Spin-offs are hot business right now. Better Call Saul will continue to bring AMC its fix of bad suits and worse legal practices once Breaking Bad finishes, and JK Rowling is returning to the Harry Potter universe with a film script based around monster hunting in the Jazz Age. Add that to the fact that various Star Wars spin-offs and prequels are being discussed and it’s safe to say we’re in a golden age for expanded franchises. If ‘golden age’ is the right word.
Spin-offs have always made financial sense, of course. Developing an established franchise and cashing in on the in-built audience is a no-brainer for studios who need to keep the coffers full. So with these spin-offs in the works, which other TV and film studios might be digging around in their back drawers for franchises that could be dragged out a bit more?
8. Pacific Rookies
Spin-off: Pacific Rim
Pitch:
In a world besieged by monsters from the depth of the ocean, a few brave citizens will defend the Earth… WITH ROBOTS!
We revisit the gloriously moustachioed Stacker Pentecost in the early days of the Jaeger programme, back when Jaegers could kill a pilot. Which heroic, reckless, mildly suicidal pilots will step up to the plate when planet Earth comes calling? And how was the drift technology created?
More Kaiju. More explosions. More recruiting-the-team montages. More Russians. In stunning 3D!
7. Colonial Marines
Spin Off: Aliens
Pitch:
In a universe where earths off world colonies are constantly on the brink of invasion only the United States Colonial Marines stand between them and imminent massacre. Lock and load Marines, it’s another glorious day in the corps!
Aw Sarge, not another bug hunt!
Disregarding Gearbox’s poor 2012 console sequel (Aliens: Colonial Marines), Colonial Marines picks up in the Aliens Expanded Universe following the tough as nails men and women of the USCM as they administer relentless military justice to alien aggressors on the fringes of colonial space.
Prepare to strap on your pulse rifles and get on a drop ship roller coaster straight to alien hell, as the marines tackle the unknown on the unexplored frontiers and kill it stone %*$#ing dead.
Stay frosty!
6. Heart of Dixon
Spin-off: The Walking Dead
Pitch:
The break-out stars of the hit AMC show are breaking out – into their own prequel!
Just how did Daryl and Merle Dixon pick up all those survivalist skills? Where did Daryl learn to excavate the stomachs of corpses so effectively? Just how did Merle contract that bout of syphilis? And how did they survive the first few days of the zombie apocalypse?
Who needs zombies when you have hard-hitting bromance and cryptic hints about troubled childhoods? It’s The Walking Dead meets Duck Dynasty – with crossbows!
