Will these superhero and fantasy blockbusters ever get made?

From Boba Fett to Gambit to... King Arthur Part 5?

How many sequels is too many?
(Image credit: Collection Christophel / Alamy Stock Photo)

For almost as long as there's been a "summer movie season," critics and filmgoers have complained that the local multiplex is too crowded with sequels. This year's been no different — except that now a lot of gripes are coming from inside Hollywood. With a few exceptions, 2016 has been a disastrous year for franchise films, with the likes of Alice Through the Looking Glass arriving with great fanfare before sinking at the box office quickly. Studio executives ought to be getting antsy, given that many of them have made big investments in the multi-picture/multi-year model of storytelling, looking to draft off the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Thursday is the start of another edition of San Diego Comic-Con, which is traditionally when Hollywood honchos stand in front of thousands of screaming science-fiction/fantasy/action/adventure fans and explain what the next 10 years of superhero movies and sword-and-sorcery epics will look like. But over the past few years, a lot of supposed-to-be mega-franchises — like the rebooted Fantastic Four and Spider-Man — have been forced back to the drawing board by audience apathy. Given those recent reality checks, what are the odds that all of the high-profile "shared universe" film series will make it to the screen exactly as originally intended?

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Noel Murray

Noel Murray is a freelance writer, living in Arkansas with his wife and two kids. He was one of the co-founders of the late, lamented movie/culture website The Dissolve, and his articles about film, TV, music, and comics currently appear regularly in The A.V. Club, Rolling Stone, Vulture, The Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times.