What other franchises could become as popular as Star Wars?

Star Wars is what it is essentially on the strength of 3 films, the original three.

Think about that.

I can't really think of anything that is anywhere near the same stratosphere other than the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
 
Star Wars is what it is essentially on the strength of 3 films, the original three.

Think about that.

I can't really think of anything that is anywhere near the same stratosphere other than the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
I can think of Harry Potter, but it relies on Potter too much, but based on my limited knowledge, there are other magic schools that could be interesting like the French and Russian ones, not to mention the new movie which is based in America and doesn't involve the main gang. ( I think?)
 
Star Wars is what it is essentially on the strength of 3 films, the original three.

Think about that.

I can't really think of anything that is anywhere near the same stratosphere other than the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
This is a vast overstatement. A significant number of people also don't like Return of the Jedi and one might notice it's easily the least homaged film of the original trilogy. A lot of people will tell you many of the same problems bugging the prequels began with Jedi. This is coming from someone who loved Jedi, just to clarify. I watched it probably literally a hundred times more than The Empire Strikes Back. That doesn't change how other people feel.

The Star Wars franchise rests entirely on the legacy of the first two films, with special emphasis on The Empire Strikes Back.

I can think of Harry Potter, but it relies on Potter too much, but based on my limited knowledge, there are other magic schools that could be interesting like the French and Russian ones, not to mention the new movie which is based in America and doesn't involve the main gang. ( I think?)
The new film takes place in America, yes, and seems to be part of an effort to create a larger universe around Harry Potter. Most responses I've seen to Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them has been moaning and groaning about the very fact it is not a continuation of the Potter franchise proper. I'm optimistic but I'm not expecting a box office success.
 
The Witcher series could probably lend itself to some sort of cinematic adaptatioj, although much of the intricacies would have to be cut.

For such a rich universe, The Witcher has always been strangely unexplored, both in the books and the game.

Much of life in Nilfgaard is never covered, Kovir & Povis are barely visited, and whatever is beyond the Blue Mountains is never discolsed, except for the Mongol-esque Haakland. Quite a sandbox there.
 

Gaius Julius Magnus

Gone Fishin'
I think it would have to be a completely new franchise and property that doesn't exist in OTL rather than one that does but isn't as widespread as Star Wars.
 
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One show that had potential for mass franchise material was Gargoyles. The producer and co-creator Greg Weisman had plans for at least six spin off. I also believe that there were plans for a cross-over with the proposed Atlantis cartoon. Unfortunately the Goliath Chronicles happened, but we do not speak of the Goliath Chronicles. If things had gone differently I could see Greg, with the full backing of the Disney Corporation, turning Gargoyles into a pretty successful multi-media franchise.
 
The new film takes place in America, yes, and seems to be part of an effort to create a larger universe around Harry Potter. Most responses I've seen to Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them has been moaning and groaning about the very fact it is not a continuation of the Potter franchise proper. I'm optimistic but I'm not expecting a box office success.
Ohhh... This is important if a franchise can't do well without the main character/gang and then it doesn't work as it needs the potential to have an expanded universe that survives without the stars, Harry Potter shows that it most likely can't, so I guess it's disqualified as we see in OTL how people respond to an expanded universe( it wouldn't survive).
 
Metal gear could also work , if it wasn't so reliant on the creator, but this is ATL, so we could say it could.
 
I'm reminded of a pop-culture timeline: An Alternate Rise to the Blockbuster, about George Lucas delaying making Star Wars so that he could direct Apocalypse Now on behalf of Francis Ford Coppola. In it Star Wars is delayed a year, causing Richard Donner's Superman to become the highest grossing movie of all time. In a similar situation I can see the resulting film franchise overshadowing Star Wars completely (if Donner remains in the director's seat), with it becoming popular on the level of something like the Alien movies and Indiana Jones, while Superman becomes that one super popular movie that everybody knows about and was expected to have seen at least once.
 
I am generally suspicious if comic books like those from DC would work, as one of the big things about having an expanded universe is that it crosses multiple mediums, and comics are likely to stay comics. Like star wars has lots of comics that take place in the universe, so does halo and transformers, not to not to mention novels that do in depth exploration of the universe.
 
I am generally suspicious if comic books like those from DC would work, as one of the big things about having an expanded universe is that it crosses multiple mediums, and comics are likely to stay comics. Like star wars has lots of comics that take place in the universe, so does halo and transformers, not to not to mention novels that do in depth exploration of the universe.

One could claim that OTL, the Bat-verse almost qualifies. Successful and popular comics with spinoffs, movies, animated TV, live action TV, video games... make Catwoman a little less bad, give Birds of Prey a few full seasons, and maybe there's enough there to put it over the hump.
 
One could claim that OTL, the Bat-verse almost qualifies. Successful and popular comics with spinoffs, movies, animated TV, live action TV, video games... make Catwoman a little less bad, give Birds of Prey a few full seasons, and maybe there's enough there to put it over the hump.
Well, one of the important things about star wars is that time moves forward and back. Like you get stories that take place even before Anakin was born, but with comics everything has to take place in the "present", so an actual timeline becomes difficult. The popular Legacy star wars comics take place with Luke's descendants being the focus , while he's dead. DC would never have a continuous world where Batman is undeniably dead at a single point in chronology. Like comics, would need a stable timeline that establishes that this happens here.
 
Another vote for PLANET OF THE APES - Five movies, a tv series, a cartoon, another movie and now two new movies; lots of potential here.

TERMINATOR - Five movies and a tv series. I still see a lot of potential in this.

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS - The 80's cartoon based on the RPG. This had a lot of potential but never realized it. The terrible theatrical movie didn't help at all...
 
Maybe, the wizard of Oz, since if you look on Wikipedia it already has a great world for being a sandbox. It doesn't even have to focus on Dorothy and the gang. Perhaps the Cthulhu mythos as well?

♫ "We're off to see the Wizard ... the Hideous Wizard of Leng!" ♫


(Actually, the Dreamlands stories would sorta be the venn intersection between Oz and HPL Mythos. Surprised they weren't ever used as a MMORPG setting)
 
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♫ "We're off to see the Wizard ... the Hideous Wizard of Leng!" ♫


(Actually, the Dreamlands stories would sorta be the venn intersection between Oz and HPL Mythos. Surprised they weren't ever used as a MMORPG setting)
Imagine Oz and the great old ones existing in the same universe. Someone could actually make a story on this, since they're both in the public domain.:extremelyhappy:
 
I think it would have to be a completely new franchise and property that doesn't exist in OTL rather than one that does but isn't as widespread as Star Wars.
Oh I don't know, I think Trek could do it, if Paramount were to do a 180 on their draconian anti-fan-works measures.
 
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