Film Series

Series of films – or "franchises", as they are known nowadays – have been around for a long time, but they have assumed great importance in the cinema in recent years. Of the ten top–grossing films in 2014, seven were part of one or other of the series covered on this page.

Some questions apply to whole series of films. For example: "Who played Clark Kent and Superman in four films, from 1978 to 1987?". Equally, some questions refer to a film as part of the series (for example, "What was the title of the first film to star Sylvester Stallone as John Rambo?").

You might even be asked questions like: "What completes this sequence: Singapore, Zanzibar, Morocco, Utopia, Rio, Bali, ... ?"

In order to cater for such questions, it seems logical to consider each series as a whole.

Other pages in the Films category may include more details on these films.

The series are listed in chronological order of their first appearances, but (rather confusingly, you might say) the "On this page" index on the left is in alphabetical order. Well ... that's what indexes do! (A couple of tips: the Silence of the Lambs series is indexed under L for Lecter, Sergio Leone's spaghetti western trilogy is indexed under M for The Man with No Name, and the Michael Caine trilogy that started with The Ipcress File is indexed under P for (Harry) Palmer.)

See also Sequels, British Comedy Films, James Bond, Harry Potter, Marvel, Tarzan, and Tolkien – all of which have enough material to warrant their own pages.

The Road To ...

1940		The Road to Singapore
1941		The Road to Zanzibar
1942		The Road to Morocco
1945		The Road to Utopia
1947		The Road to Rio
1952		The Road to Bali
1962		The Road to Hong Kong

The first six films in the Road To ... series were produced by Paramount studios. All six starred Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour.

The Road to Hong Kong was filmed at Shepperton, England, and distributed by United Artists; Hope and Crosby starred, but Lamour played only a cameo role. The female lead was played by Joan Collins.

Ocean's

Ocean's Eleven		1960
Director		Lewis Milestone

Ocean's Eleven was one of the most famous films to feature the so–called Rat Pack. They were represented in force:

Danny Ocean		Frank Sinatra
Sam Harmon		Dean Martin
Josh Howard		Sammy Davis Jr.
Jimmy Foster		Peter Lawford
Mushy O'Connors		Joey Bishop

Other stars of the original film include:

Danny Ocean's wife Beatrice		Angie Dickinson
Reformed mobster Duke Santos – who is engaged to the mother of Peter Lawford's character, and tries to foil the gang's plan		Cesar Romero

The 2001 remake, and its sequels, had little in common with the 1960 original except the name of the title character.

2001		Ocean's Eleven
2004		Ocean's Twelve
2007		Ocean's Thirteen

Title of the 2018 "continuation and spin–off", with a largely female cast

Ocean's 8

Director		Stephen Soderbergh
Danny Ocean		George Clooney
Danny Ocean's wife, Tess		Julia Roberts
Rusty Ryan – Ocean's right–hand man		Brad Pitt
Linus Caldwell – son of a legendary con artist, and a naive but highly–accomplished pickpocket		Matt Damon
Frank Catton – an expert card dealer and the inside man for the casino heist		Bernie Mac
Basher Tarr – a Cockney munitions expert		Don Cheadle
Reuben Tishkoff – a wealthy and influential casino mogul who bankrolls the heist		Elliott Gould
Terry Benedict – owner of the casinos		Andy Garcia

All of the above appeared in all three films, except Julia Roberts who didn't appear in the third film due to "a script issue". (It appears that the producers felt that her character's part in this film was too small to offer to a star of her status.)

Wladimir Klitschko and Lennox Lewis appear in a boxing sequence in Ocean's Eleven.

Other stars of Ocean's Twelve include:

Europol detective Isabel Lahiri – who is in a relationship with Brad Pitt's character		Catherine Zeta–Jones
Informant Matsui		Robbie Coltrane
Roman Nagel – British master thief and technological genius		Eddie Izzard

Izzard's character becomes the thirteenth member of the gang in the third film.

Like Julia Roberts, Catherine Zeta–Jones didn't appear in the third film due to "a script issue".

Also starring in the third film:

Willy Bank – a successful hotel owner and the main antagonist

Al Pacino

A number of actors appeared as themselves in the series, including Angie Dickinson (who played Ocean's wife Beatrice in the 1960 original) in the first film, Bruce Willis in the second, and Oprah Winfrey in the third.

The Man with No Name

1964		A Fistful of Dollars
1965		For a Few Dollars More
1966		The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Director		Sergio Leone
"The Man with No Name"		Clint Eastwood
Music		Ennio Morricone

The Harry Palmer trilogy

1965		The Ipcress File
1966		Funeral In Berlin
1967		Billion Dollar Brain

Harry Palmer

Michael Caine

The Ipcress File was Michael Caine's first film after Zulu (1964), which was his first major starring role. Alfie (1966) came after The Ipcress File but before Funeral in Berlin.

Herbie / The Love Bug

... made by Disney. Herbie is a 1963 Volkswagen Beetle.

1968		The Love Bug
1974		Herbie Rides Again
1977		Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo
1980		Herbie Goes Bananas
2005		Herbie: Fully Loaded

Herbie's racing number

53

Planet of the Apes

The original Planet of the Apes film was based on the French novel Planète des Singes, by Pierre Boulle, published in 1963 (also translated as Monkey Planet – the French word singe can mean either a monkey or an ape).

1968		Planet of the Apes
1970		Beneath the Planet of the Apes
1971		Escape from the Planet of the Apes
1972		Conquest of the Planet of the Apes
1973		Battle for the Planet of the Apes

The main characters in the first two films were:

Colonel George Taylor – an American astronaut from the year 1972		Charlton Heston
Nova – one of the mute human inhabitants of the planet, who forms a close relationship with Taylor		Linda Harrison
Dr. Cornelius – a chimpanzee archaeologist and historian, who has begun to doubt the innate superiority of apes over humans (see below)		Roddy McDowall
Dr. Zira – blue–eyed chimpanzee psychologist  and veternarian, engaged to Cornelius, who rescues Taylor and pairs him with Nova in the hope that they will breed		Kim Hunter
Dr. Zaius – orang utan Minister of Science and Defender of the Faith – Cornelius and Zira's ultimate boss, and the main antagonist		Maurice Evans

Charlton Heston's character is known in his appearances only by his surname. His first name is revealed in the credits to the first film, and his rank in the dialogue to the third film, when he also appears in "archive footage".

Cornelius and Zira also played major roles in the third film, when Roddy McDowall returned to the role of Cornelius (who was played in Beneath ... by David Watson). McDowall also appeared in the fourth and fifth films as Caesar, the son of Cornelius.

McDowall's long acting career also included starring roles in How Green Was My Valley (1941), My Friend Flicka (1943) and Lassie Come Home (1943).

Among the actresses said to have turned down the role of Nova were Ursula Andress and Raquel Welch. Linda Harrison, a drama student at the time, was cast at the request of Richard D. Zanuck, a film producer (Driving Miss Daisy) and the son of the legendary Darryl F. Zanuck. They married in 1969.

