 2017. But this time, they brought new allies in the form of Rey (Daisy Ridley), Finn (John Boyega), and Poe (Oscar Isaac).

Whatever your thoughts are on how the remainder of the trilogy played out, "The Force Awakens" is a delightful area romp, extremely respectful of the first '70s and '80s trilogy during additionally adding new characters, planets, and lore for new fans to descend their teeth into, as fine as the old.

The archetypal "Scream" was released in 1996, and three additional films followed in 1997, 2000, and 2011, before the franchise took another decadelong break. Eleven years following Sidney and the collection took downward yet another Ghostface Killer in the town of Woodsboro, California, the fifth installment, additionally titled "Scream," dropped in 2022.

"Scream" introduced us to a entire new generation of fear movie fanatics/residents of the world's most cursed town. However, this installment additionally brought rear our faves akin Sidney (Neve Campbell), Gale (Courteney Cox), Dewey (David Arquette), Judy (Marley Shelton), and equal the first-ever Ghostface, Billy Loomis (a de-aged Skeet Ulrich), to bring downward the latest masked serial killer.

"Scream" was prosperous adequate that a sixth installment was released in 2023 (without Campbell), and a seventh — alongside Campbell returning — was released in 2026 and became the franchise's highest-grossing film.

The extremely archetypal "Halloween," released in 1978, is extensively regarded as among the most iconic and influential fear movies of all time, catapulting director John Carpenter and celebrity Jamie Lee Curtis into the fear hall of fame. The identical cannot be stated for the nine ensuing sequels.

Perhaps that's why, following 40 years, the 2018 movie wiped out all the sequel films from its continuity and picks up alongside a traumatized Laurie Strode (Curtis), motionless at the prepared in case her arch-nemesis Michael Myers returns to the town of Haddonfield.

It became the highest-grossing slasher movie upon its release, breaking a 22-year-old document set by "Scream," and spawned two additional sequels: 2021's "Halloween Kills" and 2022's "Halloween Ends."

Even although neither of those sequels was good, we can't let it cancel out the achievement of the 2018 installment.

When the archetypal movie in your sequence was as genre-defining and iconic as the first "Matrix," it's continually going to be difficult to live up to expectations. And following the 2003 double-whammy of "The Matrix Reloaded" and "The Matrix Revolutions," many idea the narrative of Neo (Keanu Reeves), a messianic fig who brought concerning the end of a war between humans and machines, was over.

But 18 years later, Lana Wachowski (one-half of the duo rearward the first trilogy) returned to the Matrix to explain what happened after Neo saved the world: The machines captured him and his deceased partner Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) and stuck them the two in their newest type of the Matrix, a simulation of the genuine world.

The movie was polarizing, to say the least, but following Trinity's destiny in "Revolutions," it was cathartic to see the two of them reunited and to see old faces akin Jada Pinkett Smith's Niobe, as fine as new characters akin Neil Patrick Harris' Analyst.

The final "Rocky" movie was released in 2006 and was titled "Rocky Balboa." Arguably, that might also be a bequest sequel since it came out 30 years following the 1976 original, but it certainly wouldn't create our finest list.

"Creed," however, proved that fair since Rocky wasn't slugging it out in the circle anymore didn't average audiences wouldn't be curious in the Philadelphia boxing scene. Instead, "Creed" shifted the act to Adonis "Donnie" Creed, the son of Rocky's companion Apollo, who died in a boxing equivalent during the events of "Rocky IV."

The movie followed him as he struggled to build a bequest for himself without his father's name, bonded alongside Rocky, and cut in affection alongside Bianca (Tessa Thompson).

Both a box-office and crucial success, alongside Stallone equal getting nominated for an Academy Award, "Creed" has rotate into a franchise in and of itself. "Creed II" was released in 2018, and "Creed III" was released in 2023.

The first trilogy of Spider-Man films concluded in 2007, alongside Tobey Maguire's type of the web-slinger burying his finest friend, Harry, and possibly reconnecting alongside his love, Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst). There was supposed to be a fourth movie, but it never materialized, leaving fans of that trilogy alongside small closure.

Instead, Sony rebooted Spidey in 2012 alongside a new guy at the lead, Andrew Garfield. The responses to his movies were middling at best, and his saga ended following "Amazing Spider-Man 2," which remaining his type of Peter in a dreary place, mourning the death of his girlfriend, Gwen Stacy. Fans of that would-be trilogy didn't get any closure either.

That is, until the Tom Holland type of Spider-Man got himself in a small multiversal difficulty and accidentally brought the two former versions of Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, alongside alongside several of their most celebrated villains in "Spider-Man: No Way Home," aka the highest-grossing movie of 2021.

