Culture Crash: An Overflow of Legacy Sequels

It’s been a dominant decade or so for legacy sequels. Movies like Top Gun: Maverick have controlled the box office and given audiences a dose of nostalgia all at the same time. However, some of the Disney properties like the MCU and the Star Wars universe have started feeling overdone.

When Disney first announced their plans to make Star Wars and MCU shows on Disney Plus, I thought it sounded like a fun idea. A series or two to buy the time between movies could keep enthusiasm up and allow audiences to go deeper into their respective worlds. The problem though has been that there are just so many of them. I’ve heard good things about the show Andor, a new Star Wars entry, but I haven’t made the time to watch it because I’m Star Wars-ed out.

By contrast, another legacy franchise is doing things in a more methodical way. The Creed movies, the legacy sequel series to the Rocky movies, still manage to activate my nostalgia centers and give me new stories I’m excited to see. When Creed originally came out in 2015, it was thought of as basically another Rocky movie. But slowly over time, the amount of Rocky has gone down and the audience’s investment in Michael B Jordan’s Adonis Creed has gone up. Now, a third movie is on the way, and Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky isn’t even slated to appear.

By not over-indulging — by letting the story take its time and allowing the audience to connect with this new saga without relying constantly on our investment in the original series, the Creed franchise has been able to stand on its own. And I’m eagerly anticipating Creed III as a result. That movie comes out in March of 2023. But in the meantime, audiences can rewatch Creed and Creed II until their heart is content. I know I will be.