10 Film Franchises That Became Something Else Entirely
Some of these changes were gradual, others less so.
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00:00It's impossible to tell what will happen with a film once it's released into the
00:04wider world. As an artist, you have to accept that, to some degree, your art is no longer
00:09yours once it's in the public sphere. Still, few movies have started off as one thing and
00:14then pivoted so far towards something else as these ten franchise starters.
00:19For a multitude of reasons, it's baffling to look back at where these series started
00:24versus what we know them to be today. So, with that in mind, I'm Ellie with WhatCulture
00:28here with ten film franchises that became something else entirely.
00:3310. The Chronicles of Riddick
00:36Pitch Black was a sci-fi film with horror elements released in the year 2000. It tracked
00:40the crew of a spaceship that had crashed on a planet about to undergo an eclipse. Only
00:45problem, it was inhabited by cave-dwelling creatures that will kill them all once the
00:48sun is blocked. What are the chances?
00:51Thankfully, they had Richard B. Riddick in their crew, a criminal with genetically enhanced
00:56eyes. Played by your boy Vin Diesel, Riddick helped the crew escape the planet, redeeming
01:01himself somewhat in the process.
01:03Diesel's performance as Riddick was one of his first standout moments and clearly caught
01:07the attention of the film's producers. The second film in the series, The Chronicles
01:11of Riddick from 2004, was entirely focused on him.
01:15As well as switching out the lead character, the movie also became more action-oriented,
01:20and it also had about four times more money to play with.
01:23A third film, entitled just Riddick, came out in 2013 and was just as action-heavy as
01:28the last. The series has become a long way from Vin and his shiny eyes running around
01:33in the dark.
01:349. Evil Dead
01:36In 1981, Sam Raimi announced himself on the horror stage with The Evil Dead, a film all
01:41about the dangers of reading. Five college students come across a version of the Book
01:46of the Dead and inadvertently summon a group of demonic deadites hell-bent on taking them
01:51all down.
01:52Survivors Ash and Linda make it into the next movie, Evil Dead 2, although Linda gets binned
01:57off after about 15 minutes. This sets the stage for Ash, played by Bruce Campbell, to
02:02become a solo horror icon. Evil Dead 2 and its follow-up Army of Darkness lean much more
02:08into comedy than the movie that started it all. Ash really gets into his action-hero
02:13one-liners and there are far more comical moments peppered throughout their respective
02:17runtimes.
02:18By the time Army of Darkness rolled around, Raimi fully embraced the laugh, setting the
02:23whole thing in the Middle Ages after Ash accidentally traveled back in time. The 2013 remake got
02:29things back on the spooky path, but nobody really cared all that much. Evil Dead is one
02:34of the best examples of comedy horror out there, and there's nothing wrong with that.
02:388. Rambo
02:39First Blood, from 1982, was the first big-screen appearance of Sly as Vietnam War vet John
02:45Rambo. After a run-in with the local police triggers his PTSD, Rambo violently escapes
02:50from jail before hiding out in the nearby forest as the cops relentlessly pursue him.
02:55He's a complex anti-hero in this movie. He causes untold damage, but is also a man without
03:00a home, left to rot by the country he's so bravely served. He doesn't even kill anyone
03:05unless it's by accident. Don't get too attached to this version of Rambo, though. He's completely
03:09gone by the series' next instalment.
03:12Rambo First Blood Part 2, which makes no sense grammatically, came out three years
03:16later and transformed the title character into a full-on action man. His tendency to
03:21blow up, maim, and kill as many people as possible doesn't slow down over the course
03:25of the next three films. A once-promising character transformed into yet another meathead.
03:32That's the real trauma right there.
03:347. Mad Max
03:36It might surprise you to learn that a film series called Mad Max actually started off
03:41fairly realistically. George Miller's first trip to a dystopian down-under doesn't actually
03:46take place during a full-blown apocalypse. It is instead set during the breakdown of
03:50society as the country struggles to come to terms with mass oil shortages. Mel Gibson
03:55plays Max Rokitansky, a police officer tasked with keeping order in a crumbling world. By
04:01the time the second Mad Max movie comes along, the world hasn't just crumbled, it's disintegrated.
04:07Max now finds himself a hermetic survivor in a world ravaged by full-on nuclear war.
04:12It is this film, called The Road Warrior in the US, that introduces the whole weird mutant
04:17people element of the franchise.
04:19The third film, Beyond Thunderdome, takes this concept to the extreme. It has Tina Turner
04:24in it for goodness sake. 2015's Fury Road returned the series to slightly more grounded
04:30roots, but it was still utterly mental. With that film garnering so much success, expect
04:35to see Miller lean more into the zaniness of the franchise going forward. Maybe he'll
04:39even get Tina back.
04:41Number 6. Jaws. In 1975, Steven Spielberg changed everything when he made the original
04:47blockbuster Jaws. He certainly changed everything for the world's shark population, who have
04:51never recovered. It was tense. It was frightening. It had just the right balance of action, horror
04:57and intrigue. Jaws was a massive hit. And then came the sequels.
05:03Jaws 2, released three years later, was a decent, if unnecessary, follow-up. Jaws 3D,
05:08though, that's when the rudder came fully off the boat. And as for Jaws The Revenge?
05:13Don't even get us started. Alright, get us started, because it's actually quite funny.
05:17Ignoring the events of the first two sequels, always a good sign, the fourth Jaws film is
05:22totally nuts. Not only does the shark follow the Brody family to the Bahamas, but Brody's
05:27wife Ellen also develops psychic powers, like she can sense when the shark is going to attack.