Kim Hunter had previously won an Oscar, in 1952, for the part of Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire.

Other questions that can be asked about the first film:

Year in which it was set (2,010 years in the future, at the time of the film's release)		3978
Found on the beach in the final scene of the first film, revealing that the planet was Earth: the remains of the		Statue of Liberty

There was a 14–episode television series in 1974, starring Roddy McDowall as Galen, a young chimpanzee who is sent to rescue a human astronaut. The series was cancelled half way through due to poor ratings, and only 13 episodes were originally broadcast. It has however been repeated since, most recently (in the UK) by Channel 4 in 1994. Ten of the episodes were also paired up to produce TV movies.

In 1975 there was a 13–episode animated television series, which is said to be more faithful to the original novel as it shows a technologically advanced ape civilisation with cars, films and television. It was however criticised for its poor production values, and was not a great success.

Remake 

Planet of the Apes		2001
Director		Tim Burton
Captain Leo Davidson – a US Air Force astronaut who accidentally opens a portal to the apes' planet and is captured by them, going on to lead a rebellion of the planet's humans		Mark Wahlberg
Ari – a female chimpanzee who protests at the way humans are treated, helps Leo to lead the rebellion, and develops a romantic attraction to him		Helena Bonham Carter

Wahlberg is said to have turned down a part in Ocean's Eleven (itself a remake of a 1960 film) to appear in the Planet of the Apes remake. The part was eventually played by Matt Damon.

Reboot

In 2011 the series was "rebooted" by a retelling of the story of Caesar, the chimpanzee played by Roddy McDowall in the last two films of the original series:

2011		Rise of the Planet of the Apes
2014		Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Caesar		Andy Serkis
Will Rodman – a young (human) scientist working on a cure for Alzheimer's disease, who adopts the baby chimp Caesar		James Franco
Dreyfus – leader of the surviving humans (in Dawn ...)		Gary Oldman

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was the most successful film in the franchise to date, earning a 91% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes (slightly higher than the 1968 original) and taking over $700 million at the box office – almost half as much again as its predecessor.

A third film in the rebooted series is scheduled for release in 2017.

Dirty Harry

1971		Dirty Harry
1973		Magnum Force
1976		The Enforcer
1983		Sudden Impact
1988		The Death Pool

San Francisco detective Harry Callahan – "an antihero who does not hesitate to cross professional and ethical boundaries in pursuit of his own vision of justice, especially when the law is poorly served by an inept bureaucracy"

Clint Eastwood

The Exorcist

Year	Title		Subtitle		Director
1973	The Exorcist				William Friedkin
1977	Exorcist II		The Heretic		John Boorman
1989	The Exorcist III				William Peter Blatty

(Only Exorcist II has a subtitle.)

William Peter Blatty's novel The Exorcist was published in 1971, and Blatty also wrote the screenplay for William Friedkin's film. Following the huge success of that film, neither Blatty nor Friedkin was interested in making a sequel; playwright William Goodhart was commissioned to write a screenplay, and the British director John Boorman (whose biggest success was Deliverance in 1972) agreed to direct.

Exorcist II is often described as one of the worst films of all time. Long after its release, Boorman confessed, "The sin I committed was not giving the audience what it wanted in terms of horror."

Under pressure from Warner Brothers, Blatty came up with a script for a sequel, entitled Legion. Friedkin agreed to direct, but pulled out after disagreements with Blatty. Blatty turned the script into a novel, which became a bestseller on publication in 1983; he then came up with a revised script. John Carpenter initially agreed to direct, but pulled out when it became clear that Blatty wanted to direct the film himself. The Exorcist III received mixed reviews; it was a moderate commercial success.

Stars in Exorcist II as Father Philip Lamont, a priest struggling with his faith who is assigned to investigate the death of a priest who died while trying to exorcise a demon from Regan

Richard Burton

Death Wish

Year	Title		Subtitle
1974	Death Wish
1982	Death Wish II
1985	Death Wish 3
1987	Death Wish 4		The Crackdown
1994	Death Wish 5		The Face of Death

Only the fourth and fifth films in the series have subtitles.

Architect and vigilante Paul Kersey

Charles Bronson

The Omen

1976		The Omen
1978		Damien: Omen II
1981		Omen III: The Final Conflict

Stars of the first film include:

American diplomat Robert Thorn, who adopts Damien at birth, while working in Rome (and is appointed as Ambassador to the United Kingdom shortly afterwards)			Gregory Peck
His wife, Katherine			Lee Remick
Mrs. Baylock, Damien's nanny – who turns out to be one of the Satanists who have taken responsibility for Damien's upbringing			Billie Whitelaw
Father Brennan – a priest who tries repeatedly to warn the Ambassador about Damien's mysterious origins			Patrick Troughton
Karl Bugenhagen – an archaeologist and expert on the Antichrist			Leo McKern

At the end of the first film, Robert Thorn is killed and Damien is left in the care of Robert's brother Richard. Stars of the second film include:

Richard Thorn, Damien's uncle – a rich industrialist		William Holden
His wife Ann		Lee Grant

At the start of the third film, Damien finds himself as CEO of Richard's international conglomerate, but is appointed as American Ambassador to the United Kingdom – his father's old job. Notable appearances in Omen III:

Damien Thorn		Sam Neill
Father DeCarlo – the only survivor of the seven monks who each possessed one of the Seven Daggers of Megiddo – the only means to kill Damien		Rossano Brazzi

Ruby Wax makes an uncredited appearance in Omen III as the US Ambassador's secretary.

Sam Neill went on to play palaeontologist Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park.

A fourth film, Omen IV: The Awakening, was made for television in 1991. It tells the story of Damien's daughter Delia, who turns out to have a twin brother, Alexander, implanted in her. Alexander, like his father Damien, is the Antichrist. After wreaking similar havoc to that caused by their father, Delia and Alexander survive to attend their mother's funeral at the end of the film.

Remake

The Omen was remade in 2006.

		1976		2006
Robert Thorn		Gregory Peck		Liev Schreiber
Katherine Thorn		Lee Remick		Julia Stiles
Mrs. Baylock		Billie Whitelaw		Mia Farrow
Father Brennan		Patrick Troughton		Pete Postlethwaite
Karl Bugenhagen		Leo McKern		Michael Gambon

Rocky

		Title		Opponent		Played by
1976		Rocky		Apollo Creed		Carl Weathers
1979		Rocky II
1982		Rocky III		Clubber Lang		Mr. T
1985		Rocky IV		Ivan Drago		Dolph Lundgren
1990		Rocky V		Tommy 'The Machine' Gunn		Tommy Morrison
2006		Rocky Balboa		Mason 'The Line' Dixon		Antonio Tarver
2015		Creed		"Pretty" Ricky Conlan		Tony Bellew

Apollo Creed appears in the first four films, dying in Rocky's arms in Rocky IV after a heroic performance against a vicious onslaught from Ivan Drago.

