The key to sustaining any long-running franchise is to keep evolving and freshening up the formula, but some properties have taken that concept to heart a great deal more than others.
Perhaps the most notable modern example is The Fast Saga. If you were to grab somebody who was only familiar with Rob Cohen’s 2001 opener The Fast and the Furious, and then have them watch last year’s ninth installment, then they’d be left wondering exactly what the hell happened in the two decades between.
With that in mind, film fans have been naming the big-name brands that made such a radical departure from their opening chapters that they were barely even recognizable as extensions of the same IP, and some excellent points are being made.
Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo was always going to be one of the first contenders to come up, with the acclaimed and atmospheric thrills of the first film quickly being replaced by the macho, muscular running and gunning that would define the headband-wearing icon for the next 40 years.
Needless to say, Dominic Toretto and his crew going from boosting VCRs to sending a car into outer space followed closely behind, but it isn’t long until Stallone rears his head again as pugilistic Redditors point out how quickly Rocky went from a gritty and grounded sports story to an over-the-top ode to the excessive 1980s.
Vin Diesel’s The Chronicles of Riddick made a huge swing and a miss by refitting itself as a space opera, but despite what the majority of top-voted comments would have you believe, it isn’t all about Stallone and Diesel, even if they do crop up more often than anyone else.
