Sequel
A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music, or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same fictional universe as an earlier work, usually chronologically following the events of that work.
In many cases, the sequel continues elements of the original story, often with the same characters and settings. A sequel can lead to a series, in which key elements appear repeatedly. The difference between more than one sequel and a series is somewhat arbitrary.
Sequels are attractive to creators and publishers because there is less risk involved in returning to a story with known popularity rather than developing new and untested characters and settings. Audiences are sometimes eager for more stories about popular characters or settings, making the production of sequels financially appealing.
In film, sequels are very common. There are many name formats for sequels. Sometimes, they either have unrelated titles or have a letter added to the end. More commonly, they have numbers at the end or have added words at the end. It is also common for a sequel to have a variation of the original title or a subtitle. In the 1930s, many musical sequels had the year included in the title. Sometimes sequels are released with different titles in different countries, because of the perceived brand recognition. There are several ways that subsequent works can be related to the chronology of the original. Various neologisms have been coined to describe them.
Classifications
The most common approach for a sequel is for the events of the second work to directly follow the events of the first one, either continuing the remaining plot threads or introducing a new conflict to drive the events of the second story. Examples include The Empire Strikes Back, Aliens, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and Toy Story 2. Though most sequels begin some time after the events of the first work ended, some sequels pick up shortly after the first work, with the same story arc spanning over both parts. This is often called a direct sequel. Examples include Halloween II, The Matrix Revolutions, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, and Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse.Prequel
A prequel is an installment that is made following the original product which portrays events occurring chronologically before those of the original work. Although its name is based on the word sequel, not all prequels are true prequels that are part of a main series. Prequels that are not part of a main series are called spin-off prequels, while prequels that are part of a main series are called true prequels. Examples of prequels include the Star Wars prequel trilogy, Tremors 4: The Legend Begins, The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning, and Mufasa: The Lion King. Examples of spin-off prequels include Puss in Boots and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.Midquel
A midquel is a work which takes place between events. Types include interquels and intraquels. An ' is a story that takes place in between two previously published or released stories. For example, if 'movie C' is an interquel of 'movies A' and 'B', the events of 'movie C' take place after the events of 'movie A', but before the events of 'movie B'. Examples include Rogue One and Solo of the Star Wars franchise, Saw X '', Alien: Romulus, and Ballerina. An ', on the other hand, is a work which focuses on events within a previous work. Examples include Bambi 2 and Black Widow''.Legacy sequel
A legacy sequel is a work that follows the continuity of the original works, but takes place much further along the timeline, often focusing on new characters with the elderly original characters still present in the plot. They are often made many years after the original works were made. Legacy sequels are sometimes also direct sequels that ignore previous installments entirely, effectively retconning preceding events. Examples include Rocky Balboa, Halloween, Candyman, Cobra Kai, Blade Runner 2049, the Star Wars sequel trilogy, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Terminator: Dark Fate, Tron: Legacy, Top Gun: Maverick, the Creed films, Bad Boys for Life, The Matrix Resurrections, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and the first three Jurassic World films. Film journalist Pamela McClintock describes a legacy sequel as something that "exploits goodwill toward the past while launching a new generation of actors and stories".Standalone sequel
A standalone sequel is a work set in the same universe, yet has little or no narrative connection to its predecessor, and can stand on its own without a thorough understanding of the series. A Shot in the Dark, Big Top Pee-wee, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, All Dogs Go to Heaven 2, Home Alone 3, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, Mad Max: Fury Road, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon, Spirit Untamed, Space Jam: A New Legacy, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Twisters, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Road Trip, and Jurassic World Rebirth are examples of standalone sequels.Spiritual sequel
A spiritual sequel, also known as a spiritual successor, is a work inspired by its predecessor. It shares the same styles, genres and elements as its predecessor, but has no direct connection to it at all. Most spiritual sequels are also set in different universes from their predecessors, and some spiritual sequels aren't even a part of their predecessor's franchise, making them non-franchise sequels. Spiritual sequels can sometimes be repurposed from material originally intended to be direct sequels. Examples of this include Superman Returns, a spiritual sequel to Superman and Superman II, and Mute, a spiritual sequel to the film Moon.Parallel
A parallel, paraquel, or sidequel is a story that runs at the same point in time as the original story. For instance, three different novels by John Morressy—Starbrat, Stardrift and Under a Calculating Star —involve different lead characters, mostly in different places, but overlap at one dramatic event to which each novel provides a different perspective. Strict legacy parallels are Kirill Eskov's novel The Last Ringbearer retelling the events of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings from the viewpoint of benevolent Mordorians combatting the malevolent West. Likewise, Alice Randall's novel The Wind Done Gone, contemporary to Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind, tells the life story of a mulatto woman born enslaved on the O'Hara plantation and The Lion King 1½, featuring the origins of characters Timon and Pumbaa occurring simultaneously within the original 1994 film. Another example is the MCU films The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2 and Thor, which were all happening at the same time period, and there are characters that overlap between them.Relatives
Alongside sequels, there are also other types of continuation or inspiration of a previous work.A spin-off is a work that is not a sequel to any previous works, but is set in the same universe. It is a separate work-on-its-own in the same franchise as the series of other works. Spin-offs are often focused on one or more of the minor characters from the other work or new characters in the same universe as the other work. The Scorpion King, Planes, Minions, Hobbs & Shaw and Lightyear are examples of spin-off movies while Star Trek: The Next Generation, Torchwood and CSI: NY are examples of spin-off television series.
A crossover is a work where characters or events from two previous works from different franchises are meeting in the same universe. Alien vs. Predator, Freddy vs. Jason and The Lego Movie are examples of a crossover film. Crossovers can also function as sequels if plotlines from the two previous works continue into them, like with Deadpool & Wolverine and Rugrats Go Wild.
A reboot is a start over from a previous work. It could either be a film set in a new universe resembling the old one or it could be a regular spin-off film that starts a new film series. Reboots are usually a part of the same media franchise as the previous works, but not always. Batman Begins, Casino Royale, Star Trek, Børning, Man of Steel and Terminator: Genisys and The Mummy are examples of reboot films. Kathleen Loock has written that traditional reboots tended to stray away from depicting direct narrative or stylistic correlations to the previous versions of the franchise. Contemporary reboots lean into the nostalgia factor and create new stories that simultaneously revel in the aspects of the original franchise that made it notable in the first place.
History
In The Afterlife of a Character, David Brewer describes a reader's desire to "see more", or to know what happens next in the narrative after it has ended.Akira Kurosawa's Sanshiro Sugata Part II was the earliest-numbered sequel in the history of cinema. Film director Francis Ford Coppola claims to have popularized the trend of including numbers in film sequel titles with The Godfather Part II.