Next week, Hollywood will take an estimated $300m gamble on Top Gun: Maverick, the sequel to a film released 36 years ago. Right now, one of the hottest projects at the Cannes film festival market, where rights are sold to as-yet-unmade films – is the sequel to This Is Spinal Tap, a film released 38 years ago. This Christmas we’ll get the sequel to James Cameron’s blockbuster Avatar, which in contrast is practically sprinting to the gate a mere 13 years after its first appearance. In between, this summer will see the arrival of The Railway Children Return, a sequel to the beloved family classic, 52 years later.
Reboots, remakes and sequels have been Hollywood’s life blood for decades now, but the profusion of “belated sequels” appears to be reaching epidemic proportions, where even the most ancient material can be picked up and dusted down for a new audience. Top Gun: Maverick, in which Tom Cruise revisits his 80s hotshot navy pilot character in middle age, joins the likes of Indiana Jones, Ghostbusters, Jurassic World, Rambo, Mad Max and Star Wars in attempting to convert fan nostalgia for a successful franchise into a new mass-appeal blockbuster.