Seeing all three of them engage on-screen would've been value it, but we additionally got to see Maguire reconcile alongside two of his villains, and, most importantly, we saw Garfield's Peter Parker preserve MJ (Zendaya) from falling, preservation his error from eight years prior.

"The Shining," the cherished Stanley Kubrick adaptation of the Stephen King novel, ended alongside young Danny Torrance escaping from the Overlook alongside his mother (Shelley Duvall), as his begetter Jack (Jack Nicholson) gradually froze to death and afterward had his soul absorbed into the hotel.

"Doctor Sleep" picks up decades afterward alongside an grownup Danny, now played by Ewan McGregor, who must come back to the Overlook to assistance preserve a small female who has the identical psychic powers as he does.

It was satisfying to see Danny visage his demons head-on, including peeking his caput through the identical entrance his begetter smashed alongside an axe, and equal conversing alongside the soul of his begetter (now played by Henry Thomas, who has an eerily exact Nicholson impression).

"Tron: Legacy" was released in 2010, 31 years following the first "Tron" was released in 1982. The first stars Jeff Bridges as Flynn, a video equivalent developer who gets sucked into the mainframe of a device and must battle his way out alongside the assistance of two device programs, Ram and Tron. Flynn is trapped inner the equivalent as part of his attempts to disclose that his coworker has been taking credit for his work.

In "Tron: Legacy," Flynn has been missing since 1989, and his son Sam (Garrett Hedlund) is resolute to discover him and is subsequently sucked into the grid, reuniting alongside his father.

While "Legacy" didn't get the finest reviews, its stunning visuals are what acquire its location on this "best" flank of this list. Director Kosinski established his endowment alongside this movie, and we power not have "Maverick" without it.

Unfortunately, we can't say the identical affirmative things concerning "Tron: Ares."

"The Color of Money," leading Tom Cruise and Paul Newman, is really a sequel to the 1961 movie "The Hustler," in which Newman played pond hustler Eddie Felson.

Twenty-five years later, Eddie has moved on from pond hustling and is now a liquor salesman. But that doesn't halt him from noticing the new kid on the block, Vincent Lauria (Cruise), and his endowment for hustling, and Eddie decides to mentor him.

"The Color of Money" set the phase for Cruise to rotate into among the biggest movie stars of his generation, during additionally serving as a beautiful late-stage function for Newman. The movie finally won him his Oscar following a decadeslong occupation in Hollywood.

In fact, its polarizing nature makes it fair akin its 1982 predecessor, which confounded critics and didn't create that much money. But the Harrison Ford-led sci-fi epic established its audiences following many years and many re-cuts of the movie, so much so that director Denis Villeneuve got his expert at the earth of replicants 35 years afterward alongside "Blade Runner 2049."

"Blade Runner" and its sequel obtain location in a forthcoming anywhere synthetic humans, called replicants, have been created to activity in area colonies — but whenever a collection of fugitive replicants escape to Earth, leaf runner Rick Deckard (Ford), is tasked alongside tracking them down. He finds out, though, that replicants aren't exactly what he's been led to believe.

"Blade Runner 2049" picks up 30 years later, focusing on a replicant named K (Ryan Gosling) who is a leaf runner himself, and is tasked to discover a human-replicant baby and "retire" it, in case the community finds out that replicants can reproduce akin humans can. It's revealed that the baby's begetter is, in fact, Deckard, who has been in hiding for years.

"2049" ended up being as polarizing, thought-provoking, and beautifully attempt as the original.

A new miniseries in the "Blade Runner" universe, "Blade Runner 2099," is set to premiere in November this year, so we'll see how it compares to the first and "2049."

To be fair, this isn't totally "Jurassic World's" fault. "Jurassic Park," upon its publish in 1993, entirely changed the equivalent for particular effects and was a rip-roaring fine time, but equal its two contiguous sequels, released in 1997 and 2001, had diminishing returns.

That's likely why they should've remaining fine adequate solitary — instead, we got 2015's "Jurassic World," which basically re-told the narrative of "Jurassic Park" but added in new (forgettable) characters played by Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, and a fateful brace of elevated heels.

Its two sequels, "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" and "Jurassic World Dominion," released in 2018 and 2022, brought rear cherished characters from the first film, but equal that fair felt akin fan assistance alternatively of closure.

Even although these movies made billions of dollars, "Dominion's" franchise low on Rotten Tomatoes shows that it's likely period to move on — equal if another reboot ("Jurassic World Rebirth") hit theaters in 2025 and made another $870 million.

