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.[2]
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.[citation needed] 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[citation needed] 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. They can either pick up right where the first work left off, or continue sometime after the events of the first work ended. This is often called a direct sequel. Examples include Toy Story 2 (1999) and The Empire Strikes Back (1980).[citation needed]
A midquel is a term used to refer to works which take place between events. Types include interquels and intraquels.[4] An interquel 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 can include Rogue One (2016) and Solo (2018) of Star Wars, some films of the Fast & Furious franchise, and Saw X. An intraquel, on the other hand, is a work which focuses on events within a previous work. Examples include Bambi 2 (2005) and Black Widow (2021).[5][6][7]
A threequel is the third work after the first sequel. They act as a continuation, and sometimes a conclusion of plot threads from the first two works. Examples include Return of the Jedi (1983), and Rocky III (1982).
A plot reset, or resetquel is a work set in the same universe of its predecessor that resets the plot in a different premise or setting of the work's predecessor with more than one of the same predecessor characters to appease the audience due to extremely negative reception of the predecessor. An example: The Suicide Squad (2021) to Suicide Squad (2016).
A spiritual sequel 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. An example of this is Mute (2018), a spiritual sequel to the film Moon (2009).
A parallel, paraquel, or sidequel is a story that runs at the same point in time as the original story.[17][18] For instance, three different novels by John Morressy — Starbrat (1972), Stardrift (1973; also known as Nail Down the Stars), and Under a Calculating Star (1975) — involve different lead characters, mostly in different places, but overlap at one dramatic event to which each novel provides a different perspective.[19] Strict legacy parallels are Kirill Eskov's novel The Last Ringbearer (1999) retelling the events of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings (1955) from the viewpoint of benevolent Mordorians combatting the malevolent West. Likewise, Alice Randall's novel The Wind Done Gone (2001), contemporary to Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind (1936), tells the life story of a mulatto woman born enslaved on the O'Hara plantation and The Lion King 1½ (2004), featuring the origins of characters Timon and Pumbaa occurring simultaneously within the original 1994 film. Major film examples of true parallels include Saw IV (2007), where the events are revealed to be overlapping within Saw III (2006).[citation needed]
Relatives
Alongside sequels, there are also other types of continuation or inspiration of a previous work.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed]
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 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.[20]
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.[21]
The origin of the sequel as it is conceived in the 21st century developed from the novella and romance traditions in a slow process that culminated towards the end of the 17th century.[citation needed]
The substantial shift toward a rapidly growing print culture and the rise of the market system by the early 18th-century meant that an author's merit and livelihood became increasingly linked to the number of copies of a work he or she could sell. This shift from a text-based to an author-centered reading culture[22] led to the "professionalization" of the author – that is, the development of a "sense of identity based on a marketable skill and on supplying to a defined public a specialized service it was demanding."[23] In one sense, then, sequels became a means to profit further from previous work that had already obtained some measure of commercial success.[24] As the establishment of a readership became increasingly important to the economic viability of authorship, sequels offered a means to establish a recurring economic outlet.[citation needed]
In addition to serving economic profit, the sequel was also used as a method to strengthen an author's claim to his literary property. With weak copyright laws and unscrupulous booksellers willing to sell whatever they could, in some cases the only way to prove ownership of a text was to produce another like it. Sequels in this sense are rather limited in scope, as the authors are focused on producing "more of the same" to defend their "literary paternity".[23] As is true throughout history, sequels to novels provided an opportunity for authors to interact with a readership. This became especially important in the economy of the 18th century novel, in which authors often maintained readership by drawing readers back with the promise of more of what they liked from the original. With sequels, therefore, came the implicit division of readers by authors into the categories of "desirable" and "undesirable"—that is, those who interpret the text in a way unsanctioned by the author. Only after having achieved a significant reader base would an author feel free to alienate or ignore the "undesirable" readers.[23]
