When I went to the movies recently, I noticed that half of the trailers shown before the movie were sequels or new installments in a franchise. Hardly any new popular movies coming out in 2026 are originals. On the Most Anticipated list of movies on Letterboxd, most of the movies are continuations, like “The Devil Wears Prada 2” or parts of franchises, like “Dune Part 3,” “Avengers: Doomsday,” and “The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.” While I like some sequels and additions to popular franchises, I think the movie industry should prioritize making new, original movies rather than relying on already established and popular films.
“Creativity has been lost in the art of film and blockbuster movies are losing their spark,” Emily Mahnke wrote in an article for The Leader. “It feels like every movie has been made and there are no new ideas left. Remaking popular movies or creating live actions of well-known animated movies has become the norm in Hollywood. The originality of film is becoming lost.”
One of the most anticipated movies in 2026 is the sequel to the 2006 hit, “The Devil Wears Prada.” This movie features big names like Oscar winners Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway, and Oscar nominees Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci. The follow-up, “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” features the exact same slate of actors, along with some newcomers, like Simone Ashley, Lucy Liu, and Justin Theroux. While this movie features a different plot about the decline of print journalism, it looks almost too similar to the original, with the trailer not even featuring any of the new characters.
“Part of what made the original movie so special was the just-right mix of high-wattage stars and up-and-coming actresses holding their own on screen,” Stephanie Sengwe wrote in a People article. “And I might be too invested in this journey, but I just don’t see a world in which we add someone as attention-grabbing as Liu or Theroux and then relegate them to a secondary character who pops in and out to just push the plot along. I do not doubt that these powerhouse actors will bring it, my worry is that that much star power might ruin the film.”
Many sequels take the same plot of the original movie and twist it slightly, making a more updated version of the film. The original “Home Alone” had a successful follow-up, “Home Alone: Lost in New York,” but in 2021, a modern Home Alone movie was released, “Home Sweet Home Alone.” “Freaky Friday” starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsey Lohan was a smash hit in 2003 and its continuation “Freakier Friday” which came out in 2025, features Curtis, Lohan, and their kids experiencing the same phenomenon that they did in the first movie. These “sequels” are boring and recycle the same plot.
“It’s really easy for sequels to fall into the same trope as the first one,” senior Bayleigh Michael said. “Sequels are good when they innovate on the original concepts and when they take what was started in the original and build off of that. You add more things and evolve them in creative ways.”
Some franchises and the follow-ups in them also get repetitive and unoriginal. The newest Jurassic Park movie, “Jurassic Park Rebirth,” features a new slate of actors, but the same plot about retrieving dinosaur DNA. I watched the movie last summer, and it’s interchangeable with the movies in the Jurassic Park franchise. Once you’ve seen one Jurassic Park movie, you’ve seen them all.
“I think franchises are always like a 6/10,” Michael said. “For a good franchise, you have to have such a strong concept that you could run with it for like five movies from the very start. Franchise sequels now are made just for money and they don’t add to the original story.”
There are some ways for a sequel to be successful. “Knives Out” is one of my favorite movie franchises. There are currently three movies in the franchise and each follows a different murder with the same detective, Benoit Blanc, played by Daniel Craig.They are technically a continuation, but they still feel like original movies, since each movie features a different cast of A-List Actors.
“That’s the best way to do a sequel,” Michael said. “You don’t have to watch them all and it should stand on its own. It should be a good movie before it’s a good sequel. [With ‘Knives Out’] the movies are really good movies in general and they’re a good ‘Knives Out’ movie and I think that’s how they should be.”
According to The Spectator, “[a] sequel is a powerful tool that can further the plotline of a story universe, develop new and exciting characters, or even go above and beyond the original film.” Sequels to popular movies can bring new and old fans together and allow a new generation to experience the film. Fans of the original movie can feel nostalgia and comfort from reliving the movie and its characters, setting, and plot.
“I think sequels should be made,” senior Kristen Martinez said. “I like how they are being made for the new generation. They should have a chance to see if it works and if it flops, it flops.”
