10 Sequels That We Can’t Wait For This Year

We live in a time when sequels to hit movies are all so predictably inevitable. A movie doubles its budget back or more at the box office, and the studio immediately thinks 'cash-in.' It might be a drag if we didn't also happen to be living in the golden age of the franchise movie: Just last year, we got classic new entries for the Mission Impossible, Mad Max, Star Wars and Rocky series, and 2016 looks like it'll continue the trend of Hollywood delivering great and good sequels. Superheroes currently dominate, with Marvel, DC and Fox all ferociously competing this year, but 2016 looks like it'll deliver on the comedy sequel front, too. It's not all franchise material, however - 2016 is also going to be a year for some offbeat and frankly unexpected sequels, including a follow-up to a surprise martial arts hit from 2000, as well as a 'spiritual sequel' to Richard Linklater's coming-of-age classic Dazed and Confused. So, join us as we take a look ahead at the ten most exciting sequels coming to theatres in 2016. 10) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny Netflix continues its bold and frankly mind-boggling approach to the film business (it followed up the awards season darling and harrowing child soldier drama Beasts of No Nation with an Adam Sandler movie) with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny. Yes, you read that right. They're making a sequel to a cult martial arts arthouse project from 16 years ago. If Sword of Destiny looks a little more DTV than Ang Lee's gracious original, the sequel still boasts the legendary Donnie Yen, the returning Michelle Yeoh and more balletic, gravity-defying stunt work. The Weinsteins are backing the film, and Yuen Woo-Ping - one of China's great martial arts choreographers and directors - directs, meaning the fights will be impressive, even if the story doesn't entirely work. 9) Star Trek Beyond The trailer for the third (or 13th, if you're counting overall) Star Trek movie may not have been up to much (it's virtually impossible to figure out what the film is actually about from the preview; even writer-star Simon Pegg didn't like it). And yes, J.J. Abrams may have exited the franchise for a rival space saga. But none of that's reason to panic about the future of the Star Trek series just yet. For one, the wonderful reboot cast are still all present and correct, and they'll be joined by the mighty Idris Elba as a new villain. The plot synopsis - the crew of the Enterprise is trapped on a planet against an unknown enemy - also suggests a more intimate approach, while the attractive new aesthetic Abrams brought to the universe is still apparent just from the trailer. The jury's still out on new director Justin Lin, but he effectively re-invented the Fast and Furious franchise as big action cinema, so his blockbuster credentials are solid at least. 8) Jack Reacher: Never Go Back Though the first Jack Reacher film was no disaster, it was nonetheless disappointing considering the talent involved. There's reason to be hopeful for Reacher movie number two, however, considering star Tom Cruise appears to have found his calling lately in stunt-heavy, action-orientated, old-school blockbusters (see the Mission Impossible films and Edge of Tomorrow). Though Jack Reacher writer-director Christopher McQuarrie isn't returning (he's got the next Mission Impossible movie on his plate), Reacher 2 - subtitled Never Go Back - has Blood Diamond and The Last Samurai maestro Edward Zwick calling the shots. Zwick will be wanting to prove himself after a quiet few years, while Cruise will be coming in with the momentum of someone on a career up-turn. 7) Bad Santa 2 One of the unexpected pleasures in comedy last decade was seeing Billy Bob Thornton play an alcoholic burglar and part-time Santa Claus, in a misanthropic black comedy part-scripted by the Coen brothers. Perhaps owing to the fact that its worldwide box office wasn't spectacular, the film didn't generate any sequel interest - until it became a home video sleeper hit, and Miramax decided 13 years down the line to commission a sequel. The main trio from the original - Billy Bob, and Tony Cox and Brett Kelly as Willie Stokes' sidekicks - are back for Bad Santa 2, with Christina Hendricks and Kathy Bates added to the cast list, and Mean Girls director Mark Waters replacing Terry Zwigoff in the director's chair. This one's literally just started shooting, so there are no previews yet, but that they managed to get the notoriously grumpy Billy Bob back at all suggests something was right with the script. 