Top 10 Bizarre Sequels That Almost Happened

After the end of “The Usual Suspects,” moviegoers were left with all kinds of questions. The film is a classic because its finale is ambiguous and closes with one of the most celebrated twists in cinema. So, studios sought to fix that by making a sequel wherein all would be explained and people could stop enjoying Bryan Singer’s Oscar-winning mystery so much. The movie was cancelled when studio execs finally realized that ruining this film’s legacy wouldn’t be worth it and saw this as the bad idea it was.

No, no, not THAT “Jurassic Park 4,” silly. It turns out there were many planned sequels to the original trilogy, but none of them got off the ground. Some early ideas involved Dr. Ian Malcolm and Dr. Grant teaming up again to fight the rising dinosaur population. Another and more infamous version had dinosaur DNA being spliced with military soldiers to create genetically modified super weapons. Dinosaurs used by the military? Yeah right, Vic Hoskins would love to see that. We think we’re luckythat “Jurassic World” turned out to be so realistically awesome after so much time in production hell.

On the list of movies that absolutely need sequels, “Ferris Bueller” comes in just behind “Schindler’s List.” The planned follow-up involved a grown-up Ferris taking a day off from his high-paying job to get up to some of his classic hijinks. There were a lot of rumors surrounding this sequel, but according to Matthew Broderick, no one could agree on anything and so the movie was shelved until further notice. Maybe we’ll get a sequel set when Bueller’s in his 70s as he escapes from his nursing home as a rambunctious old man. Until then, this Super Bowl commercial is the closest thing we’ll get.

“Casablanca” is often cited as having one of the most perfect endings of all time. So naturally a sequel was 100% necessary, right? In the 1980s, a follow-up was written up by Howard Koch, the original screenwriter for “Casablanca.” The story centered on Rick and Ilsa’s illegitimate son travelling the globe to find his father. Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s name was thrown around as a possible lead, but the film was ultimately shelved. It looks like we’ll never see the beginning of Rick and Louis’ beautiful friendship.

If you’ve never heard of this before, then buckle up, because this movie very nearly happened and would’ve starred Nicolas Cage as the Man of Steel. Tim Burton was asked to direct a Superman movie after the success of “Batman.” Superman fanatic Nic Cage signed on to play the Man of Steel, but there were a few studio conditions. First, Superman can’t fly because that’s silly. Second, Superman’s suit would be drastically different. Third, there must be a giant spider. Seriously, we’re not making this up. The movie was eventually cancelled, but producer Jon Peters would recycle the mechanical spider in “Wild Wild West.”

As much as we love us some epic Roman battles, what else could have possibly been done with the “Gladiator” story? Maximus died victoriously at the end – it doesn’t get much more conclusive than that. Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe did pitch a sequel, though, and it’s completely insane. Long story short, the plot would’ve centered on Maximus being brought back to life to fight the Gods and eventually becoming an immortal, living through the ages as a warmonger. Um…what? That sounds more like the “God of War” game franchise than the original Best Picture winner.

Ever wonder what happened to our title character after the events of “Forrest Gump?” This sequel planned to answer all your questions and as it turns out, he did pretty much the same stuff as the first movie, but this time in the ‘80s and ‘90s. The film was cancelled after 9/11, but we’re sure that the idea is still kicking around somewhere in the deep, dark depths of Paramount Pictures. If you can’t wait for the movie version, however, you can pick up the novel that was written right after the movie’s release.

Movies need to have more than just a really clever title. This planned sequel took an existing script about a clairvoyant man who helps police solve crimes and rewrote it to fit Morgan Freeman’s character from “Se7en” in. We'd have to guess that someone down at the studio actually read the script, though, and quietly burned it so no one would ever know. After all, director David Fincher said that he would “rather have cigarettes put out in his eyes” than do a sequel. We can’t say we blame him.

“Mrs. Doubtfire” tells the story of a grown man dressing up like an old nanny to hang out with his kids who are in the custody of his ex-wife. The studio decided that the same concept could be used a second time with Robin Williams’ character throwing on his classic disguise once again. The plan for the plot was for Williams to follow his daughter to her new college in order to make sure she’s adjusting well. Robin Williams himself thought the script was ridiculous, and turned it down after each rewrite until 2014 when the story was finally good to go. Sadly, Williams passed away before production, permanently cancelling the film’s development.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honourable mentions:

“Beetlejuice 2: Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian”

“The Bodyguard 2”

“Back to the Future 4”

“Ghost 2: Second Sight”

“Con Airport”

Teaching kids that aliens from other planets are peaceful and cuddly creatures is dangerous. This cancelled sequel sought to rectify that by showing moviegoers exactly how ruthless and deadly extra-terrestrials actually can be. The original outline for the film had an albino breed of aliens coming to earth in search of E.T., and their plan was to kidnap the hapless kids from the first movie until E.T. comes to save the day. Director Steven Spielberg eventually stopped pursuing the idea, saying that it would “rob the original of its virginity.” We couldn’t agree more.

Do you agree with our list? What other weird sequels almost happened? For more wacky Top 10s published daily, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.