This concept of "undesirable" readers extends to unofficial sequels with the 18th century novel. While in certain historical contexts unofficial sequels were actually the norm (for an example, see Arthurian literature), with the emphasis on the author function that arises in conjunction with the novel many authors began to see these kinds of unauthorized extensions as being in direct conflict with authorial authority. In the matter of Don Quixote (an early novel, perhaps better classified as a satirical romance), for example, Cervantes disapproved of Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda's use of his characters in Second Volume of the Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha, an unauthorized sequel. In response, Cervantes very firmly kills the protagonist at the end of the Second Part to discourage any more such creative liberties.[25] Another example is Samuel Richardson, an 18th-century author who responded particularly strongly against the appropriation of his material by unauthorized third parties. Richardson was extremely vocal in his disapproval of the way the protagonist of his novel Pamela was repeatedly incorporated into unauthorized sequels featuring particularly lewd plots. The most famous of these is Henry Fielding's parody, entitled Shamela.[26]
In To Renew Their Former Acquaintance: Print, Gender, and Some Eighteenth Century Sequels, Betty Schellenberg theorizes that whereas for male writers in the 18th century sequels often served as "models of paternity and property", for women writers these models were more likely to be seen as transgressive. Instead, the recurring readership created by sequels let female writers function within the model of "familiar acquaintances reunited to enjoy the mutual pleasures of conversation", and made their writing an "activity within a private, non-economic sphere". Through this created perception women writers were able to break into the economic sphere and "enhance their professional status" through authorship.[23]
Dissociated from the motives of profit and therefore unrestrained by the need for continuity felt by male writers, Schellenberg argues that female-authored sequel fiction tended to have a much broader scope.[citation needed] He says that women writers showed an "innovative freedom" that male writers rejected to "protect their patrimony". For example, Sarah Fielding's Adventures of David Simple and its sequels Familiar Letters between the Principal Characters in David Simple and David Simple, Volume the Last are extremely innovative and cover almost the entire range of popular narrative styles of the 18th century.[27]
Video games
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (January 2018)
As the cost of developing a triple-A video game has risen,[28][29][30] sequels have become increasingly common in the video game industry.[31] Today, new installments of established brands make up much of the new releases from mainstream publishers and provide a reliable source of revenue, smoothing out market volatility.[32] Sequels are often perceived to be safer than original titles because they can draw from an established customer base, and generally keep to the formula that made the previous game successful.[citation needed]
In some cases, the characters or the settings of an original film or video game become so valuable that they develop into a series, lately referred to as a media franchise. Generally, a whole series of sequels is made, along with merchandising. Multiple sequels are often planned well in advance, and actors and directors may sign extended contracts to ensure their participation. This can extend into a series/franchise's initial production's plot to provide story material to develop for sequels called sequel hooks.[citation needed]
Box office
Movie sequels do not always do as well at the box office as the original, but they tend to do better than non-sequels, according to a study in the July 2008 issue of the Journal of Business Research. The shorter the period between releases, the better the sequel does at the box office. Sequels also show a faster drop in weekly revenues relative to non-sequels.[33] A quantitative mega-analysis of box office earnings from all the major movie studios revealed that franchise movies dominate the highest grossing films lists, establishing sequels as reliable kinds of movies to make. All studios have come to rely on releasing sequels as they increase the studios' profitability, yield to the consumer demand for simultaneous novelty and familiarity, and help manage risk and uncertainty within studio production and release.[34]
Sequels are most often produced in the same medium as the previous work (e.g. a film sequel is usually a sequel to another film). Producing sequels to a work in another medium has also become common, especially when the new medium is less costly or time-consuming to produce.[citation needed]
