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Matt Belinkie, Mark Lee, and Pete Fenzel do something boldly original and never to be repeated: talk about pop culture trend pieces written by actual newspapers. In the immediate aftermath of seeing Moana 2 and Gladiator 2, it’s time to chat about the cluster of think pieces around Hollywood’s huge reliance on sequels this year to make up both the top and bottom of its litany of accomplishments. Beset by a category too all-consuming to be useful, we present a taxonomy of sequels, overthinking their similarities and differences, and tracking the relationship between franchise and oeuvre as creative voices move in and out of the mouths of favorite characters. Plus, the extent to which sequels may or may not be parties, the lessons about remakes movies might be logistically unable to learn from stage plays, and “That Gollum, he’s so hot right now!” Are you up and coming, here and now, or down and going? Did anyone see Bad Boys: Ride or Die? Listen to this week’s episode to find out.

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Further Reading

• “Is Hollywood’s Addiction to Sequels Cannibalizing Its Future” by Owen Glieberman, from Variety
  
• The success of Moana 2 is nothing to be celebrated – there is a real crisis in animation, by Louis Chilton, from The Independent
  
• Worldwide box office leaders from BoxOfficeMojo: 2024 / 2023
• From ‘Megalopolis’ to ‘Joker: Folie à Deux,’ these are 2024’s biggest box office flops, by Aidin Vaziri, from the San Francisco Chronicle