Dictionary Definition
sequel
Noun
1 something that follows something else [syn:
subsequence]
2 a part added to a book or play that continues
and extends it [syn: continuation]
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Pronunciation
- /ˈsiːkwəl/, /"si:kw@l/
Noun
- A narrative that is written after another narrative set in the same universe, especially a narrative that is chronologically set after its predecessors, or (perhaps improper usage) any narrative that has a preceding narrative of its own.
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
Extensive Definition
A sequel is a work in literature, film, or other media that portrays
events following those of a previous work.
In many cases, the sequel continues elements of
the original story, often with the same characters and settings. A
sequel can lead to a series, in
which key elements appear in a number of stories. Although the
difference between more than one sequel and a series is somewhat
arbitrary, it is clear that some media
franchises have enough sequels to become series, whether
originally planned as such or not.
Sequels are attractive to creators and to
publishers because there is less risk involved in returning to a
story with known popularity rather than developing new and untested
characters and settings. Audiences are sometimes eager for more
stories about popular characters or settings, making the production
of sequels financially appealing.
If the main character dies at the end of the
first work, a new character (perhaps a son or daughter, or a
supporting character) may take up the role in the sequel. In other
cases, the main character is simply brought back, or determined not
to have died, or simply replaced by a new character.
Chronologies
There are a number of ways that subsequent works can be related to chronology of the original. Various neologisms have been coined to describe them.Sequel
The most obvious approach is for the events of the second work to directly follow the events of the first, either picking up dangling plot threads or introducing a new conflict to drive the events of a second story. Because this is most common, there is no special term for it.Prequel
A sequel that portrays events which precede those of the original work, called a "prequel". These can often avoid the plot problems associated with having to deal with the consequences of the original (e.g. the death of an important character). However they pose the challenge of maintaining dramatic interest when the outcome is already known from the original work, so the focus is usually on the character interactions and/or revealing how the characters and situations of the original work developed.Interquel
When there are already two or more completed works, a sequel can portray events which happen between them, bridging one story to the other. An "interquel" is therefore a sequel to one work and a prequel to another. The video game Metroid Prime was released after Metroid and Metroid II, but takes place between them; the same is true for Devil May Cry 4 which takes place between Devil May Cry and Devil May Cry 2. This is more common in ancillary works in other media rather than works in a popular series. For example, the novel The Godfather Returns takes place between the events of the films The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, and the Star Wars multimedia project Shadows of the Empire takes place between the films The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.Midquel
Similarly, a midquel can take place during a chronology gap within a single previously completed work. For example, the video game Daxter takes place during a two-year gap in Jak II, between the moments when the character of Jak is taken prisoner and when he is rescued. Another "midquel" would be the film Bambi II, which starts out shortly after the death of the young deer's mother in Bambi, but before the later scenes in which he is an adult. In recent work the horror movies Saw III and Saw IV run at the same time and meet up at one point in the end.Parallel
A sequel can portray the events of a previously completed work from another perspective. As with a prequel, the focus is not on the outcome, but on the characters and previously unrevealed information. For example, the novel Ender's Shadow covers the events of the previous novel Ender's Game from the point of view of a supporting character in the original. The film The Lion King 1½ is a "parallel" of The Lion King; the same story is told, only from the point of view of Timon and Pumbaa, secondary characters in the original film. The first three novels in author E. E. Knights Age of Fire series all take place at the same time, yet each book is told from a different character's point of view - the first, Dragon Champion, from grey scaleless dragon Auron's; the second, Dragon Avenger, from his sister Wistala; and the third, Dragon Outcast, from his unnamed copper brother.Distant
Sometimes there is a large chronological interval between the events in a completed work and its sequel. This can allow the creators additional freedom, since the characters and settings will not be expected to have as much in common. A distant sequel allows time for new conflicts to develop, and a distant prequel need not directly establish the setting for the original. Speaker for the Dead is an extreme example of this, set 3,000 years after the novel Ender's Game. Some of the sequels and prequels in the Chronicles of Narnia series are separated by centuries in the chronology of the fantasy land and/or decades in the chronology of the real world. The series Star Trek: The Next Generation follows the events of the original Star Trek by several decades. More moderate chronological distances can result from works being set in "the present" but released years apart, such as The Terminator and its sequels, released in 1984, 1991, and 2003.Sidequel
A variety of sequel that allows substantial creative freedom is one that is set in the same "universe" as the original work, but with unrelated plots, and sometimes unrelated characters. Screenwriter David Peoples described his film Soldier as a "sidequel" to Blade Runner (which he co-wrote). When done with the intention of launching a new series of stories, these are often called "spin-offs". See also: gaiden.Companion piece