If the archetypal "Practical Magic" missed you in theaters in 1998 — and it might've; it didn't expert $100 myriad at the box agency — you nearly certainly caught it on cable at several item during the final 28 years. It's rotate into a autumn staple alongside "Gilmore Girls" and "Hocus Pocus."

But is the first a fine movie? As person who lone saw it for the archetypal period as an adult, I have to say no. While it's entertaining to observe Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman perform sister witches, it's a deeply bizarre movie.

So, whenever "Practical Magic 2" was announced, my expectations weren't high, and, sadly, the movie fair concerning met them. The storyline is not that interesting, and the conversation veers into cringe district nearly immediately.

It seems that no one has undergone any character growth since the final film. Gillian (Kidman) and Sally (Bullock) act exactly the identical as they did in 1998. Sally's daughters were made to ignore the events of the archetypal film, so we're basically in the exact identical place we were in nearly 30 years ago, confusing timeline and character-age questions aside.

This movie was value it for the media tour alone, though, so we can't be mad it happened.

Indiana Jones (part-time archaeologist, part-time treasure hunter), as played by Ford, made his debut rear in 1981 alongside "Raiders of the Lost Ark," and returned for two additional sequels, 1984's "Temple of Doom" and 1989's "Last Crusade." Many idea that was the end for Indy, his hat, and his trusty whip.

Except ... it wasn't. Nineteen years following "Last Crusade," Ford suited up formerly again for "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," which reunited Indy alongside his affection from the archetypal film, Marion (Karen Allen), and their son Mutt (Shia LaBeouf).

As David Denby of The New Yorker put it, "the unprecedented blend of wit and act that made the movies so much additional fun than any another adventure sequence is mostly gone."

That's likely why they gave it one additional try in 2023 for a fifth "Indiana Jones" installment, formerly again leading Ford: "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" (which was, formerly again, not extremely good).

In the case of "Space Jam 2," the bequest characters are, in fact, the Looney Tunes (Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Lola Bunny, Porky Pig — the catalog goes on). Original basketball celebrity Michael Jordan did not come back for the 2021 sequel, although Michael B. Jordan does create an admittedly adorable cameo.

Instead, LeBron James steps into Jordan's animation shoes for this soulless Warner Bros. IP-fest, which is basically a business for Tune Squad merch and HBO. Not equal the first film's director liked it.

Instead, "Resurgence" casts Jessie T. Usher to perform Smith's character's stepson, Dylan, during substituting Liam Hemsworth as the film's genuine foremost man.

"Resurgence" was released in 2016, 20 years following the publish of "Independence Day," and brings rear Jeff Goldblum and Bill Pullman as researcher David Levinson and erstwhile chairman Thomas Whitmore, respectively — and they're the finest things concerning this forgettable sequel concerning another alien intrusion attacking the Earth.

Don't fair obtain our term for it: Trust the 29% critics' mark and 30% spectators mark on Rotten Tomatoes.

Was anyone really clamoring for a sequel to the 2001 supermodel wit "Zoolander"? No? Well, we got one anyway, 15 years later, alongside "Zoolander 2," bringing rear Ben Stiller's himbo icon Derek Zoolander, his frenemy Hansel (Owen Wilson), his arch-nemesis Mugatu (Will Ferrell), and the shade of his spouse Matilda (Christine Taylor).

The sequel additionally throws Zoolander's estranged son into the mix, played by Cyrus Arnold, as fine as a slew of another characters, cameos, and a really troubling achievement by Benedict Cumberbatch.

Plus, it barely bankrupt equal at the box office, according to Box Office Mojo.

In retrospect, it would've been unattainable to accomplishment a firm ending to this new trilogy following the polarized reply to "The Last Jedi" — either "Rise of Skywalker" could regard the events of its predecessor, angering a extremely vocal collection of fans, or it would disregard the events of "Last Jedi" completely, angering the another fractional of fans.

And in the end, Lucasfilm went alongside the latter, ignoring the events of "The Last Jedi," but somehow additionally failing to live up to any fans' expectations. From the non-explanation of Palpatine returning following getting defeated 36 years prior, to the fake-out death of Chewbacca, to the total sidelining of Rose and Finn, "Rise of Skywalker" eventually joined "Star Wars" fans in hatred.

Just observe "Andor" instead.

Editor's note: This narrative was archetypal published in July 2022 and most lately updated in September 2026.

Gabbi Shaw is a newsman on Business Insider's editorial partnerships team. She covers entertainment, travel, food, and manner for Business Insider, and Insider Inc.'s partners, including MSN, Apple News, and Yahoo.She graduated from Tulane University in 2017 alongside a flat in community health and now lives in New York City. She can be reached on X or LinkedIn.Please dispatch all inquiries, comments, or tips to [email protected].Selected stories:

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