10 Movie Franchise Reboots That Wasted Their Legacy Characters’ Returns

With movie franchises constantly receiving reboots that include legacy characters from the original movies, there are occasions where these characters’ long-anticipated returns are wasted completely. Franchise reboots must juggle numerous different goals at once. They aim to breathe new life into long dormant series, recapture the spark that made the original successful, and add something new and exciting to the franchise to justify these new entries’ existence. All too often, this results in legacy characters being shoehorned into the narrative, sidelined as minor characters, or not developed appropriately.

There have been plenty of examples of legacy characters making their grand return only for it to feel like an overblown letdown that should not have occurred at all. There are beloved characters, like Indiana Jones, whose legacy should be left intact, only for aging actors to be paraded out for another disappointing adventure. There are times when legacy characters feel unimportant to the overall narrative, such as Scream, where Sidney Prescott is included merely to pass the torch of the series onto a new Scream cast. There are also characters brought back for prequels whose backstories are not properly expanded on.

10 Indian Jones In Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull (2008)

Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull failed to deliver after the long-awaited return of the character

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull saw Harrison Ford returning as the titular whip-wielding archaeologist for the first time in almost 20 years. The character’s highly anticipated return was unfortunately let down by a derivative script, the controversial introduction of aliens, and a movie that failed to live up to the legacy of previous films. Despite behind-the-scenes facts revealing Harrison Ford spent three hours in the gym every day to get into shape for this movie, it was not enough to save the film that, despite box office success, was a creative failure.

9 Luke Skywalker, General Leia Organa, And Han Solo In Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015)

The Force Awakens wasted the opportunity to have all three characters together

The return of Luke Skywalker, General Leia Organa, and Han Solo in Star Wars: The Force Awakens was a highly anticipated reunion that was never going to please everybody. More than 40 years since they were last all together in Return of the Jedi, the sequel trilogy’s ambition of weaving these legacy characters into the story while introducing the new cast led to a movie where it feels like every character was sidelined. Considering the death of Han Solo, the fact that Luke only appears in the movie’s closing scene and that the trio are never all together at the same time, their return felt like a multitude of squandered opportunities.

8 The Terminator In Terminator Genisys (2015)

Terminator Genisys lacked depth and failed to do anything interesting with Schwarzenegger’s return

The Terminator franchise had tried and failed to continue the series without Arnold Schwarzenegger as the titular killed machine turned anti-hero in 2009’s Terminator Salvation. When the series was revived once again in 2015, this time with Schwarzenegger, there was hope it would be a return to the epic highs of the first two films in the series. However, this hope was short-lived, and Schwarzenegger’s return could not live up to past glories. The film lacked depth and repeated concepts better explored in earlier movies, and while it was nice to see Schwarzenegger in this role again, his return was wasted in this film.

7 Rocky Balboa In Creed (2015)

Creed sidelined Rocky Balboa as a mentor figure

The Rocky franchise saw an unlikely revival when it shifted its focus away from Sylvester Stallone’s Italian Stallion Rocky Balboa and onto the young up-and-comer son of Rocky’s old rival Apollo Creed, Adonis Creed. The movie managed to breathe new life into the series that had been dormant for almost ten years. However, by focusing on Creed and sidelining Rocky as a mentor figure, it felt like Rocky’s potential was being wasted and an opportunity was missed to give more insight into the character’s life since the events of Rocky Balboa. Rocky did appear again in Creed II, but by the time Creed III was released, he had disappeared entirely.

6 Laurie Strode In Halloween (2018)

Halloween spent too long focused on other characters

The Halloween franchise has had many sequels, remakes, and re-imaginings and it can be difficult to keep up with the multiple timelines in the long-running slasher series. Excluding the serial killer Michael Myers, babysitter Laurie Strode has been the most consistent thing about Halloween. That’s why it was exciting when it was announced Jamie Lee Curtis was returning as the character for the first time in 16 years for a direct sequel to the original movie. However, the results were lackluster as this movie, along with its two sequels, failed to capitalize on Laurie’s character and instead meandered on her wider family and the extended community of Haddonfield.

5 Albus Dumbledore In Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald (2018)

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald failed to explicitly address Dumbledore’s backstory

A major part of the appeal of the Harry Potter spin-off series Fantastic Beasts is that it promised to flesh out the backstory of Albus Dumbledore that had only been previously alluded to. For this reason, the introduction of Jude Law as Dumbledore in The Crimes of Grindelwald was hugely anticipated and unfortunately failed to deliver on this lofty requirement. While the movie implied a romantic past between Dumbledore and Grindelwald, it failed to explicitly address the question of Dumbledore’s sexuality, and with so much of the runtime focusing on another protagonist Newt Scamander, his character arc felt underdeveloped.

4 Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, And Egon Spengler In Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

Ghostbusters: Afterlife felt like a fan service and sadly was unable to reunite the original cast due to the death of Harold Ramis

Ever since the release of Ghostbusters II in 1989, there were calls for the original trio of Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis to reunite for another film. These plans never got off the ground, primarily due to Bill Murray’s reluctance to return as Peter Venkman. However, with the release of Ghostbuster: Afterlife, Murray returned as Venkman, Aykroyd came back as Ray Stantz, and the late Harold Ramis appeared in archival footage as Egon Spengler. Considering the death of Ramis in 2014, this reunion felt bittersweet and highlighted that they wasted the opportunity to come together again while they were all alive.

3 Neo In The Matrix Resurrections (2021)

The Matrix Resurrection undermined the Neo’s sacrifice in the original trilogies ending

After the release of a Matrix trilogy, that unfortunately resulted in diminishing returns, Lana Wachowski revived the series nearly 20 years later for a lackluster fourth film with The Matrix Resurrections. The movie brought back Keanu Reeves as Neo, which undercut the weight of Neo’s sacrifice at the end of Revolutions and felt like a pointless exercise in nostalgia. The film attempts to present a meta-commentary on the nature of reboots but lacks the depth and originality of earlier entries. To bring Neo back for such little pay-off in a film that nobody was asking for felt like a wasted endeavor.

2 Dr. Ellie Sattler, Dr. Ian Malcolm, And Dr. Alan Grant In Jurassic World Dominion (2022)

The Jurassic World series waited too long to reintroduce the original trio

The Jurassic World franchise found success by continuing the legacy set out in the original Jurassic Park movie. The first film introduced new stars Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, and the second subtitled Fallen Kingdom saw Jeff Goldblum reprise his role as Dr. Ian Malcolm. By the time the original’s main trio of Goldblum, Sam Neil, and Laura Dern got back together in Jurassic World Dominion the series had already run its course, and the excitement of seeing them together was minimal. It felt like the studio was so preoccupied with whether they could get the cast to reunite, that they didn’t stop to think if they should.

1 Sidney Prescott, Gale Weathers, And Dewey Riley In Scream (2022)

Scream regulated its legacy characters to a passing of the torch role rather than giving them a compelling narrative

The fifth installment in the Scream franchise acted as a soft reboot to pass the legacy onto a new generation of characters. With the inclusion of the three main characters from the original movies, Sidney Prescott, Gale Weathers, and Dewey Riley, all back to face off against Ghostface once again, this was a worthy, if not astounding, addition to the slasher series. While it was exciting to see the trio back together again, their roles were not very prominent, and their inclusion felt more like a nod to the original movies than an essential aspect of this one.