Only 8 Legacy Sequels Were Actually Any Good

A typical sequel is usually a part 2 to an ongoing story, or at least most good sequels will feel like a useful new “part” of an already-established story. Sequels might be planned in advance, or they might be made because people responded well to something that was originally conceived as a standalone movie. Legacy sequels aren’t usually planned out in advance, unless creatives do somehow foresee picking up a story many years later. Legacy sequels usually come out after enough time has passed for the originals to feel nostalgic, so gaps of 20 or even 30 years can sometimes be found.

There’s usually a passing of the torch, with older characters usually (but not always) appearing in supporting roles, rather than lead ones, or maybe sharing screen time fairly evenly with a new generation of characters. Something like Mad Max: Fury Road was released decades on from the previous film, but felt like something new and not really nostalgic, so it was more of a revitalization or even a reboot than a legacy sequel. With legacy sequels specifically, there are probably more disappointing ones (like the last two Tron movies and the new Ghostbusters films) rather than genuinely great ones, but some are honestly quite good, even if they're sometimes broad and play heavily on audience nostalgia.

8 'Final Destination Bloodlines' (2025)

A horror/thriller/mystery series about death coming for everyone might sound kind of heavy-going, but the Final Destination movies typically try to make the morbidity of it all entertaining. The best ones are more than a little tongue-in-cheek, and even the worst ones still have mindless/over-the-top carnage to keep you somewhat entertained. The most recent film, at the time of writing, is arguably the best in the series, too: Final Destination Bloodlines.

This one’s about legacy, though it does dip away from typical legacy sequel territory in the sense that there aren’t many characters who reappear. Then again, most of them die in the movies they're introduced in. Final Destination Bloodlines finds some decently entertaining ways to build on ideas already established in the previous films, all five of them released much earlier (between 2000 and 2011), and does bring back Tony Todd as William Bludworth one final time, who was the closest thing the series had to a recurring character (unless you count Death itself as a character; the central antagonist, in effect).

7 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' (2015)

Say what you want to about where the trilogy it kicked off eventually went, but for a time, Star Wars: The Force Awakens was pretty good. It’s still pretty good, and certainly entertaining, just a little less admirable in hindsight, because of Star Wars over-saturation and a lack of planning for the whole sequel trilogy. And this film also did quite a lot to popularize the idea of a legacy sequel, because you'll notice most of the ones mentioned here came out post-2015.

There’s one other legacy sequel from 2015 that’s better than The Force Awakens, though The Force Awakens is better than Jurassic World, also from that year, if it counts as a legacy sequel… it might admittedly be more of a Mad Max: Fury Road situation, though, owing to that film not really having any major characters from past movies coming back in some capacity. In any event, this first post-Disney Star Wars movie is entertaining and was, for a time, sufficiently crowd-pleasing, so it’s worth at least a mention here.

6 'The Color of Money' (1986)

If not the earliest legacy sequel, then The Color of Money might well be the first genuinely good one, serving as a follow-up to The Hustler exactly a quarter of a century on from that movie’s release. Paul Newman returns as Fast Eddie, and is more of a mentor this time around to Tom Cruise’s character, who naturally was not in The Hustler, since Cruise was born in 1962 and all.

Tom Cruise was also in Top Gun the same year, and that movie itself got a noteworthy legacy sequel eventually, but that’s getting a bit ahead of things. The Color of Money does a lot of things right, as a sequel to a classic, even if it never quite surpasses said classic. It’s a good sports movie, Newman and Cruise make for a good duo, and Martin Scorsese, as director, brings a little by way of extra prestige and style to the whole thing.

5 'Scream' (2022)

As was the case with The Force Awakens, Scream (2022) – not to be mixed up with Scream (1996), despite annoyingly having the exact same title – isn't as much fun today as it was on release. There was some sense of direction and things being new/exciting here, and Scream VI was an honestly pretty good follow-up, but then there was behind-the-scenes drama, firings, and, eventually, a disappointing Scream 7 released in 2026.

Scream (2022) is just worth being here because it showed promise for the series as a whole, and had some solid commentary on the whole nature of legacy sequels, reboots, and “requels,” in typical fashion for the series and its consistent self-awareness and flirting with being a horror parody. 2022’s Scream deploys all the usual things you'd expect to see in a legacy sequel, twisting some of those conventions and playing others straight, generally in a chaotic enough way to prove fun and keep you guessing.