Creed is scheduled for release in November 2015. Its protagonist is the grandson of Apollo Creed, who is mentored by Rocky.

Director of Rocky and Rocky V (the other films were directed by Sylvester Stallone)		John G. Avildsen
Robert 'Rocky' Balboa – 'The Italian Stallion'		Sylvester Stallone
Rocky's home town		Philadelphia
Rocky's wife – played by Talia Shire		Adrian
Rocky's best friend and brother–in–law – played by Burt Young		Paul 'Paulie' Pennino
Rocky's manager – originally Apollo Creed's manager – played by Tony Burton		Tony 'Duke' Evers
Rocky's trainer – said to be based on Rocky Marciano's trainer, Charlie Goldman – played by Burgess Meredith		Mickey Goldmill

Rocky was nominated for ten Oscars, and won three, including Best Picture and Best Director (Avildsen). Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young and Burgess Meredith were all nominated for acting Oscars, but three of the awards went to Network (including Best Actor to Peter Finch and Best Actress to Faye Dunaway). This was the last time (up to and including 2015) that three acting Oscars went to the same film.

Stallone was also nominated for Best Original Screenplay, but again lost out to Network (Paddy Chayevsky).

With the exception of The Silence of the Lambs (which famously won all four), Rocky is the only film listed on this page to win any of the four major Oscars.

Star Wars

	Title		Subtitle
1999	Episode I		The Phantom Menace
2002	Episode II		Attack of the Clones
2005	Episode III		Revenge of the Sith
1977	Episode IV		(A New Hope)
1980	Episode V		The Empire Strikes Back
1983	Episode VI		Return of the Jedi
2015	Episode VII		The Force Awakens
2017	Episode VIII		The Last Jedi
2019	Episode IX		The Rise of Skywalker

The order of production was IV, V, VI, I, II, III, VII, VIII, IX. The original 1977 film was only subtitled A New Hope on release of the box set in 2011.

Prior to its release in December 2019, Episode IX was described (on Wikipedia) as 'the final episode of the nine–part "Skywalker saga".'

Luke Skywalker: played by		Mark Hammill
Luke Skywalker’s twin		Princess Leia
Father of the above twins		Anakin Skywalker
Alter ego of the above		Darth Vader
Voice of the above		James Earl Jones
Name of Han Solo's spacecraft – " the second fastest vessel in the Star Wars canon"		Millennium Falcon
Obese, slug–like crime lord and gangster – eventually strangled by Princess Leia		Jabba the Hutt
Bumbling Gungan from the planet Naboo (comic character)		Jar Jar Binks
Chewbacca is a (note spelling!)		Wookiee
Grand Jedi Master who trains Luke Skywalker to fight against the Empire (species unknown)		Yoda

Halloween

The original "Slasher" franchise (see also Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street), the Halloween series focuses on the exploits of an antagonist who was committed to a sanitarium as a child for the murder of his older sister Judith. Fifteen years later he escapes, to stalk and kill the people of his home town. The main action in all of the films takes place on Hallowe'en.

1978		Halloween
1981		Halloween II
1982		Halloween III: Season of the Witch
1988		Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
1989		Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers
1995		Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers
1998		Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
2002		Halloween: Resurrection
2007		Halloween
2009		Halloween II

Creator of the series, and director of the first film		John Carpenter
Antagonist – played by various actors; actually not a major character. Doesn't appear in III: Season of the Witch		Michael Myers
The prime protagonist of the first two films, and of H20: Twenty Years Later – played by Jamie Lee Curtis (her first acting role)		Laurie Strode
The psychiatrist who treats Myers – played by Donald Pleasence in the original series, and Malcolm McDowell in the Rob Zombie versions – named after Marion Crane's boyfriend in Hitchcock's Psycho		Dr. Sam Loomis
Fictional Illinois city that provides the main setting – same name as a real town in New Jersey		Haddonfield

Carpenter seems to have washed his hands of this series after the first film; each subsequent film in the series had a different director, except for the 2007 remake and its 2009 sequel which were directed by Rob Zombie – real name Robert Bartleh (sic) Cummings.

The Canadian actor Michael 'Mike' Myers was born in 1963 and began appearing on television as a stand–up comedian in the mid–80s, before finding fame in 1992 with the release of Wayne's World. Since his fictional namesake was created before he was even slightly famous, there is surely nothing more than coincidence in the fact that they share a name. I can find no evidence that there is, but can't help wondering if he ever considered adopting a professional name. Rather oddly, it's a question that no interviewer seems to have asked him.

National Lampoon

Wikipedia lists over 40 National Lampoon films, as well as 11 made–for–TV movies and 22 video releases. The first seven were produced between 1978 and 1989; they were made as spin–offs from the original National Lampoon magazine, written by some of the magazine's creative staff, and cast using some of the same actors that performed in The National Lampoon Radio Hour and the stage show National Lampoon's Lemmings. Wikipedia says, in as many words, that only these seven are true National Lampoon vehicles; later films, starting with National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1 (1993) have no real connection to the magazine, but were essentially cashing in on the success of those that did – the name apparently being available for license on a one–off basis.

In view of all this, and because I don't ever remember hearing a quiz question about any National Lampoon film other than those first seven, these are the only ones that get a mention here.

The first National Lampoon film was actually a made–for–TV movie called Disco Beaver from Outer Space, broadcast in 1978. It was the first cinema release, made on a ridiculously low budget, that established the franchise as "a brand name above nearly all others in comedy".

1978		National Lampoon's Animal House
1982		National Lampoon's Class Reunion
1983		National Lampoon's Movie Madness
1983		National Lampoon's Vacation
1984		National Lampoon's Joy of Sex
1985		National Lampoon's European Vacation
1986		National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

National Lampoon's Joy of Sex was inspired by the sex manual Joy of Sex by Dr. Alex Comfort. According to Wikipedia, "Paramount Pictures paid a great amount of money to secure the rights to Alex Comfort's sex manual just so they could use the title, which they found to be highly commercial." Apart from this, the film seems to have little in common with Dr. Comfort's book. John Belushi (see below) was originally supposed to star, but he died before filming began. A plan to have John Hughes (writer of the Vacation scripts) write the script seems to have fallen through, leaving the film with very little in common with the other ones listed above.

Starred in National Lampoon's Animal House as John 'Bluto' Blutarsky – a drunken degenerate in his seventh year of college		John Belushi
Appeared in National Lampoon's Animal House as Professor Dave Jennings – a bored English professor who tries to convert his students to left–wing politics and marijuana		Donald Sutherland
Starred in the Vacation films as Clark Griswold – the father of the featured family		Chevy Chase
Starred in the Vacation films as Ellen Griswold – the mother of the featured family		Beverly D'Angelo

Superman

See also Batman vs. Superman (2016).

