Dollar signs multiply when a film exploits the series it’s connected to during its marketing campaign. Omitting the franchise connection during promotion increases the degree of difficulty in catching the audience’s attention.
When a sequel or prequel to a work isn’t heavily advertised as a sequel or prequel, fans benefit by going in with zero expectations. The Flash’s relation to 1989’s Batman was kept close to the vest and surprised casual fans with the trailer reveal. The shock is reminiscent of the surprise from films that kept their connections tied to their predecessor under wraps for a huge chunk of their runtimes.
1 'Django Unchained' (2012)
In Django Unchained, Jamie Foxx stars as Django Freeman, a freed slave turned bounty hunter on a quest to emancipate his wife. Film buffs scoured the picture searching for references linking back to Quentin Tarantino’s other movies. Their efforts were rewarded with the discovery that linked the prequel to a blaxploitation classic.
While promoting the revisionist Western at 2012’s Comic Con, Quentin Tarantino revealed Jamie Foxx and Kerry Washington’s characters were ancestors to the blaxploitation icon John Shaft. Taratino’s interview and Broomhilda von Shaft’s surname are the key evidence that corroborates Django Unchained being a prequel to the Shaft series.
2 'Charlie’s Angels' (2000)
Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu and Cameron Diaz star as private detectives in Charlie’s Angels. The second generation of Angels follows in the footsteps of the original cast from the TV series that ran from 1976 to 1981.
The voice of Charlie is provided by John Forsythe, the same actor who lent his voice to the television series. The connection to the original is hinted at in the first installment, but it isn’t until Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle that Jaclyn Smith cameos as an original Angel, confirming that the Charlie’s Angels films are sequels to the television show.
3 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom' (1984)
100% of fans who visited theaters to watch Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in 1984 thought they were watching a sequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark. Until this day, most viewers aren’t aware that Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is a secret prequel to the first Indiana Jones movie.
The date at the beginning of the second film is the only wink toward the notion of a prequel. The events of the stealth prequel take place in 1935, a year before the action in Raiders of the Lost Ark kicked off.
4 '21 Jump Street' (2012)
Audiences went into 2012’s 21 Jump Street believing the buddy cop comedy was simply just an adaption of the old television series. Following a Johnny Depp and Peter DeLuise cameo revealed during a Mexican stand-off during the climax of the movie, viewers learned 21 Jump Street is a sequel to the original television series.
Officers Tom Hanson and Doug Penhall’s clue the audience that the Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum are legacy characters in the same cinematic universe as the television show. The uncredited cameos were kept under wraps up until the film’s premiere, so fans were genuinely surprised by the ties to the TV series.
5 'Prometheus' (2012)
During development, the studio went back and forth on whether to pursue Prometheus as a reboot or direct prequel to Alien. Some critics labeled the film a quasi-prequel which is more in line with Ridley Scott’s goal for the motion picture.
At the end of the science fiction horror movie, an alien jumps out of a dead Engineer’s chest. The cameo signals a connection to the original series, but fans were still confused in how the Prometheus movie fit into the Alien franchise. Ridley Scott mentioned the film takes place in the same universe, but the connection is complicated because the prequel follows it’s own ideas.
6 'Split' (2016)
Director M. Night Shyamalan is known for his twist endings that catch the audience off guard. Minutes before the closing credits in Split, viewers were thrown a curveball with an uncredited cameo by Bruce Willis that connected the film to 2000’s Unbreakable.
Split became the second installment of the eventual Unbreakable trilogy. Subtle clues are sprinkled throughout the film, but not enough hints for a first-time viewer to pick up on the connection. The secrecy surrounding Willis’ cameo makes it one of M. Night’s most effective twists since The Sixth Sense. Unless a spoiler alert ruins the experience, no viewer would consider Split a sequel until the end of the movie.
7 'Star Trek' (2009)
Marketed as an origin story, Star Trek threw audiences for a loop when it connected itself to previous Star Trek motion pictures. A time-traveling Leonard Nemoy reprises his role as an aged Spock and connects the dots between the original series and the Kelvin timeline Star Trek pictures.
Timeline manipulation sets new characters towards a different series of events, but nonetheless, the Kelvin timeline is a reboot that shares the same cinematic universe as the original series. The startling inclusion of the original Spock establishes Star Trek as a prequel to movies released from 1979 to 1991.
8 'Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle' (2017)
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle was believed to be a modernized remake of the 1995 Jumanji featuring the late Robin Williams. In the middle of the film, the new Jumanji contestants find a makeshift safe house built by Robin Williams’ character with a message “Allan Parrish Was Here” carved into a branch wall.
The cast and director hinted that they would honor the original, but no one expected the movie to serve as a sequel to the original picture. In addition to the Allen Parrish reference, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle’s villain shares the same surname as the antagonist from the 1995 film confirming the movies are linked.
9 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' (2021)
Spider-Man: No Way Home includes alternate versions of the wall-crawler after Doctor Strange breaches a multiverse portal. Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield reprise their roles as Spider-Man, establishing Spider-Man: No Way Home as a sequel to Spider-Man: Far From Home and stealth sequels to Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
Loads of fans speculated the comic book movie would reference former Parkers, but the fan theories were quickly shot down by Garfield during the promotional campaign for the MCU film. All three Spider-Men have lengthy screen time and by the end of the picture, the sequel sews up the trio’s character arcs from each of their first installments.
10 'The Flash' (2023)
In the new The Flash movie, the time travel element allows The Sultan of Speed to play with different timelines. Michael Keaton was featured in the Superbowl trailer and alerted unsuspecting fans that The Flash would continue the story of Tim Burton’s Batman.
The upcoming film was foreshadowed in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice and viewers were already expecting that the comic book movie would tie in different characters from the DCEU properties. It’s understandable how General Zod, the main antagonist from Man of Steel, connects the film to other DCEU pictures, but with Keaton’s reprisal of The Caped Crusader, The Flash serves as a stealth sequel to Batman Returns.