A sequel to a popular but discontinued television series may be produced in another medium, thereby bypassing whatever factors led to the series' cancellation.[citation needed]
Some highly popular movies and television series have inspired the production of multiple novel sequels, sometimes rivaling or even dwarfing the volume of works in the original medium.[citation needed]
Sometimes sequels are produced without the consent of the creator of the original work. These may be dubbed unofficial, informal, unauthorized, or illegitimate sequels. In some cases, the work is in the public domain, and there is no legal obstacle to producing sequels. An example would be books and films serving as sequels to the book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which is in the public domain (as opposed to its 1939 film adaptation). In other cases, the original creator or their heirs may assert copyrights, and challenge the creators of the sequels.[35]
Old Friends and New Fancies: An Imaginary Sequel to the Novels of Jane Austen (1913) is a novel by Sybil G. Brinton that is generally acknowledged to be the first sequel to the works of Jane Austen and as such the first piece of Austen fan fiction.[36][37]
Porto Bello Gold (1924), a prequel by A. D. Howden Smith to Treasure Island that was written with explicit permission from Stevenson's executor, tells the origin of the buried treasure and recasts many of Stevenson's pirates in their younger years, giving the hidden treasure some Jacobite antecedents not mentioned in the original.[38]
Heidi Grows Up (a.k.a. Heidi Grows Up: A Sequel to Heidi) is a 1938 novel and sequel to Johanna Spyri's 1881 novel Heidi, written by Spyri's French and English translator, Charles Tritten, after a three-decade long period of pondering what to write, since Spyri's death gave no sequel of her own.[39][40]
The novelist Angela Carter was working on a sequel to Jane Eyre at the time of her death in 1992. This was to have been the story of Jane's stepdaughter Adèle Varens and her mother Céline. Only a synopsis survives.[44]
Mrs. Rochester: A Sequel to Jane Eyre (1997) by Hilary Bailey.
^Rosen, David (June 15, 2011). "Creative Bankruptcy". Call It Like I See It. Archived from the original on December 3, 2013. Retrieved June 23, 2011.
^Silverblatt, Art (2007). Genre Studies in Mass Media: A Handbook. M. E. Sharpe. p. 211. ISBN9780765616708. Prequels focus on the action that took place before the original narrative. For instance, in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith the audience learns about how Darth Vader originally became a villain. A prequel assumes that the audience is familiar with the original—the audience must rework the narrative so that they can understand how the prequel leads up to the beginning of the original.
^Mark J.P. Wolf, Building Imaginary Worlds: The Theory and History of Subcreation; 210
^"Morressy, John". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (SFE). September 12, 2022. Retrieved February 13, 2023. [T]he Del Whitby trilogy... intriguingly tells the same noisy tale of interstellar intrigue and revolution from three partial points of view; none of the protagonists (orphans or impostors all) knows the whole story.
^Brewer, David A. The Afterlife of Character, 1726–1825. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 2005. Print.
^
Schellenberg, Betty A. (2007). "The Measured Lines of the Copyist: Sequels, Reviews, and the Discourse of Authorship in England, 1749–1800". In Taylor Bourdeau, Debra; Kraft, Elizabeth (eds.). On Second Thought: Updating the Eighteenth-century Text. University of Delaware Press. p. 27. ISBN9780874139754. Retrieved 2014-11-14. Of particular interest to me in this essay is the shift from a text-based to an author-based culture, accompanied by a developing elevation of the original author over the imitative one.
^ abcdSchellenberg, Betty A. "'To Renew Their Former Acquaintance': Print, Gender, and Some Eighteenth-Century Sequels." Part Two: Reflections on the Sequel (Theory / Culture). Ed. Paul Budra and Betty A. Schellenberg. New York: University of Toronto, 1998. Print.
^Budra, Paul, and Betty Schellenberg. "Introduction." Part Two: Reflections on the Sequel (Theory / Culture). New York: University of Toronto, 1998. Print.
^Riley, E.C. "Three Versions of Don Quixote". The Modern Language Review 68.4 (173). JSTOR. Web.
^Brewer, David A. The Afterlife of Character, 1726–1825. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 2005. Print.
^Michie, Allen. "Far From Simple: Sarah Fielding's Familiar Letters and the Limits of the Eighteenth-Century Sequel" in Second Thought, Edited by Bourdeau and Kraft. Cranbury, NJ: Rosemont, 2007. Print.
^Koster, Raph (January 23, 2018). "The cost of games". VentureBeat. Retrieved June 20, 2019. The trajectory line for triple-A games ... goes up tenfold every 10 years and has since at least 1995 or so ...
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