Just days before the release of “Fast X”, stars Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez revealed (and Jason Momoa confirmed) that the planned two-part final chapter will now become a three-part finale. After seeing “Fast X”, I’m now even less excited for what’s to come.
Stretching out franchise enders was a popular trend in the early to mid 2010s. “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”, “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn” and “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay” were broken into two parts. For “Potter”, the strategy worked, with an $85 million box office increase for “Part 2” over “Part 1”. But for “Twilight”: just an $11 million increase. And for “The Hunger Games”, there was a $56 million DECREASE.
Filmmakers could argue it was necessary to make two movies because there was so much material in those final books. For “Twilight” and “Hunger” I still believe the strategy was just a cash grab. And with something like “Fast & Furious”? Come on! We’ve seen it all. The characters have done it all. It’s ABSOLUTELY just for the dollars.
A two part finales made sense for Marvel cultural phenomenons “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Endgame”. The same can be said for “The Matrix Reloaded” and “Revolutions”, which were both released in 2003 (though of course, as it turns out, they did not conclude that story).
“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” and “At World’s End”, which were filmed back to back, were supposed to wrap-up that series for good. But along came two more installments… the first just four years after “AWE”.
“The Divergent Series: Allegiant” was originally going to have a two-film finale, but those plans were (thankfully) scrapped because of low audience interest in sitting through more of these dull sci-fi action films.
This summer we’ll be getting Sony’s “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”… and in just nine months its follow-up “Beyond the Spider-Verse”. Paramount will also be giving us “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One”. “Part Two” comes out in Summer 2024. Will these part ones feel like legitimate installments or just filler until we get a more substantial second half?