Showdowns
Movie Versus Debates: Sequel Showdowns, Head-to-Heads and Rankings
The argument half of the desk. Two films, two directors or two franchises put against each other, and a board of the 32 sequels still waiting, for ranking rather than reading.
INT. SCREENING ROOM — NIGHT
A sequel tracker answers a factual question: was this film ever made, and what is the evidence. It deliberately takes no view on whether any of them should be made. That question is a different kind of question, and this is where it goes.
A head-to-head column ran on this domain for years, weekly. The format survives because the comparison does the work no ranking can: two bodies of work set side by side force an argument about what each one is actually for, instead of a number.
Rank the sequels still outstanding
32 follow-ups are still outstanding, from one confirmed for 2027 to films that were never commissioned at all. Drag them into tiers, then compare the result against the tracker's own ordering, which is an argument, not a fact, and is set out in full underneath.
How the tracker ranks them
Greenlight tomorrow
- Spaceballs 2 after Spaceballs (1987) · 39 years · Confirmed
- Dodgeball 2 after Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004) · 22 years · In development
- Constantine 2 after Constantine (2005) · 21 years · In development
- Rush Hour 4 after Rush Hour 3 (2007) · 19 years · In development
- Sherlock Holmes 3 after Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) · 15 years · Stalled
- Baby Driver 2 after Baby Driver (2017) · 9 years · In development
Worth making
- Shanghai Dawn after Shanghai Knights (2003) · 23 years · Stalled
- National Treasure 3 after National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007) · 19 years · In development
- I Am Legend 2 after I Am Legend (2007) · 19 years · In development
- Hancock 2 after Hancock (2008) · 18 years · Stalled
- The Other Guys 2 after The Other Guys (2010) · 16 years · Never announced
- San Andreas 2 after San Andreas (2015) · 11 years · Stalled
- The Man from U.N.C.L.E. 2 after The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015) · 11 years · Stalled
- Kingsman 3 after Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017) · 9 years · In development
- Maleficent 3 after Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019) · 7 years · Stalled
Only if the cast returns
- White Chicks 2 after White Chicks (2004) · 22 years · Stalled
- Superbad 2 after Superbad (2007) · 19 years · Dead
- Wanted 2 after Wanted (2008) · 18 years · Stalled
- Gambit after X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) · 17 years · Dead
- Kick-Ass 3 after Kick-Ass 2 (2013) · 13 years · Dead
- Joe Dirt 3 after Joe Dirt 2: Beautiful Loser (2015) · 11 years · Never announced
- xXx 4 after xXx: Return of Xander Cage (2017) · 9 years · Stalled
- Hobbs & Shaw 2 after Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019) · 7 years · Stalled
Leave it unmade
- Jaws 5 after Jaws: The Revenge (1987) · 39 years · Never announced
- Triplets (Twins 2) after Twins (1988) · 38 years · Dead
- Project X 2 after Project X (2012) · 14 years · Stalled
- Die Hard 6 after A Good Day to Die Hard (2013) · 13 years · Dead
- Jupiter Ascending 2 after Jupiter Ascending (2015) · 11 years · Never announced
- Underworld 6 after Underworld: Blood Wars (2016) · 10 years · Stalled
- Ascendant (Divergent 4) after The Divergent Series: Allegiant (2016) · 10 years · Dead
- Geostorm 2 after Geostorm (2017) · 9 years · Never announced
- Baywatch 2 after Baywatch (2017) · 9 years · Never announced
The argument
Spaceballs 2 sits at the top for the dull reason that it is actually happening: confirmed for April 2027, with Mel Brooks attached at 99 and a cast announced. A sequel that has survived thirty-nine years of dormancy and still found a greenlight has already answered the question. Baby Driver 2 and Dodgeball 2 follow because both have a named writer or director on the record rather than a producer expressing enthusiasm, which is the line between a project and a wish.
The middle tier is where the ending of the first film does the arguing. Hancock left its lead mid-transformation and a second film has an obvious shape; The Other Guys ended on a joke that could carry another, and was never commissioned. Kingsman is the odd case, since the third instalment technically exists — The King's Man arrived in 2021 as a prequel — while the film audiences mean when they say "Kingsman 3" does not.
Below that, the wait itself becomes the obstacle. Superbad, Wanted and White Chicks all depend on ensembles whose members have since built careers that a return would sit oddly against, and Kick-Ass 3 was abandoned in favour of restarting the series from scratch. The bottom tier is the one worth arguing with hardest: Project X and Jupiter Ascending are there because neither left an unfinished story behind, and Underworld: Blood Wars closed its own arc, so a sixth entry would be a franchise continuing out of habit.
Head-to-head showdowns
The most-read of them set two directors against each other on the question of what a blockbuster is allowed to be.
Where the facts live instead
Nothing on this page changes a tracker status. Each entry's evidence, its source and the date it was last checked sit on the entry itself, and the standard applied to all of them is set out in how these statuses are decided. The full tracker is the factual counterpart to this page; the games use the same cast data as a puzzle.
Questions about the showdown format
What is a Showdown?
A head-to-head: two directors, two films or two franchises set against each other on a single question, argued out rather than scored by formula. The format ran on this domain as a weekly column.
Is the ranking on this page a fact?
No, and it is not presented as one. The tracker statuses are sourced facts; this ranking is an argument built on four stated criteria: whether anyone is attached on the record, whether the first film's ending sets up a second, whether the wait has outlived the window for the original cast, and whether an audience for it plausibly remains. Disagreeing with the weighting is the point of the exercise.
Does the board save what I rank?
Yes, in the browser only. Nothing is sent anywhere, there is no account and no server records the result. Copying the share link encodes the whole board into the address itself, so opening that link rebuilds the exact arrangement on any device.
Can the board be used without dragging?
Yes. Tap an item and then tap a tier row, which is how it works on a phone, or use the keyboard: Enter or Space picks an item up, the arrow keys move it between and within tiers, Enter drops it and Escape puts it back. Every move is announced for screen readers.
Why is a released sequel not on the board?
Because the question no longer applies to it. 11 of the tracked follow-ups have arrived, and whether they deserved to be made was settled by the films themselves. The board covers the 32 that have not.