Hollywood is a wild place. Every day it seems like we hear about new film projects on the horizon. However, just because a writer or director says they plan to make a thing, that doesn't mean that thing is ever actually going to happen. Movies get stuck in development hell often, and a lot of the time, that's exactly where they stay. Casts and crews move on to other projects and that film you were super excited about quietly dies.
We've been so sure that various film ideas were never going to happen that we've written about those concepts we were sure we'd never see, no matter how much we wished otherwise. For the most part, we've been right. Those movies have stayed dead, but every once in a while, a movie we were sure would never happen somehow gets resurrected.
Here we stand, in a post-Bad Boys For Life world. After nearly two decades and more promises from Martin Lawrence that it would happen than we can possibly count, we actually got the movie. So with that in mind, here are eight more movies we were sure we'd never actually see, and yet, we will, and some of them quite soon.
Bill And Ted Face the Music
The first two Bill & Ted movies came out fairly close together, and while nothing about the way the second film ended necessarily required a third film, that's certainly the way these things usually go. Alex Winter, who played Bill. S. Preston, was seemingly always interested in going back and making a third film, and while talk started to heat up back in 2014, we just never saw much forward momentum. The fact that so much time had passed, that international audiences had no association with the characters, and even that George Carlin had died, all made it seem like a trilogy would just never happen.
And then, in 2018, Bill and Ted Face the Music was officially announced as a real movie that we were actually going to see. Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves are both back. The movie has already gone in front of cameras. It's going to be out later this year. Truly, this is excellent news. I've never been happier to be wrong.
Top Gun: Maverick
Tom Cruise has been a massive movie star for decades, but one of the big films that cemented that position was Top Gun. It was an absolutely epic summer blockbuster with insane fighter jet action. It's sort of crazy that a sequel never happened back in the 1980s, but it didn't, despite the fact that people wanted one. Tom Cruise himself often seemed up for the idea, especially recently. Of course, even when it looked like maybe the movie was really going to happen, years would go by and we'd hear nothing.
And then Top Gun: Maverick was put on the release calendar, and the sequel became a real thing. That initial date saw a delay of its own, but production never slowed down. Maverick will be back flying jets again. Who ever thought we'd live to see the day?
Avatar 2 And 3
When you make a movie that becomes the highest grossing film of all-time, it's practically shocking that a sequel isn't put into production overnight. To be sure, James Cameron has been talking about making multiple sequels to Avatar since the first film became a real hit, but 10 years have passed, and for most of that time, nothing seemed to actually be happening. At least James Cameron was honest that the writing process was a long and difficult thing. Still, eventually you just got the impression Cameron would be writing and editing this thing forever, and it would never actually go in front of cameras.
Even once James Cameron claimed to have finished scripts for four additional movies, they just kept getting pushed back. At one point we were supposed to have Avatar 2 back in 2014, and it's basically been scheduled for every December since. And yet, after all the delays, the first two films of the proposed four have entered production and will see the light of day. Whether we'll actually see the other two films before we're all too old, it's still too early to tell. Disney has them on the release calendar, but until they actually start filming, I'm not sure we can be confident considering how long these first two movies took.
Coming 2 America
Most movies on this list are films that we've been teased with as potential sequels that just never looked like they would ever happen. Some, however, are sequels that no one ever expected to see, and most of us were fine with that. Coming to America was one of Eddie Murphy's bigger hits during his heyday of the mid-to-late 1980s, but it's not the sort of film that ever really asked to return. And yet, a couple years back, we started to hear rumblings of a sequel that turned out to be true.
While this may not be the movie that anybody asked for, that doesn't mean it won't be well received when it arrives. The original Coming to America was a truly great movie, and nearly all of the entire original cast will be back for the sequel, which is now being called Coming 2 America. With Eddie Murphy himself apparently refreshed following his stellar performance in Dolemite is my Name, maybe this will be the funniest movie nobody asked for. Murphy is also moving forward on Beverly Hills Cop 4, which is another movie that seemed like we'd never see. While it's far from clear yet if that one will really happen too, the signs are looking good.
The Matrix 4
The Matrix trilogy was one of the biggest film franchises at the turn of the millennium, and while the sequels aren't as well regarded as the groundbreaking original, there probably would have been a lot of people in line at the multiplex if there had been a fourth film announced in the series. The trilogy left things in a place that felt definitive, but could always be used to make more movies if such an idea came along. At one point, Zak Penn, screenwriter of Ready Player One, was reportedly brought on board to write a movie set in the same universe, though not necessarily directly related to the original trilogy, but that movie hasn't been heard from in a couple years.
Which made the announcement that not only was a new Matrix movie coming, but that it would be a direct sequel to the original, as well include Keanu Reeves and be written and directed by by Lana Wachowski, more than a little shocking. It seemed like everybody, especially the Wachowskis, had moved on from The Matrix, and if we ever saw a movie, it would be somebody else's vision. It seems this story isn't quite over yet.
Dune
Frank Herbert's science fiction classic Dune may truly be one of the most difficult works to try and adapt for the screen. It was most famously tried in 1984 by David Lynch, but with only limited success. The production was a massive undertaking that resulted in a battle between Lynch and the studio. That film has [seen multiple edits](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune(1984film), many of which don't even bear David Lynch's name, and none of which are really the movie he wanted to make by most accounts. The film even needed a cheat sheet so the audience wouldn't get lost. Since then, there have been multiple attempts to get the ball rolling on a new film version, but they've always ended in the same place.
And then the living insanity that is Denis Villeneuve got involved. The man had already brought us one movie we never thought we'd see: a sequel to Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, and he moved from there to helming the Dune remake, which is actually being planned as two movies. The first one, at the very least, is actually happening, and it's still set to debut later this year.
Space Jam 2
On its face, it's at least understandable why people started making comments about Space Jam 2. When Lebron James came on the scene in the NBA, he was the biggest thing since Michael Jordan. And one of the most famous, or at least infamous, things that Jordan did during his career was star in the feature length shoe commercial, Space Jam. Except that Lebron James actually seemed interested in making a Space Jam sequel, but that would never actually happen, would it?
As it turns out, yeah, it would totally happen. Space Jam 2 is a real movie that will star Lebron James and a collection of Loony Tunes. No, I don't believe it's actually happening either but so far the math is in favor of it becoming a reality.
Whether or not any of these films will actually be worth the wait is anybody's guess. Some may be, others probably won't live up to expectations, but in their own way, they're all quite impressive simply for the fact that they made it out of development hell and will very soon be on the big screen. Let this be a lesson that whatever else happens, there's always a chance that movie idea you love could happen.