A companion piece is a creative work that is produced as a complementary work to another stand-alone project, but storywise has nothing to do with its predecessor. While a companion piece does not necessarily need to take place within the same "universe" as the predecessor, it must follow-up on specific themes and ideas introduced in the original work. It must also be intentionally meant by its creator to be viewed alongside or within the same context as the earlier work. Examples would include Letters from Iwo Jima (Clint Eastwood's companion piece to his earlier picture, Flags of Our Fathers), the Road to... pictures starring Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour, and Bob Hope, and films featuring the Three Stooges, the Marx Brothers, or the Tramp.Threequel
Very rarely, a sequel to a sequel is called a "threequel" or (less commonly) "triquel". When the third work is (or is expected to be) the last, the works may be collectively known as a "trilogy". If there are exactly three sequels, it may be called a Quartet, such as the Time Quartet by Madeleine L'Engle. When more than two or three sequels are produced, they are commonly called a "series," or, less commonly, an "anthology."Media franchises
In some cases, the characters or setting of an original film or video game become so valuable that they develop into a media franchise. Generally a whole series of sequels is made, along with merchandising. Multiple sequels are often planned well in advance and actors and directors may sign extended contracts to ensure their participation. A huge example of this is Pokemon.Media shifting
Sequels are most often produced in the same medium as the previous work (e.g. a film sequel is usually a sequel to another film). Producing sequels to a work in another medium has recently become common, especially when the new medium is less costly or time-consuming to produce.A sequel to a popular – but
discontinued – television series may be produced in
another medium, thereby bypassing whatever factors led to the
series cancellation. Noteworthy examples include the Star
Trek films , Serenity
(based on the Firefly
series), and
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. The
Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series was continued after
cancellation for another "season" as a comic
book.
Some highly popular movies and television series
have inspired the production of multiple novel sequels, sometimes
rivaling or even dwarfing the volume of works in the original
medium. An ongoing series of novels (largely interquels) begun in
the 1970s were based on the original Star Trek
series, with more following with the sequel films and TV series.
The novels and graphic
novels in the Star Wars
Expanded Universe are sequels, prequels, and interquels to the
films.
Computer games are an increasingly common medium
for sequels to films. The
Matrix Online, Stranglehold,
and
Scarface: The World is Yours are sequels to the films The Matrix,
Hard
Boiled, and Scarface,
respectively.
Whether these alternate-medium sequels are
considered canonical
varies. Final Fantasy VII Advent Children was produced by the same
company responsible for Final Fantasy VII and is therefore
canonical, but other sequel or prequel films based on video games,
such as Resident
Evil, are not. Bungie
Studios, the developer of the Halo video games, considers the
novel sequels to be canonical. The novels in the Star Wars Expanded
Universe are considered canonical by Lucasfilm, the
films' production company, though this is often debated amongst
fans. Likewise, the Blade Runner sequel novels are authorized and
officially considered canonical, but the issue is also a topic of
debate amongst fans.
Unofficial sequels
Sometimes sequels are produced without the consent of the creator of the original work. These may be dubbed unofficial, informal, unauthorized, or illegitimate sequels. In some cases, the work is in the public domain, and there is no legal obstacle to producing sequels, for example Jean Rhys wrote Wide Sargasso Sea as a parallel to Jane Eyre. In other cases, the original creator or their heirs may assert copyrights and challenge the creators of the sequels. For example, the estate of Margaret Mitchell sued over Alice Randall's novel The Wind Done Gone, a parallel of Gone with the Wind told from the perspective of the slaves; it was successfully defended as parody. Unofficial sequels to works that are still under copyright may change the names of the characters and alter the settings in an attempt to avoid legal action.Sequel titles
The producers of sequels have taken a variety of approaches to titling their works.In the early years of film, sequels were
generally given titles similar to the original and usually made use
of the main character's name. When the William
Powell-Myrna Loy
mystery film The
Thin Man (1934) turned out to be
a hit, the studio produced several more films featuring the
characters, such as After
the Thin Man and The
Thin Man Goes Home, even though the original "thin man" was the
subject of the mystery and not the detective. After the success of
A
Family Affair (1937), there came a
whole series of films starring Mickey
Rooney reprising the Andy Hardy
character in titles such as Love
Finds Andy Hardy and
Andy Hardy Meets Debutante.
The James Bond
franchise, however, stuck to the titles of Ian Fleming's
novels until they ran out, then fashioned new titles with similar
forms, none of which use the name "James Bond 007" or a number. The
Pink Panther series started out with a different title for each
(The
Pink Panther, A
Shot in the Dark, Inspector
Clouseau) in the 1960s. When the series was resumed after a six
year gap, the new approach was to append phrases to "The Pink
Panther", many of which came from classic horror films, i.e.
Son of
Frankenstein, The
Mummy's Curse. Even if the actual Pink Panther diamond that the
series takes its name from is not involved in a given sequel, they
were named with "Return of", "Strikes Again", "Revenge of", "Trail
of", "Curse of" and "Son of" the Pink Panther to clearly associate
them with each other.
