Last month, Prey showed up on Hulu and was widely acclaimed by critics and audiences. Praised for its action and character development, Prey showed that, as a prequel to Predator, it could more than holds its own feet. However, prequels can vary in effectiveness.
While there can be many reasons a prequel may not live up to the hype, one of these can be that the film could not fit such a large story into on film. While some work well as films, others may have benefited more from a small screen release.
Fantastic Beast And Where To Find Them
The Fantastic Beast And Where To Find Them series have suffered from the law of diminishing returns. What once was a series that piqued the interest of Harry Potter fans has now lost a lot of its luster, with the most recent film Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, grossing the lowest amount of money of any film in the Harry Potter series (via Variety).
One fan, Reddit User Random10187, discussed their dislike for the films, which they believe to be written poorly, but lacking any focus on the books that they are based on. They believe a series would work to give more attention to Newt Scamander. “Fantastic Beasts could have even been a tv series about Newt, his passion for magical creatures and his adventures studying and documenting them to write his book.”
Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
In recent years, people have warmed up to the Star Wars prequels, The Phantom Menace, Attack Of The Clones and Revenge Of The Sith. While they are not perfect, they are still fun films that show how good George Lucas is at world-building and still hold up today.
This is one of the reasons that Reddit user No1PDPSStanAccount believed the movies may have worked better as a short series. That would have given them more time to develop the characters and gave them more time to work on developing relationships (such as Anakin and Padme). “I can also imagine the opening battle for ROTS spanning a good hour or so, telling the story from not just Anakin & Obi-Wan’s perspective, but from Palpatine and Dooku’s, while they’re discussing the future for their “Sith Empire,”‘ they say, providing a lot more inspiration and ideas.
Alien: Covenant
Both Prometheus and Alien: Covenant have long divided the fans of the original Alien films. For some, they are entertaining films, directed by the same legend, Ridley Scott, that brought the first film into the world. For others, they are disappointments that feel like a huge missed opportunity to expand on the story of the Alien universe.
Reddit user Pancake_Muncher believes that the films try to pack too much into a short amount of time and would work better as a series due to that. “I wish these prequels were some miniseries or TV show that give it room to breathe to expand the mythology, motivations, and build up the horror,” they said. While they are certainly frightening, there’s no doubt that a tv series could have brought a new level of terror by building up the suspense. The jumpscares would have been a lot more unpredictable and unexpected.
Cruella
Cruella was a successful film for Disney when it was released in 2021. A solid Emma Stone performance helped take a film that could have been run-of-the-mill and made it a film worth remembering (even if it was about a character that did not need an origin story). However, for some, it fell back into the cash-grab formula that many have accused Disney of with their live-action remakes and prequels.
Reddit user Ruraraid said the film did nothing for Cruella and was unnecessary. They believed that, if anything, Disney should make a series based on their characters instead of all of these movies. “Hell, they could even do a what if series for their classic animated movies similar to the Marvel Comics and MCU What If series.” Given the success of this film, it seems unlikely that Disney would go down this path; however, the ideas are very much intriguing, especially since some fans have wondered what would have happened if some villains succeeded in their plans.
The Hobbit
While The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power will bring the iconic series to TV for the first time, some have thought that the iconic Hobbit books would work better as a TV show in the first place. Peter Jackson’s prequels were highly successful, but they did not quite reach the heights if the original The Lord Of The Rings films.
Interestingly enough, Reddit User Cranyx stated their belief that The Hobbit films would work better as a TV show 7 years ago, pointing to things such as how the book follows a more episodic structure then a 3-act one that was used for the films. “There are 20 chapters in the book, and I could easily see each one being a 10-30 minute episode depending on whether it was one of the longer chapters,” they said. While budgets like that were not given often to TV in 2015, they are now.
Black Widow
Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow was a moderate success, considering that it came out when streaming was at its biggest due to the pandemic. It was praised for giving more of a backstory to Black Widow, as well as the performances of Johansson and Florence Pugh.
Reddit User Grom260 enjoyed the film, but believed it could have been helped out with more time, stating “I think it would’ve been better as a Disney+ series where the family drama and political intrigue could be fleshed out.” This opinion makes even more sense with the numerous Marvel shows on Disney+.
X-Men Prequels
The X-Men films did a soft reboot in 2011 with X-Men: First Class. The film was highly successful and led to numerous films that work as prequels and reboots to the series. However, while the films started off as critical and commercial successes, they have gotten less acclaim as time has gone on.
Reddit User IAmAOzzieNewsomeGuy mentioned that much like Star Trek, they always believed that X-Men would work better as a TV show, which gives time to flesh out each of its expansive cast of characters. “The thing is, there really isn’t a lot of opportunity to explore the entire cast and their stories on the big screen. On film, it’s always going to be a Wolverine (or now, Mystique) movie, with Prof. Xavier and Magneto having big roles and the rest of the cast just being secondary.” The show would give them more of a different direction to expand on the characters, one thing the user did not think the original or reboots did well.
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