The first Superman film, now long forgotten, was Superman and the Mole Men (1951). The series really took off in 1978:

Year	Title		Subtitle
1978	Superman
1980	Superman II
1983	Superman III
1987	Superman IV		The Quest for Peace

Clark Kent / Superman		Christopher Reeve
Superman's father, Jor–El (in the 1978 original)		Marlon Brando
Lex Luthor (in the 1978 original)		Gene Hackman

There was a spin–off in 1984:

1984

Supergirl

Kara Zor–El / Supergirl		Helen Slater
Selena, "a power–hungry would–be witch"		Faye Dunaway

Christopher Reeve turned down the opportunity to make a cameo appearance in Supergirl. Demi Moore turned down the role of Lucy Lane, younger sister of Lois Lane, who befriends Supergirl following her arrival on Earth.  Marc McClure played Clark Kent's young photojournalist colleague Jimmy Olsen, and is the only actor to appear in all five Superman films from the Christopher Reeve era.

Superman IV was a commercial flop, and tragedy struck Christopher Reeve in 1995 when a horse–riding accident left him a quadraplegic; he died in 2004. The next Superman film was:

2006

Superman Returns

Clark Kent / Superman

Brandon Routh

Following the success of the Dark Knight trilogy (featuring Batman), Superman returned to the cinema in:

2013

Man of Steel

This launched what would become known as the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) – a franchise intended to rival the highly successful Marvel Cinematic Universe. Superman has appeared in two more films in this series:

2016		Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
2017		Justice League

A "director's cut" of the last of these was released in 2021.

Clark Kent / Superman (in the DCEU series)		Henry Cavill
Director of all DCEU films featuring Superman		Zack Snyder

Alien

Alien was conceived by writer Dan O'Bannon as a development of some of the ideas he had used in Dark Star (1974), a comic science fiction film directed by John Carpenter.

1979		Alien
1986		Aliens
1992		Alien 3
1997		Alien Resurrection

Details of the original (1979) film:

Director		Ridley Scott
Name of the spaceship		Nostromo
Ellen Ripley, Warrant Officer of the Nostromo		Sigourney Weaver
Brett, the Engineering Technician		Harry Dean Stanton
Kane, the Executive Officer who becomes the host for the Alien		John Hurt
Ash, the ship's Science Officer who is revealed to be an android		Ian Holm
Parker, the Chief Engineer		Yaphet Kotto

The British entertainer Percy Edwards provided vocal effects for the alien and the "facehugger".

Ripley is the only member of the Nostromo's crew to survive the events of the first film, and the only cast member to reappear in the second and subsequent films. At the end of the first film she puts herself into "stasis" for the return trip to Earth, arriving 57 years later. She is the undisputed star of the three sequels.

The only other notable detail of Aliens (in quizzing terms) is:

Director

James Cameron

Notable appearances in Alien 3:

Jonathan Clemens – a former inmate of the Fiorina 'Fury' 161 penal colony, who now serves as its doctor		Charles Dance
Harold Andrews – warden of the penal colony		Brian Glover
David – an inmate smarter than most who is killed by the creature in the bait–and–chase sequence		Pete Postlethwaite
Golic – a mass murderer and outcast amongst the prison population		Paul McGann

Notable appearances in Alien Resurrection:

Annalee Call – the newest crew member of the Betty, who turns out to be a synthetic		Winona Ryder
Dr. Jonathan Gediman – one of the scientists involved in cloning Ripley and studying the Aliens		Brad Dourif

Brad Dourif's claims to fame include the parts of Billy Bibbit in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Chucky in the Child's Play franchise.

Mad Max

1979		Mad Max
1981		Mad Max II
1985		Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome
2015		Mad Max: Fury Road

Played Max in the fourth film (2015)

Tom Hardy

Star Trek

1979		Star Trek: The Motion Picture
1982		Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
1984		Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
1986		Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
1989		Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
1991		Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
1994		Star Trek: Generations
1996		Star Trek: First Contact
1998		Star Trek: Insurrection
2002		Star Trek: Nemesis
2009		Star Trek

The first six films feature the cast and characters from the original TV series; the next four feature those from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Star Trek (2009) features characters from the original series played by a new cast, including Chris Pine as Captain Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Spock.

Friday the 13th

The Friday the 13th franchise was created to cash in on the success of Halloween. Its principal character is Jason Voorhees, who drowned as a boy at Camp Crystal Lake because the two responsible members of staff were having sex at the time. Decades later, the lake is rumored to be "cursed" and is the setting for a series of mass murders. Jason (who turns out not to have drowned after all) features in all of the films, as either the killer or the motivation for the killings.

As the following table shows, there was a lucrative market for this franchise in the 1980s.

1980		Friday the 13th
1981		Friday the 13th Part 2
1982		Friday the 13th Part III
1984		Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter
1985		Friday the 13th: A New Beginning
1986		Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives
1988		Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood
1989		Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan
1993		Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday
2001		Jason X
2003		Freddy vs. Jason
2009		Friday the 13th

Freddy vs. Jason is a crossover between Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street.

According to Wikipedia, "the 2009 film was originally conceived as an origin story, but the project evolved into a re–imagining of the first four Friday the 13th films."

Friday the 13th rarely comes up in quizzes; none of the actors, directors or writers involved seems to have done much else of note, and even Jason doesn't seem to have the cachet of (say) Michael Myers or Freddie Krueger. I include it here for completeness.

Indiana Jones

1981		Raiders of the Lost Ark
1984		Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
1989		Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
2008		Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

The first film is set in 1936; the second is a prequel, set in 1935. The third has a "prologue" set in 1912, with Jones as a 13–year–old, but the main action takes place in 1938. The fourth is set in 1958, with Jones as a veteran.

Creator of Indiana Jones		George Lucas
Director		Steven Spielberg
Indiana Jones's first name		Henry
Henry 'Indiana' Jones (archaeologist)		Harrison Ford
Dr. Marcus Brody, museum curator (in Raiders and Last Crusade)		Denholm Elliott
Sallah, the charismatic Arab excavator (in Raiders and Last Crusade)		John Rhys–Davies
Henry Jones, Sr. – Indiana's father – in the prologue to Last Crusade		Sean Connery
Mutt Williams (who turns out to have been born Henry Jones III – Indiana's son), in Kingdom		Shia Labeouf
Soviet agent Irina Spalko, in Kingdom		Cate Blanchett
George "Mac" McHale – a British agent whom Jones worked alongside in World War II, but has now allied with the Russians to resolve financial problems – in Kingdom		Ray Winstone
Harold "Ox" Oxley, Mutt's surrogate father and Indiana's old friend – in Kingdom		John Hurt
Dean Charles Stanforth, an academic colleague and friend of Jones, in Kingdom – a replacement for Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliott died in 1992)		Jim Broadbent

The Indiana Jones franchise has been owned by Disney since its takeover of Lucasfilm in 2012.

