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Why Do So Many Sequels Seem to Hate Themselves? | The Backdrop (Patreon)

Published:
2026-03-17 15:01:26
Imported:
2026-03

Content

Scream 7 is the latest entry in a recent wave of IP work defined by franchise exhaustion: Joker: Folie à Deux, The Matrix Resurrections, Alien: Covenant, John Wick 4, and so on. These films are often openly contemptuous of their own existence, folding that self-awareness into the very text of their stories.

Files

Why Do So Many Sequels Seem to Hate Themselves? | The Backdrop

Scream 7 is the latest entry in a recent wave of IP work defined by franchise exhaustion: Joker: Folie à Deux, The Matrix Resurrections, Alien: Covenant, John Wick 4, and so on. These films are often openly contemptuous of their own existence, folding that self-awareness into the very text of their stories. Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SecondWindGroup Second Wind Merch: https://shop.secondwindgroup.com/

Comments

Cynthia McGarvie

I consider Matrix Resurrections the outlier in the list you provide. Lana directed it as a protest to the greed of Warner Bros. I fail to consider Zazlav as the "poor victim" of a "vindictive" creator. I'm so glad we agreed on that.

SCP 3887B

Am I the only one that hates the "I know writers who use subtext and they're all cowards" line? I think that's a awful quote, especially because so many people who use it often complain when a movie or video game out right tells you everything upfront, and not let you have time to considered or think for yourself.

Dread Pirate Mittens

I recently discovered the French movie, Infested. One of the best horror movies I've seen in a long time, but all the algorithms of all the services I sub to neglected to recommend it to me. I bet if it had been called "Arachnophobia 2: Sacre Bleu" or something it would have been all over my feeds. Original ideas just don't have a chance, it seems.

Surrog

Beyond the usual top notch essay on sequels, I also want to point out the great work on the editing which feel more and more evolved each new episode :)

Darren Mooney

Thank you! This was actually something of a rush edit, peering behind the curtain.

Darren Mooney

Oh yeah, that was Carpenter's pitch for "Halloween III", to turn the series into an anthology with the brand name. Alas, it did not stick. Which is a shame. ("Halloween III" is the best of the sequels.)

Darren Mooney

To be fair, I am using it just a little bit knowingly. It's as much puncturing any sense that I have some profound insight in, say, noting that Emma Roberts is cast as a Roberts with a famous older relative who was a big nineties celebrity is a wry piece of meta-commentary.

Darren Mooney

Oh, "The Matrix Resurrections" is a movie I love. And, truth be told, as unpleasant as "Joker 2" is, I'd take it over "Deadpool and Wolverine" anyday. Just as I'd take the deeply flawed "Alien: Covenant" over "Alien: Romulus."

SCP 3887B

I didn't mean you specifically, sorry if that's how it came across. I just meant in general that seems to be the case. I feel like there's more context to the qoute that is being missed or something too. Kind of like when people say "Blood is thicker than water" but not giving the second half of the qoute "The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb", which completely changes the meaning.

Blankthought

Oddly enough, in the case of "blood is thicker than water" it seems as though people are connecting two different phrases together and creating a bit of uncertainty by claiming it comes from the covenant quote. The subtext clip/quote is very context dependent and relies on viewers following along with the throughline of where it is used, despite its origin being an ironic statement from a character in a cult classic show.

Davsau

So will Ghostface return in Aven - no. Not going there. I guess if you don’t want to make an angry self hating movie, you could do what Alien Earth did and Trojan Horse original content into your established IP.

Jason Youngberg

"Death grip GenX has on culture" News to me.

Tim Wilson

I’m not sure I got that sense from John Wick 4 but maybe that’s why it seemed to be trying to cram everything it possibly could into the runtime. I feel I’ve recommended this to to you before, but the OG video game self-hating sequel is Metal Gear Solid 2; I think you’d get quite a lot out of it if you have a few hours to watch “game movie” of MGS1 and 2. Either way, excellent work on what you love :)

Dan Chisarick

There's an irony in an essay about sequels being so original and well-written. Great job digging into movies that are kind of painful to watch and coming up with this insight. Sometimes I'm genuinely torn which is harder: Creating a proper sequel that honors the previous work, while adding something that enhances the new work meaningfully, vs creating something new from scratch.

Jessica Addams

Watched the video yesterday and the point about Scream 4 coming out in 2011 and predicting the legacyquel trend reminded me of a fact I've returned to time and time again: Ready Player One also came out in 2011 and while it was wholly unintentional it ended up being a warning of where pop culture was headed in the coming decade-plus. Not just bathing in familiar IP to the exclusion of new ideas, but showing this slavish devotion to them as sacred texts and fans as the keepers of the holy knowledge. There's an actual plot point that the villains miss a vital clue because they're not Real True Fans of the works being referenced in the game. Of course Cline was not saying 'This is all bad, this is the wrong way to engage with media,' but in his obliviousness he did unwittingly signal an alarm that people didn't seem to pick up on.