Numbered sequels (particularly using Roman
numerals) became very popular in films and video games in the
1970s and 1980s. The
Godfather Part II (1974) was the first major motion picture to
use Part II in the title. The success of The Godfather, Part II
began the Hollywood tradition of numbered sequels; the first sequel
to designate itself as such simply by using a number in the title
was 1975's French
Connection II, and the trend continued with films such as
Rocky
II, Jaws
2 and Halloween
II. Occasionally, a homophonous word
is substituted for the number, such as in the case of Look
Who's Talking Too, the sequel to Look
Who's Talking, or the upcoming film Fletch Won,
which is a prequel to the film Fletch. As sequels
developed a reputation of being inferior to the original works, the
numbering of sequels became less common, or sometimes used for
humorous effect.
Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult is simply the third in the
Naked
Gun series. Leonard Part
6 had no predecessors, while
History of the World, Part I was made with no intention for a
sequel. Many sequels use subtitles instead of numbers or in
addition to them, such as Resident
Evil: Apocalypse, Underworld:
Evolution, X-Men:
The Last Stand, and
Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo. In other cases, sequels use
titles similar to their predecessors, such as Analyze This
sequel Analyze
That, Meet the
Parents sequel Meet the
Fockers, and Day
of the Dead sequel Land of
the Dead. Some such titles give a playful nod to the numbering
practice, as with The
Whole Nine Yards sequel The
Whole Ten Yards, or
Ocean's Eleven sequels Ocean's
Twelve and Ocean's
Thirteen.
Throughout this period of numbered sequels,
like-named sequels remained somewhat popular, and sometimes the
original film was renamed when it was released on home video to
match the naming of the sequels. What was once known as Star Wars
is now known as
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Similarly,
Raiders of the Lost Ark is known in its current video release
as Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark to better align it
with its
prequel and
sequel, and the DVD of Pitch Black
was renamed "The Chronicles Of Riddick: Pitch Black" to help
promote it as a predecessor to its sequel
The Chronicles Of Riddick.
With the rise of pre-planned series such as
The Lord of the Rings, filmmakers turned more to long titles
that include the franchise name and the title of the film separated
by a colon. Examples of these include
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the
Wardrobe.
Sequel-naming in translation varies. Following
the success of Home Alone in
Germany
(German
title: "Allein zu Haus" "Alone at home"), some of Macaulay
Culkin's other films were retronymed to capitalise on the
success (Uncle Buck
became "Allein mit Onkel Buck" "Alone with Uncle Buck"), even
though the two films were not linked in the same continuity. When
Dawn of
the Dead was released in Italy under the title Zombi, a similar
but unrelated Italian film was in production, which was released as
Zombi
2.
Numbers in the titles of sequels sometimes
indicate the order in which the sequel was produced, regardless of
the chronological events in the story. For example, the video game
Devil May Cry 3 was the third title in the Devil May Cry series
to be produced, though it is a prequel that takes place before
the events of Devil May
Cry and Devil May
Cry 2. The upcoming Devil May
Cry 4 is an interquel set between the original game and Devil
May Cry 2. However, while the sequel to the Japanese movie Ring was
called Ring
2, the subsequent prequel was Ring
0.
Occasionally a work is designated as a sequel to
an unrelated but similar work strictly for marketing purposes.
After releasing the computer game Quake, developer
id
Software decided to name its next game Quake II,
despite the fact that the two games are completely unrelated.
Quake
III is also unrelated to either of the previous Quake games,
although Quake 4 continues
the story of Quake II.
In recent years, many sequels have been given the
name of the title character, to imply a new beginning for a series.
For example, the sixth Rocky film was titled Rocky
Balboa; the sixth St Trinian's film was titled St.
Trinian's; and the fourth Rambo movie, following on from
First
Blood,
Rambo: First Blood Part II, and Rambo III was
called Rambo.
See also
References
External links
sequel in Danish: Sequel
sequel in German: Fortsetzung
sequel in Spanish: Secuela
sequel in French: Suite d'une œuvre
sequel in Italian: Sequel
sequel in Dutch: Sequel (amusement)
sequel in Norwegian: Oppfølger
sequel in Polish: Sequel
sequel in Russian: Сиквел (искусство)
sequel in Albanian: Sequel
sequel in Simple English: Sequel
sequel in Swedish: Uppföljare
sequel in Ukrainian: Сиквел
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
aftereffect, aftermath, alternation, by-product,
chain, chasing, close, closing, conclusion, consecution, consequence, consequent, continuation, corollary, derivation, derivative, descendant, development, distillate, dogging, dynasty, effect, end, ending, event, eventuality, eventuation, finish, finishing, follow-up, following, fruit, harvest, heeling, heir, hounding, issue, legacy, line, lineage, logical outcome,
offshoot, offspring, order, outcome, outgrowth, posterity, precipitate, product, progression, pursual, pursuance, pursuit, result, resultant, row, sequela, sequence, sequent, series, shadowing, successor, supplement, tailing, termination, trailing, train, upshot