Rambo

1982		First Blood
1985		Rambo: First Blood Part II
1988		Rambo III
2008		Rambo

Rambo's first name		John
John Rambo		Sylvester Stallone
Rambo's former commanding officer, and mentor – played by Richard Crenna		Sam Trautman

Kirk Douglas was supposed to play the part of Sam Trautman, but pulled out on the first day of filming as he was unhappy with the ending of the script.

As of March 2015, Stallone is believed to be working on a fifth film – Rambo: Last Blood.

Nightmare on Elm Street

Nightmare on Elm Street is the last of the three major 'slasher' franchises featured on this page (see Halloween and Friday the 13th).

1984	A Nightmare on Elm Street
1985	A Nightmare on Elm Street 2:		Freddy's Revenge
1987	A Nightmare on Elm Street 3:		Dream Warriors
1988	A Nightmare on Elm Street 4:		The Dream Master
1989	A Nightmare on Elm Street 5:		The Dream Child
1991			Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
1994			Wes Craven's New Nightmare
2003			Freddy vs. Jason
2010	A Nightmare on Elm Street

Freddy vs. Jason is a crossover between Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th.

The 2010 film is a remake of the original (1984) film.

Writer and director of the original Nightmare on Elm Street film (died 2015)		Wes Craven
The main antagonist: a burnt serial killer who uses a glove armed with razors to kill his victims in their dreams, causing their deaths in the real world as well		Freddy Krueger
Played Freddy up to and including Freddy vs. Jason		Robert Englund
The main protagonist, in the original film (and some sequels) – played by Heather Langenkamp		Nancy Thompson
Made his film debut in the original (1984) Nightmare on Elm Street as Nancy's boyfriend Glen Lantz		Johnny Depp

The Hannibal Lecter saga

Year		Title		Lecter
1986		Manhunter		Brian Cox
1991		The Silence of the Lambs		Anthony Hopkins
2001		Hannibal		Anthony Hopkins
2002		Red Dragon		Anthony Hopkins
2007		Hannibal Rising		Gaspard Ulliel

Thomas Harris has written four Hannibal Lecter novels:

•	Red Dragon	1981
•	The Silence of the Lambs	1988
•	Hannibal	1999
•	Hannibal Rising	2006

Hannibal Rising is a prequel to the previous three novels, telling the story of Lecter's evolution into the infamous cannibalistic serial killer of the previous films and books.

The 1986 film Manhunter was based on Red Dragon and starred Brian Cox (the Scottish actor, not the Lancashire–born Professor of Particle Physics) as Lecter (or Lecktor, as those responsible chose to spell it). It was followed by adaptations of the second and third novels, with Anthony Hopkins as Lecter. It was the multi–Oscar–winning The Silence of the Lambs that brought the series to popular attention.

The 2002 film Red Dragon was a second adaptation of the original Lecter novel – a remake of Manhunter, and (as such) a prequel to the second and third films.

The 2007 film Hannibal Rising is a prequel to all of the previous films, with the French actor Gaspard Ulliel as Lecter.

Lethal Weapon

1987	Lethal Weapon
1989	Lethal Weapon 2
1992	Lethal Weapon 3
1998	Lethal Weapon 4

Martin Riggs		Mel Gibson
Roger Murtagh		Danny Glover

Die Hard

1988		Die Hard
1990		Die Hard 2
1995		Die Hard with a Vengeance
2007		Die Hard 4.0 (Live Free or Die Hard in North America)
2013		A Good Day to Die Hard

John McClane – a "foul–mouthed, wisecracking, no–nonsense New York cop with an itchy trigger finger ... and a never–say–die maverick spirit."

Bruce Willis

Batman

See also Batman vs. Superman (2016).

Batman first appeared on screen in two 15–episode serials: Batman (1943) and Batman and Robin (1949). There was also a film in 1966 – based on the successful television series – starring Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin the Boy Wonder.

The first two "proper" Batman films were:

1989		Batman
1992		Batman Returns

Director		Tim Burton
Bruce Wayne / Batman		Michael Keaton

The first two films were commercially successful, but the studio (Warner Brothers) was hungry for more money. The third film was:

1995

Batman Forever

Director		Joel Schumacher
Bruce Wayne / Batman		Val Kilmer
Dick Grayson / Robin the Boy Wonder		Chris O'Donnell
The Riddler		Jim Carrey
Dr. Chase Meridian, Bruce Wayne's love interest		Nicole Kidman

Kilmer was unavailable for the next film, which was:

1997

Batman & Robin

Bruce Wayne / Batman		George Clooney
Mr. Freeze		Arnold Schwarzenegger
Poison Ivy		Uma Thurman

Although Batman & Robin was a financial success, it was the least successful Batman film to date – both critically and commercially. The next three films – the so–called Dark Knight Trilogy – were:

2005		Batman Begins
2008		The Dark Knight
2012		The Dark Knight Rises

Director		Christopher Nolan
Bruce Wayne / Batman		Christian Bale
Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne's butler		Michael Caine

There is no Robin (and no Dick Grayson) in the Dark Knight trilogy.

Batman v Superman: The Dawn of Justice is scheduled for release in 2016. It will also feature Wonder Woman.

Wallace and Gromit

Creator of Wallace and Gromit		Nick Park
Production company		Ardman Animations

1989		A Grand Day Out
1993		The Wrong Trousers
1995		A Close Shave
2005		The Curse of the Were–Rabbit
2008		A Matter of Loaf and Death

The Curse of the Were–Rabbit was Ardman's second feature–length film, after Chicken Run (2000). All the other Wallace & Gromit films are shorts, ranging in duration from 23 to 30 minutes.

Their address (in Wigan)

62 West Wallaby Street

Voice of Wallace		Peter Sallis
Wallace's favourite cheese		Wensleydale
Wallace's love interest in A Close Shave: she has a pet rottweiler called Preston, and is allergic to cheese; voiced by Sally Lindsay		Wendolene Ramsbottom
Wallace's love interest in The Curse of the Were–Rabbit (a wealthy aristocratic spinster, voiced by Helena Bonham Carter)		Lady Tottington ("Totty")
Wallace's 'love interest' in A Matter of Loaf and Death: they become engaged, but she turns out to be a murderess who hates bakers, and is eaten by crocodiles while trying to escape justice		Piella Bakewell
In A Grand Day Out, Wallace and Gromit journey to		The Moon
What did they forget to take there?		Crackers!
Gromit's university (he took a double first in Engineering for Dogs)		Dogwarts

Jurassic Park

Michael Crichton's novel Jurassic Park was published in 1990, and Universal Studios bought the film rights before it was even published. It is the story of an amusement park populated by genetically–recreated dinosaurs, and its collapse as predicted by an eminent chaos theorist.

Following the success of the film version of Jurassic Park (see below), Crichton was persuaded to write a sequel to the first novel; it was published in 1995 and the film version was released two years later.

1993		Jurassic Park
1997		The Lost World: Jurassic Park
2001		Jurassic Park III

The first two films were directed by Steven Spielberg (and the third by Joe Johnston).

