Yahoo News 7 stars who came back to save the franchise
Franchises are tricky things to get right. For every beloved MCU, there's a stinky old Underworld or Resident Evil.
Sometimes, what they need is not some new gimmick but a steadying, reliable hand (see Linda Hamilton's upcoming attempt to rehabilitate the tarnished Terminator franchise). The following actors returned at the 11th hour to get things back on track.
1. Vin Diesel – Fast and Furious
Vin Diesel and Paul Walker's 2001 The Fast and the Furious was considered a half-decent action movie. Diesel dropped out for the sequel, and had a very small cameo in the third and least-loved of the series, Tokyo Drift.
Diesel returned to star in the fourth instalment (confusingly titled Fast & Furious), which pretty much ignored the last two movies and put the series on track to becoming the multi-billion dollar earner it is today. His partnership with Walker restored the heart of the series and, as producer, he helped to tie the loose threads of the films. The rest is (very lucrative) history.
2. Vin Diesel again – xXx
Him again! Only those with photographic memories are cursed to remember anything about the sequel to the silly but well-liked xXx, in which Ice Cube tried and failed to fill Diesel's shoes.
In 2017 – 15 years after the original and 11 years after the threequel was first announced – Diesel came back in xXx: Return of Xander Cage. It was still completely daft, but there's no denying that he has the action magic (and reputation), and the box-office gross blew movie two clear out of the water.
3. Jamie Lee Curtis – Halloween
Jamie Lee Curtis's first two Halloween films were followed by the divisive, totally unconnected Michael Myers-free Halloween III: Season of the Witch. After that, Myers came back for three films, but without Curtis the magic just wasn't there.
In 1998, the appropriately named Halloween H20: 20 Years Later brought Curtis back (alongside some notable up-and-comers like Michelle Williams and Joseph Gordon-Levitt). Did Curtis improve the franchise, or did she come back because the film was good enough?
Whatever the case, it felt like a return to form rather than another cheap cash-in, and Curtis legitimised the movie enough to revive interest in the property.
And after another three bad and/or divisive instalments without her, Curtis will be back again for the 30th anniversary in 2018.
4. Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill – Star Wars
With his second Star Wars trilogy, George Lucas gave the people what he wanted rather than what they wanted – which turned out to be a badly told story that did everything it could to turn Darth Vader from iconic villain into whiny idiot.
JJ Abrams and the post-Lucas Lucasfilm knew better, and with 2015's Star Wars: The Force Awakens they carefully created a movie that fans would love. This supreme trick of nostalgia wouldn't have been possible without original stars Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford – the last of whom in particular was on fire as grumpy old Han Solo.
The Last Jedi will be the late Fisher's final movie, and however long Hamill sticks around, the trio have done their work in easing us into a new era of young stars and highly familiar space adventures.
5. Matt Damon – Bourne
After a trilogy of acclaimed Bourne films, Matt Damon stepped down as the titular star in favour of Jeremy Renner. Renner was fine as Aaron Cross, but he couldn't overcome the sense of disappointment that Damon wasn't in the movie. The franchise was looking pretty much dead at this point.
Then riding on a white steed, with director Paul Greengrass clinging on behind him, Damon announced that he was coming back nine years later for Jason Bourne. It actually received the same disappointing Rotten Tomatoes score as Renner's Bourne Legacy (and at 56% a far cry from the "certified fresh" original trilogy), but at the box office it got things right back on track.
A sixth film has been discussed, but its future is looking uncertain.
6. Sean Connery – James Bond (Diamonds Are Forever)
Few tears were likely shed after second (and Digital Spy's officially worst) Bond George Lazenby decided to walk away from his potential seven-movie contract after On Her Majesty's Secret Service. But how to right 007's ship after that epic wobble?
Everyone from Michael Gambon and Burt Reynolds to Imitation of Life's John Gavin and... er... Batman's Adam West were considered, but the Broccolis decided that the safest pair of hands were the most familiar ones. Sean Connery returned, but only after securing a record $1.25 million for his services.
Connery refused the follow-up, leading to the casting of Roger Moore for Live and Let Die, although he did don the tux one last time 12 years later for off-brand Bond film Never Say Never Again.
7. Heather Langenkamp – A Nightmare on Elm Street
After the genuinely terrifying first three Nightmare on Elm Street movies, the franchise took a turn for the worse as ideas dried up and Freddy went from frightening to vaguely annoying. Star Heather Langenkamp scarpered after the third movie, Dream Warriors, but returned seven years later to star in Wes Craven's New Nightmare, which reunited her with series creator Wes Craven (who directed one and co-wrote three).
New Nightmare was a meta precursor to Scream which saw Heather, Wes Craven and Robert Englund playing themselves in a movie which completely refreshed the series.
...then they made Freddy vs Jason and the terrible 2010 remake, and all good will went out the window.
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