10 Classic Movie Sequels That Didn’t Come Out for 20 Years or More

These classic movies had everyone clamoring for sequels... but they took their sweet time making one.

Here are 10 classic movie sequels that took more than 20 years to come out, the names of their long-awaited sequels, and how long it took for those sequels to finally come out.

Gladiator to Gladiator II: 24 Years

Ridley Scott's sequel to his Oscar winner for Best Picture, Gladiator, picks up a generation after the original — in real time, and movie time.

It brings back one of the sole survivors of the original, Connie Nielsen's Lucilla, and it turns out her son from the first movie (spoiler alert) was also the son of Crowe's character, Maximus. The boy, Lucius, is now a man played by Paul Mescal.

Add to the mix a bad guy named Macrinus, played by Denzel Washington, a great new general named Acacius (Pedro Pascal), and some CGI rhinos and sharks.

The Hustler and The Color of Money: 25 years

Many people don't even realize that 1986's The Color of Money is a direct sequel to 1961'sThe Hustler, with Paul Newman reprising his role as "Fast Eddie" Felson, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. He had previously been nominated for playing the same role in The Hustler.

Martin Scorsese directed the film, which was widely considered inferior to The Hustler at the time of its release, but has aged quite nicely. And it's fascinating to see Tom Cruise act against one of the greatest movie stars of all time, on the way to becoming another.

Both The Hustler and The Color of Money are based on the novels of the same names by Walter Tevis.

Tron and Tron Legacy: 28 years

Is Tron a classic movie? We would say yes.

Yes, there was a terrific Simpsons joke in 1995 in which almost no one in the cast has seen (or will admit seeing) 1982's Tron. But the movie, a moderate box office success in the early '80s, when arcade games were red hot, has aged well — it's like an arcade frozen in amber.

And it gained enough of a following in the decades after its release to spawn a sequel, 2010's Tron Legacy directed by Joseph Kosinski. The sequel brought back Tron stars Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner, as well as original Tron writer-director Steven Lisberger, this time as a producer.

The new Tron paid homage to the original while spinning its story fascinatingly forward, and looked arguably even cooler than the first. It also proved that Kosinski was stunningly adept at bringing 1980s film into the modern era, as we'll see in the next slide... and then see again.

Twister and Twisters: 28 years

Last year's Twisters is a standalone sequel with the same general subject matter — twisters — as the original 1996 Twister.

Joseph Kosinski, who you may remember from the previous film on our list, came up with the story and was scheduled to direct before Lee Isaac Chung took the reins.

Though Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton starred in the first Twister, this one stars Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, and Anthony Ramos as storm chasers — some of whom are more cautious than others.

Independence Day and Independence Day: Resurgence: 30 years

Was it worth the three-decade wait for a sequel to 1996's Independence Day that didn't bring back Will Smith as its star?

Even though 2016's Independence Day: Resurgence brought back Roland Emmerich, director of the original, and his co-writer, Dean Devlin, as well as stars Jeff Goldblum and Bill Pullman, it proved to be a critical and box office disappointment with $389.7 million worldwide.

How is that disappointing? Because the budget was around $165 million.

Coming to America and Coming 2 America: 33 years

Maybe one reason Eddie Murphy knew he could pull off his recent Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, three decades after Beverly Hills Cop III, is that he had already made another sequel with an even longer break between films:

2021's Coming 2 America brings back many of the stars of 1988's Coming to America, including, of course, Murphy as the beloved Prince (now King) Akeem.

Though most critics and audiences didn't feel it measured up to the original (what does?), it provided much needed laughter during the pandemic when it was released on Amazon Prime Video.

Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049: 35 years

The original 1982 Blade Runner, set in 2019, is a sci-fi classic movie that felt like a closed story, impossible to improve upon.

But for 2017's Blade Runner 2049, Denis Villeneuve dared to take over from original Blade Runner director Ridley Scott, and did the original film justice in this sequel that featured K (Ryan Gosling) hunting down replicants and running eventually into the hero of the original film, Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford).

Ana de Armas, in one of her breakout roles, added an element of mystery and sadness as K's A.I. hologram girlfriend, Joi.

Blade Runner 2049 was a box office letdown, but feels like a building block to Villeneuve's incredibly ambitious Dune films. It also spawned a TV series, Blade Runner: Black Lotus.

Top Gun to Top Gun: Maverick: 36 years

Joseph Kosinski's mastery of revisiting older material is most apparent with 2022's Top Gun: Maverick, which he directed. It brought back 1986's Top Gun star Tom Cruise as Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, and has proven to be, so far, the biggest hit of Cruise's long career.

Earning nearly $1.5 billion worldwide, it was the second-highest-grossing film of 2022, behind Avatar: The Way of Water, and deserves much of the credit for bringing audiences back to theaters after the long pandemic shutdowns. (Avatar: The Way of Water was released a mere 13 years after the original Avatar.)

Did Tom Cruise save movies? You could make that case. And a new Top Gun is in the works.

Beetlejuice and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice: 36 Years

Say this for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice: Everyone has aged very well since the 1988 original of half of the same name. And Michael Keaton didn't even have to worry about aging, given that his character is, well, dead.

In addition to returning Beetlejuice stars Keaton, Winona Ryder and Catherine O'Hara, the sequel includes new additions Justin Theroux, Monica Bellucci, Jenna Ortega, and Willem Dafoe in a new story of the Deetz family.

Audiences found it very much worth the wait: The Tim Burton comedy has earned more than $450 million on a $100 million budget.

Mary Poppins and Mary Poppins Returns: 54 Years

The live-action record for the longest break between an original classic movie and sequel goes to 1964's Mary Poppins and 2018's Mary Poppins Returns.

We know this Emily Blunt-led charmer is almost more of a reboot than a sequel, and didn't include most of the original team, many of whom were no longer with us. But we're counting it because the storyline directly continued that of Mary Poppins, the sequel brought back Dick Van Dyke from the original, and both were based on the works of author P. L. Travers.

We could have included a lot of other Disney films on this list — 101 Dalmations, Lady and the Tramp and others all had straight to video sequels. But again, we're only counting theatrical releases.

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Main image: Tron Legacy. Disney.