The first film in the series surpassed Spielberg's E.T. the Extra–Terrestrial (1982) to become the highest–grossing film ever. It was overtaken in 1997 by James Cameron's Titanic.

A fourth film was originally scheduled for release in 2005, but has been delayed:

2015

Jurassic World

The principal stars of the first film were:

Palaeontologist Dr. Alan Grant		Sam Neill
Palaeobotanist Dr. Ellie Sattler		Laura Dern
Mathematician and chaos theorist Dr. Ian Malcolm		Jeff Goldblum
John Hammond, billionaire CEO of bioengineering company InGen and the creator of Jurassic Park		Richard Attenborough

Goldblum and Attenborough also starred in The Lost World, and Neill and Dern also starred in the third film (but not The Lost World). Also starring in the first two films were Joseph Mazzello and Ariana Richards as Hammond's grandchildren, Tim and Alexis ('Lex') Murphy.

Other stars of The Lost World include:

Dr. Sarah Harding, a behavioral palaeontologist and girlfriend of Jeff Goldblum's character		Julianne Moore
Nick Van Owen, a documentarian and environmentalist		Vince Vaughn
Roland Tembo, a big–game hunter from Africa and the leader of his team		Pete Postlethwaite

Other stars of Jurassic Park III include:

Paul Kirby, the owner of a hardware store who poses as a wealthy businessman in order to lure Grant into helping search for his 12–year–old son Eric, who is stranded on one of the Jurassic Park islands

William H. Macy

Toy Story

The Toy Story films are produced by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Disney. The first film in the series was the first feature–length film to be made entirely using computer–generated imagery (CGI).

1995	Toy Story
1999	Toy Story 2
2010	Toy Story 3

Owner of the toys		Andy Davis
Voice of Woody, the cowboy		Tom Hanks
Voice of Buzz Lightyear, the spaceman		Tim Allen
Buzz Lightyear's catchphrase		To Infinity – and beyond!

Other notable toy characters include Hamm the piggy bank, Rex the dinosaur, Slinky Dog, Jessie the cowgirl (not in the original film), Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, and Sarge the army commander (voiced by R. Lee Ermey and based on his role as as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket). In Toy Story 2, one of the main antagonists is Stinky Pete the prospector, voiced by Kelsey Grammer.

There was a spin–off television series, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, originally broadcast in 2000 and 2001. The pilot episode was released on video as Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins. In The Adventure Begins, Woody is voiced by Tom Hanks's brother Jim. The Buzz Lightyear film and television series were animated by Disney, as opposed to by Pixar using CGI.

A fourth film is scheduled for release in 2017:

2017	Toy Story 4

Mission: Impossible

Mission: Impossible was originally a television series, first shown from 1966 to 1973. It was famous for the opening scene in each episode, in which Jim Phelps (see below) was given his instructions on a reel–to–reel tape recorder, ending with the words "Good luck, Jim. This tape will self–destruct in five seconds." The tape would then be shown to dissolve in smoke, followed by the introductory theme music with its distinctive 5/4 time signature.

The film series was produced by Tom Cruise, who is its unrivalled star.

Year	Title		Subtitle
1996	Mission: Impossible
2000	Mission: Impossible II
2006	Mission: Impossible III
2011	Mission: Impossible –		Ghost Protocol
2015	Mission: Impossible –		Rogue Nation

Ethan Hunt, an agent of the Impossible Mission Force (IMF)

Tom Cruise

Apart from Ethan Hunt, there is only one character that appears in all five films. In the first film he's a relatively minor character, but he has major roles in II and III, and in Rogue Nation, as he develops into Hunt's closest friend and confidant. (In Ghost Protocol he has only a cameo role.) He is:

Luther Stickell

Ving Rhames

Notable appearances in individual films:

Jim Phelps, director of the IMF (the role played by Peter Graves in the television series) – in the original film		Jon Voight
"Max" – an arms dealer (in the original film)		Vanessa Redgrave
Mission Commander Swanbeck, in II (uncredited)		Anthony Hopkins
William Brandt, Field Operations Director of IMF, in Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation		Jeremy Renner
Benji Dunn, an IMF technical field agent, in Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation		Simon Pegg

Jim Phelps was portrayed in the first film as a traitor, selling the details of government agents to the arms dealer played by Vanessa Redgrave. Peter Graves turned down the role for this reason. This plot twist also upset fans of the television series, as well as other members of the cast (including Greg Morris, who played agent Barney Collier). Graves was also said to have disapproved of the overall nature of the film, which was all about action and adventure, whereas the television series had been more about "mind games". 

Mission: Impossible 5 is scheduled for release in July 2015 and will feature Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg.

Men in Black

Men in Black was originally a comic book series, first published in 1991 by Aircel Comics. Aircel was part of Malibu Comics, which was acquired in 1994 by Marvel Comics.

The genre of Men in Black has been described as "comic science fiction action spy". Its two protagonists, Agent K and Agent J, are members of a top–secret organization whose responsibility is to monitor and police alien activity on Earth.

1997	Men in Black
2001	Men in Black II
2012	Men in Black 3

Agent K (Kevin Brown)		Tommy Lee Jones
Agent J (James Edwards III)		Will Smith
Agent K as a young man (in Men in Black 3)		Josh Brolin
Agent J as a child (in Men in Black 3)		Cayen Martin

There was an animated television series, Men in Black: The Series, which ran from 1997 to 2001. Neither Jones nor Smith was involved.

American Pie

1999		American Pie
2001		American Pie 2
2003		American Wedding
2012		American Reunion

Between Wedding and Reunion there was a series of straight–to–video releases:

American Pie Presents: Band Camp (2005)
American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile (2006)
American Pie Presents: Beta House (2007)
American Pie Presents: The Book of Love (2009)

Noah Levenstein		Eugene Levy
Set in (city)		East Great Falls

East Great Falls is based on East Grand Rapids, a suburb of Grand Rapids which is the second largest city in Michigan.

The Matrix

1999		The Matrix
2003		The Matrix Reloaded
2003		The Matrix Revolutions

Written and directed by		Lana and Andy Wachowski
Neo – a computer programmer in Metacortex corporation who moonlights as a hacker		Keanu Reeves
Morpheus – a human freed from the Matrix		Laurence Fishburne
Morpheus's levitating ship (hovercraft)		Nebuchadnezzar
First mate on the Nebuchadnezzar – played by Carrie–Anne Moss		Trinity
Sentient "Agent" program of the Matrix, with ambitions to free himself from his duties – played by Hugo Weaving		Agent Smith
Human freed by Morpheus, who regrets taking the red pill and seeks to be returned to the Matrix – played (in the original film) by Joe Pantoliano		Cypher
Rebel human – played (in the sequels) by Jada Pinkett Smith		Niobe
Cheerful old lady who smokes cigarettes and bakes cookies – a mysterious but powerful figure, who possesses the power of foresight – later revealed to be a sapient program, integral to the Matrix. Played by Gloria Foster in the first two films, and Mary Alice in the third		The Oracle

X–Men

The X–Men are a mutant human sub–species with superhuman powers. They were introduced by Marvel Comics in 1963. Wikipedia lists ten original members and over 70 later recruits, as well as literally hundreds of other characters in various categories.