4 'T2 Trainspotting' (2017)

Within the whole legacy sequel craze of the mid-to-late 2010s (which could well still be going, at the time of writing), T2 Trainspotting always seemed like one of the biggest long shots (or longest shots?). Like, Trainspotting (1996) was already a pretty perfect movie with a phenomenal reputation, and it didn’t really feel like a sequel could live up to it, especially after 20 years, with people having been very devoted to the movie throughout all that time. Trainspotting is, to put it mildly, incredibly rewatchable, even with much of it being very distressing.

So, T2 Trainspotting ended up being a pleasant surprise, and a more-than-worthy follow-up that actually pushed the characters forward in interesting and worthwhile ways. Like with The Color of Money versus The Hustler, T2 Trainspotting was not quite Trainspotting, yet the fact that it can stand quite confidently beside such an iconic cult classic is saying a lot, with the sequel being very much worth your time, if you count yourself among the original’s fanbase.

3 'Top Gun: Maverick' (2022)

Top Gun came out the same year as The Color of Money, and was undeniably significant in making Tom Cruise a star. It’s also a movie that doesn’t hold up phenomenally well, and not like it’s “dated” or “problematic,” but more that it’s just a weirdly underwhelming movie when it comes to its characters and the story it tells. There isn't much interesting conflict, but the style and overall vibes are there, and carry much of the film. It’s that side of things that’s more iconic than whatever the movie has to offer by way of drama and conflict.

2022’s Top Gun: Maverick feels like a reworked Top Gun, with an actual attempt at structure and storytelling here that’s simple, sure, but does serve to make the movie a good deal more satisfying and engaging than its predecessor. Cruise reprises his role, as does Val Kilmer briefly, but much of Top Gun: Maverick does focus on a “new generation” in the way various legacy sequels often do, and does that whole rather conventional and expected thing pretty well, overall.

2 'Blade Runner 2049' (2017)

Even if 2015 might've been the more significant year for legacy sequels overall (for better or worse), there are a few 2017 releases that suggest it was the biggest year for genuinely risky legacy sequels. T2 Trainspotting, Star Wars: The Last Jedi (if it counts as a legacy sequel; it might technically be more of a sequel to a legacy sequel), and then Blade Runner 2049 all support this notion.

Blade Runner 2049 had to be a sequel to a 1980s movie that actually held up as an undisputed classic.

Concerning Blade Runner 2049, there was a remarkably long gap in time between installments, with 1982’s Blade Runner being set in 2019, and then Blade Runner 2049 coming out 35 years later and being set in… well, you know. That’s one year less than the gap between Top Gun and Top Gun: Maverick, sure, but Blade Runner 2049 had to be a sequel to a 1980s movie that actually held up as an undisputed classic, or something even more than that, because Blade Runner is one of the greatest sci-fi films ever. Blade Runner 2049 isn't quite on that level, but it does justify its existence and find interesting things to do with some of the conflict and themes already explored in the original, all the while not going too overboard with fan-service (maybe a little overboard, but Blade Runner is packed with things to reference, so it’s sort of understandable).

1 'Creed' (2015)

Creed is about as good as legacy sequels have ever gotten, especially one that arguably plays things kind of safe. It’s certainly a crowd-pleaser, but in a good way, and it kept Rocky Balboa’s storyline going pretty well, almost a decade on from the character getting his own legacy sequel of sorts, 2006’s Rocky Balboa, which certainly could’ve been a finale. Maybe it still is, for Rocky, since Creed does pivot things and focuses on a new protagonist.

Adonis is the son of Apollo Creed, who was once Rocky’s opponent and later friend, and he’s someone who does want to do the sort of things his father did, as a boxer, but not while living in his father’s shadow. So, he sets out to make a name for himself and has Rocky as a mentor, and then all the beats you'd expect most sports movies to hit are indeed hit, but that’s okay, because those beats are hit exceptionally well. Creed strikes a good balance between feeling nostalgic and like something decently new, and it’s difficult not to get swept up in it, to some extent, and subsequently feel quite moved by the whole thing.