6) Captain America: Civil War If you were one of the people who thought Avengers: Age of Ultron was something of a disappointment, not to worry: Civil War might just make up for it. With a ton of new characters set to feature, and with the source material some of the best that Marvel has to offer, Civil War could be the movie Age of Ultron should have been and more. Looking for more reasons to expect good things (aside from that killer returning cast): Joe and Anthony Russo, the directing team that did such a great job with Winter Soldier, are back, while the story promises a superhero epic that shifts the narrative for just about every character in the Marvel universe. Captain America's name might be in the title, but this is very much The Avengers 3 by another name. 5) Zoolander 2 Who really expected Zoolander, a ridiculous comedy about male models trained by Will Ferrell to be assassins, to be as big a hit as it was? The film has slowly become cult since its release 15 years ago - and now Ben Stiller is back at the helm of Zoolander 2. Could it match the sheer cameo-filled insanity of the original? The trailer at least promises more of the same: arch satire, model-based slapstick, Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson acting interminably stupid and celebs like Justin Bieber, Kanye West and Lewis Hamilton appearing and leaving themselves open to ridicule. Oh, and Billy Zane's back, so there's that, while Kristen Wiig and Benedict Cumberbatch appear as fashion-world oddballs. Expect guilty belly laughs. 4) Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising An unexpected hit with both critics and audiences, Neighbors grossed $270 million worldwide and proved Zac Efron was no longer just that guy from the High School Musical films. It gave the world colorful character names like Assjuice and Jizzface, and introduced the (brilliant) concept of the Robert De Niro party. Of course there was going to be a sequel. In addition to that stellar line-up of Efron, Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne and Dave Franco, Chloe Grace Moretz joins Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising as one of a group of sorority sisters that move in next door to Rogen and Byrne's forever under-siege couple. Nicholas Stoller, who came into his own as a filmmaker on Neighbors, returns as director and co-writer, scribing alongside Rogen and his Superbad writing partner Evan Goldberg. 3) Everybody Wants Some The unlikeliest sequel of the year isn't strictly even a sequel, but what director Richard Linklater has referred to as a "spiritual sequel" to his own 1993 movie Dazed and Confused. Everybody Wants Some picks up where Dazed left off, and finds Linklater putting his memories not of high school but of college on-screen, with an entirely different cast of characters. The trailer promises a Dazed vibe: young people getting high, playing sports, shooting the shit and...not doing much else. Of course, that's what made the 'original' so great (Tarantino has referred to Dazed as a "great hangout movie"), and this time Linklater is back with another promising yet largely unknown cast. Remember, nobody knew who Matthew McConaughey and Ben Affleck were before Dazed and Confused... 2) X-Men: Apocalypse X-Men: Days of Future Past was a runaway success, scoring with the critics and beating out all previous X-Men installments at the box office. So naturally, Fox have been quick to orchestrate a speedy turnaround for the follow-up, an apparent "disaster movie" (Bryan Singer's words) that introduces the most fearsome challenge ever known in the X-Men universe: the uber-villain and original mutant Apocalypse. Apocalypse will be played by Oscar Isaac, and he'll be joined by promising newcomers including Tye Sheridan, Sophie Turner and Kodi Smit-McPhee. That's on top of a returning cast that already includes Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence and Rose Byrne. It's potentially the best cast of any X-Men movie ever, doing battle in what promises to be the most epic entry in the franchise. 1) Bourne 5 Don't let the failure of The Bourne Legacy cloud your judgement: before Tony Gilroy's aborted attempt to continue the franchise with Jeremy Renner in the lead, the Bourne films under Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon were peak action. Now, the two are back for the fifth installment. It's Greengrass and Damon's first time writing a Bourne script together, and the politically aware pair have assembled what sounds like action cinema's riposte to an increasingly troubled world. The plot - which is still under wraps - takes Jason Bourne from austerity-wracked Greece to Las Vegas, and puts the character in what Damon has described as a "post-Snowden world." Whatever the deal story-wise, the screenplay was good enough to attract a typically (for Bourne) stunning cast: Alicia Vikander, Tommy Lee Jones, Riz Ahmed, Vincent Cassel. Even if the script turns out less interesting than it sounds, it's difficult to imagine this lot screwing up.