2000		X–Men
2003		X2 (a.k.a. X2: X–Men United or X–Men 2)
2006		X–Men: The Last Stand
2009		X–Men Origins: Wolverine
2011		X–Men: First Class
2013		The Wolverine
2014		X–Men: Days of Future Past

X–Men: First Class focuses on the origins of Professor X and Magneto.

The following appeared in the first three films, and returned in Days of Future Past:

Charles Xavier / Professor X		Patrick Stewart
Logan (born James Howlett) / Wolverine (also in the two Wolverine films)		Hugh Jackman
Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto		Ian McKellen
Ororo Munroe / Storm		Halle Berry

Notable additions to the cast in later films include:

Col. William Stryker (X–2)		Brian Cox
Marie / Rogue (The Last Stand and Days of Future Past)		Anna Paquin
Dr. Hank McCoy / Beast (The Last Stand)		Kelsey Grammer
Cain Marko / Juggernaut (The Last Stand)		Vinnie Jones
Victor Creed – Logan's half–brother and fellow soldier, who later became his nemesis Sabretooth (in Origins: Wolverine)		Liev Schreiber
John Wraith, a teleporting mutant (in Origins: Wolverine)		will.i.am
Charles Xavier / Professor X (First Class and Days of Future Past)		James McAvoy
Raven Darkholme / Mystique (First Class and Days of Future Past)		Jennifer Lawrence

Planned additions to the series are Deadpool (a sequel to Days of Future Past), X–Men: Apocalypse, a spin–off film, Gambit in 2016, and a third Wolverine film in 2017.

Fast and Furious

2001		The Fast and the Furious
2003		2 Fast 2 Furious
2006		The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
2009		Fast & Furious
2011		Fast Five
2013		Fast & Furious 6
2015		Furious 7

The main stars of the series are:

Brian O'Conner – an undercover Los Angeles detective		Paul Walker
Dominic Toretto – a professional street racer and leader of the hijackers		Vin Diesel
Leticia "Letty" Ortiz, Dom's girlfriend and a part of the crew		Michelle Rodriguez
Mia Toretto – Dominic's younger sister and Brian's former girlfriend		Jordana Brewster
Roman Pearce, Brian's childhood friend who is on home confinement after serving time in prison		Tyrese Gibson
Monica Fuentes, a US Customs Service agent working undercover as an aide to Argentinian drug baron Carter Verone		Eva Mendes
Tej Parker – an ex–street racer, a race host and a friend of Brian's		Ludacris (Chris Bridges)
Government bounty hunter Luke Hobbs (American professional wrestler)		Dwayne Johnson

The following table shows which of these actors appear in which film:

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Paul Walker	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Vin Diesel	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Michelle Rodriguez	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Jordana Brewster	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Tyrese Gibson	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Eva Mendes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No
Ludacris (Chris Bridges)	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Dwayne Johnson	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes

Paul Walker was killed in a road accident during the filming of Furious 7. His brothers Caleb and Cody fill in for him in scenes that were shot after his death.

Shrek

2001		Shrek
2004		Shrek 2
2007		Shrek the Third
2010		Shrek Forever After

The following starred (in voice parts) in all four films:

Shrek		Mike Myers
Donkey		Eddie Murphy
Princess Fiona		Cameron Diaz

Notable voice parts in one or more of the sequels included:

Voice of Queen Lillian – mother of Princess Fiona (Shrek 2 and the Third, and briefly in Forever After)		Julie Andrews
Voice of King Harold – husband of Queen Lillian and father of Princess Fiona (Shrek 2, and briefly in the later sequels)		John Cleese
Hired by King Harold, in Shrek 2, to assassinate Shrek		Puss in Boots
Voice of Puss in Boots (in the sequels, and also the prequel – see below)		Antonio Banderas
Voice of Prince Charming, and the narrator, in the sequels		Rupert Everett
Voice of the Fairy Godmother, in Shrek 2		Jennifer Saunders
Voice of Doris, the Ugly Stepsister – barmaid at the Poison Apple Pub, who recommends Puss in Boots to King Harold as an ogre killer – in Shrek 2 and Forever After (UK versions)		Jonathan Ross
Voice of Arthur Pendragon, Fiona's cousin (Shrek the Third)		Justin Timberlake
Captain Hook's singing voice, in Shrek 2 (two separate songs)		Tom Waits, Nick Cave
Voice of Captain Hook (in Shrek the Third)		Ian McShane

Shrek Forever After was followed by a prequel, featuring a character that had previously appeared in the three Shrek sequels:

2011

Puss in Boots

As of March 2015, Shrek (including Puss in Boots) is the highest–grossing animated franchise ever, and 10th highest overall.

Jason Bourne

As of March 2015, there have been twelve Jason Bourne novels. The series was created by Robert Ludlum, who wrote three novels:

Year	Title	Novel	Film
	The Bourne Identity	1980	2002
	The Bourne Supremacy	1986	2004
	The Bourne Ultimatum	1990	2007

Ludlum published his last novel in 2000, but wrote no more Bourne novels before his death in 2001. The series was continued by Eric Van Lustbader:

	The Bourne Legacy	2004	2012
	The Bourne Betrayal	2007	2016
	The Bourne Sanction	2008
	The Bourne Deception	2009
	The Bourne Objective	2010
	The Bourne Dominion	2011
	The Bourne Imperative	2012
	The Bourne Retribution	2013
	The Bourne Ascendancy	2014

Jason Bourne		Matt Damon
Jason Bourne's real name		David Webb

The first Jason Bourne film was a television version of The Bourne Identity, made in 1988 and starring Richard Chamberlain as Jason Bourne.

The film version of The Bourne Identity opens with a man with two gunshot wounds in his back being rescued from the sea by some Italian fishermen. The man turns out to have lost his memory, but takes the name Jason Bourne from one of several American passports that he finds in a safe deposit box, each containing his photograph. Only in The Bourne Ultimatum does he discover his true identity.

The Bourne Ultimatum won three Oscars: Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Sound Editing.

Matt Damon chose not to appear in the fourth film, which was the first to be based on a Lustbader novel. The film centres instead on Aaron Cross, played by Jeremy Renner – a character that doesn't appear in the novels. Damon is expected to return as Jason Bourne in the fifth film.

Spider–Man

There was a Spider–Man television series which aired in the USA in 1978 and 1979, and the pilot episode was released to cinemas outside the United States. Peter Parker / Spider–Man was played by Nicholas Hammond, whose other claim to fame is that he played Friedrich, the second oldest of the Von Trapp children, in the film version of The Sound of Music.