05:33It's completely nonsensical and earned the film a well-deserved 0% on Rotten Tomatoes,
05:38which is probably too high, in all honesty.
05:41Number 5. Robocop
05:43Despite sounding like it was tailor-made to sell toys, the first Robocop movie is a really
05:48bloody affair. The film has an 18 rating in the UK today and got the dreaded X rating
05:54from the American Motion Picture Association, which would have killed its initial theatrical
05:58run. Thankfully, the rating was eventually lowered and fans got to see it. The violence
06:03and gore was still present when Officer Alex Murphy returned for the sequel. Not for number
06:08three, though. Number three was very different. This movie was intentionally geared towards
06:13a family audience, so cut down massively on the violence and swearing. Not the swearing,
06:19that's the best part of this film series about a robotic police officer.
06:24Robocop 3 completely zapped the franchise of everything fans loved about it. It was
06:28meant to be an over-the-top bloodfest, but now it was just another sci-fi series designed
06:33to get pre-teens into movie theatres. It failed at this, by the way, drawing less money than
06:38the original film despite having almost twice the budget. At least Robocop can take some
06:43comfort knowing that he's not the only android on this list, but he'll be back later.
06:48Number 4. A Nightmare on Elm Street
06:51Freddy Krueger remains one of horror's greatest ever monsters, despite several decades' worth
06:55of attempts to neuter him. First stalking us in our dreams in the original 1984 Nightmare
07:00movie, Freddy has been back eight times across various sequels, reboots and spin-offs, and
07:06yeah, he's changed a bit over the years. He started out as a genuinely frightening villain,
07:11able to assault people when they were at their most vulnerable. His disfigured face and iconic
07:16bladed glove weapon soon became classic horror iconography. Over time, though, the character
07:22became less of a relentless killer and more of a punchline. He started cracking jokes,
07:26dressing up in funny costumes and pulling very odd faces. He wasn't scary anymore,
07:31which was a crying shame.
07:33Wes Craven did his best to revitalise his creation in his new Nightmare film, but that
07:38couldn't undo years of damage done to the character. Once Freddy's edge was blunted,
07:43the films really started to go downhill, to the point where there are now more bad
07:47Nightmare films than good ones.
07:49Number 3. The Terminator
07:51Before he became obsessed with shoving blue people down our throats, James Cameron made
07:551984's The Terminator. It's now become an iconic tale. Machines take over the Earth,
08:02humans rebel, machines send Arnold Schwarzenegger back in time to kill human resistance leader
08:06before he is born. Chuck in some sunglasses and Arnie's bare butt and that's basically
08:10the movie.
08:12The first Terminator film is a slasher film dressed up in sci-fi clothes. Sarah Connor
08:16and Kyle Reese are relentlessly pursued by the mechanical menace, who is as unmoving
08:20and cold as any great horror villain. The picture is just darker, too. Literally, some
08:25scenes are kinda hard to see.
08:27Seven years later, Cameron returns to the series for Terminator 2 Judgment Day. This
08:32time, he presented an out-and-out action thriller, complete with car chases, shootouts and enough
08:37leather to make a vegan puke.
08:39The horror elements of the past movie were completely gone, traded in for one-liners
08:43and cool fight sequences. Not that this was a bad thing, mind you, as Terminator 2 is
08:48often considered one of the greatest action movies of all time. If only the same could
08:53be said for all of the films after that.
08:55Number 2. Harry Potter
08:57It is often said of the Harry Potter movies that they grew up with their audience, which
09:01is the perfect way of describing them. The first two films are children's movies, through
09:06and through. Everything from the music, to the colour palette, to the action screamed
09:10take your ten-year-old to see me. And, to their immense credit, this worked.
09:15As the lead trio grew up or weren't cute anymore, the films took a decidedly darker tone. This
09:21kicked off with the appearance of the Dementor in Prisoner of Azkaban, a moment that wet
09:25the pants of unsuspecting children the world over.
09:29Things shifted again when Voldemort made his return to the land of the living, giving Harry
09:33et al a physical embodiment of evil to fight with. By the time the final two movies were
09:38being shown, these were not kids' films anymore. Imagine how out of place a game of Quidditch
09:43or Wizard's Chess would have looked in either of the Deathly Hallows films. And, equally,
09:48just think what the reaction would have been like to the Bethilder Bagshot sequence if
09:51it had made its way into the Philosopher's Stone. That's not a world worth thinking
09:55about.
09:56Number 1. The Fast and the Furious
09:59Vin Diesel starts the list. Vin Diesel ends the list. How poetic. Well, as poetic as supercars
10:05jumping through buildings can be.
10:07In 2001, one of the biggest, most ridiculous film franchises of all time revved into life
10:11as undercover cop Brian O'Connor attempted to bring down Diesel's street-racing kingpin
10:16Dominic Toretto. The film ends with the two men forming a friendship. Some might even
10:21call it a family, but the story was far from over. Since initially meeting Brian, Dom and
10:27their friends have outrun helicopters, jumped cars across skyscrapers, deflected nuclear
10:32missiles, parachuted in cars and gone to actual space. This series used to be about street
10:38racing. How did this happen?
10:40The Fast movies aren't car movies anymore. They're superhero flicks filled with impossible
10:45feats of action, garish gadgets and shady villains. They are completely ludicrous. But
10:51hey, if that's what you want out of a film, you honestly can't do much better.
10:55That concludes our list. If you think we missed any, then do let us know in the comments below.
10:59And while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that notification bell.
11:03Also head over to Twitter and follow us there, and I can be found across various social medias
11:07just by searching Ellie Littlechild. I've been Ellie with WhatCulture. I hope you have
11:11a magical day and I'll see you real soon.