The first three "proper" Spider–Man films were:

2002	Spider–Man
2004	Spider–Man 2
2007	Spider–Man 3

Director		Sam Raimi
Peter Parker / Spider–Man		Tobey Maguire
Peter Parker's love interest		Mary Jane Watson
Played by		Kirsten Dunst

Reboot

A planned fourth film was cancelled, and the series was "rebooted":

2012		The Amazing Spider–Man
2014		The Amazing Spider–Man 2

Director		Marc Webb
Peter Parker / Spider–Man		Andrew Garfield
Peter Parker's love interest		Gwen Stacey
Played by		Emma Stone

See also The Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Ice Age

The films in the Ice Age franchise are computer–animated comedy adventures, telling the story of a group of mammals surviving the Palaeolithic Ice Age.

2002		Ice Age
2006		Ice Age: The Meltdown
2009		Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
2012		Ice Age: Continental Drift
2016		Ice Age: Collision Course

Pirates of the Caribbean

2003		The Curse of the Black Pearl
2006		Dead Man's Chest
2007		At World's End
2011		On Stranger Tides
2017		Dead Men Tell No Tales

Captain Jack Sparrow

Johnny Depp

The title of each film includes "Pirates of the Caribbean"; the titles given in the above table are, strictly speaking, subtitles.

Madagascar

The Madagascar films tell the story of four animals in Central Park Zoo, New York, who have spent their lives in blissful captivity and are unexpectedly shipped back to Africa. They struggle to survive, while attempting to return to New York with the help of a crafty cadre of penguins.

2005		Madagascar
2008		Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
2012		Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

Alex the lion		Ben Stiller
Marty the zebra		Chris Rock
Melman the hypochondriac giraffe		David Schwimmer
Gloria the hippopotamus		Jada Pinkett Smith
King Julien, the ring–tailed lemur, king of the lemurs		Sacha Baron Cohen
Moto Moto the hippopotamus (Escape 2 Africa)		will.i.am

The fourth film in the series is regarded as a spin–off:

2014

Penguins of Madagascar

Two "featured" (i.e. not really starring) roles in Penguins of Madagascar:

Classified, the wolf – team leader of the North Wind (an elite undercover inter–species task force)		Benedict Cumberbatch
Dave, a villainous and disgruntled octopus with the human disguise of Dr. Octavius Brine		John Malkovich

Transformers

The Transformers franchise has a long and complicated history.

The original Transformers were a range of toys that could be transformed from vehicles into robots and vice versa. They originated in Japan and were introduced in 1984 – marketed in the USA and UK by Hasbro. In the same year, Marvel introduced a series of comic books on the Transformers theme, with separate US and UK versions. There was also a television series (The Transformers), which ran from 1984 to 1987. An animated film, based on the television series and entitled The Transformers: The Movie, was released in 1986. Voice actors in the film included Eric Idle, Robert Stack, Casey Kasem (also the voice of Shaggy in Scooby Doo) and Leonard Nimoy; of these, only Kasem seems to have been in the television series.

This incarnation is now referred to as Generation 1.

Meanwhile, Tonka – an American toy company – introduced GoBots as a rival to Transformers. There was an animated television series entitled Challenge of the GoBots, and a film – GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords, released in 1986. Tonka was bought by Hasbro in 1991, and the GoBots "universe" was subsequently incorporated into Transformers.

In 1992 the Transformers television series was relaunched as The Transformers: Generation 2. It was the same series but with a new computer–generated main title sequence, computer–generated scene transitions, and other minor changes. It ran from 1992 to 1994 and was supported by new ranges of toys and comic books.

In 1996 Hasbro launched Transformers: Beast Wars, whose flagship brand was a Canadian–produced television series entitled (somewhat confusingly) Beast Wars: Transformers. This had a sequel entitled Beast Machines, which ran from 1999 to 2000. There was also a Japanese animated film – Beast Wars II: Lio Convoy's Close Call! (the subtitle is alternatively translated as Lio Convoy in Imminent Danger!) – based on the Beast Wars II television series which only aired in Japan.

Various other animated television series, too numerous to mention here, have been aired in Japan.

In the 21st century there have been two computer–animated television series, and there is soon to be a third. Transformers: Animated originally aired on Cartoon Network from 2007 to 2009, and Transformers: Prime on Hub Network (a collaboration between Hasbro and the Discovery network, now known as Discovery Family) from 2010 to 2013. Transformers: Prime concluded with the TV movie that rejoiced in the title Transformers Prime Beast Hunters: Predacons Rising – first aired in October 2013. A sequel to Transformers: Prime, entitled Transformers: Robots in Disguise, began airing on the Cartoon Network in March 2015.

The franchise really hit paydirt however with the live action film series:

2007		Transformers
2009		Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
2011		Transformers: Dark of the Moon
2014		Transformers: Age of Extinction

Director		Michael Bay
Executive Producer		Steven Spielberg
Leader of the Autobots (the good guys)		Optimus Prime
Sam Witwicky – a young descendant of an Arctic explorer who stumbled on a big secret which becomes the last hope for Earth – protagonist of the first three films		Shia LaBeouf
Mikaela Banes – a classmate of Sam who assists Sam in his mission by using skills she learned as a juvenile car thief – in the first two films		Megan Fox
Cade Yeager – a single father and struggling inventor, who discovers Optimus Prime and is drawn into the Transformers' war – protagonist of Age of Extinction		Mark Wahlberg
Harold Attinger – a paranoid CIA agent who created the Cemetery Wind to eliminate all Transformers from Earth – in Age of Extinction		Kelsey Grammer

Transformers is the eighth highest–grossing film franchise ever – behind Batman but ahead of Pirates of the Caribbean. With worldwide grosses of over $1 billion, both Dark of the Moon and Age of Extinction are (as of March 2015) among the top ten grossing films ever.

The "Twilight Saga"

The Twilight novels were written by Stephenie Meyer.

Book	Film		Title
2005	2008		Twilight
2006	2009		New Moon
2007	2010		Eclipse
2008	Part 1 2011		Breaking Dawn
	Part 2 2012

The titles of the films (except the first one) were prefixed with "The Twilight Saga".

Bella Swan (the main protagonist)		Kristen Stewart
Edward Cullen, the telepathic vampire		Robert Pattinson

The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games novels were written by Suzanne Collins.

Book	Film		Title
2008	2012		The Hunger Games
2009	2013		Catching Fire
2010	Part 1 2014		Mockingjay
	Part 2 2015

As with the Twilight Saga, the titles of the films (except the first one) were prefixed with 'The Hunger Games'.

Katniss Everdeen		Jennifer Lawrence
Peeta Mellark		Josh Hutcherson

Batman vs. Superman (2016)

Subtitle		Dawn of Justice
Bruce Wayne / Batman		Ben Affleck
Kal–El / Clark Kent / Superman		Henry Cavill
Lois Lane		Amy Adams
Alfred Pennyworth		Jeremy Irons

© Haydn Thompson 2017–24