The 10 Worst Movie Sequel Titles Ever, According To Reddit

When it comes to movie sequels, the easy route is to simply tag a number on the end of the name, whether it’s Iron Man 2 or Saw VII. But when studios and writers attempt to get creative with the titles, that’s generally where they tend to fail.

Unfortunately, instead of playing it safe with numbers or even generic subtitles, these sequels got a little too indulgent. Between misspelled words, full sentences, and replacing words with numbers, Redditors got second-hand embarrassment from these movie sequel titles. And sometimes they even spoiled the movie.

Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice (2016)

If the title looks strange, it’s because there should be a “vs.” instead of a “v,” and Ghostdog2041 puts it best by explaining that “the ‘v’ is how lawsuits are written, not grudge matches.” While there is a scene where Superman finds himself in court, that wasn’t exactly how the two superheroes settled their feud.

There’s also an argument to be made that while the “v” is a problem, the film’s subtitle is even worse. Dawn of Justice totally defeats the purpose of a movie about Batman and Superman’s feud. The subtitle already spoils the fact that they’ll set aside their differences and form the Justice League together.

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999)

23 years since it was first released, audiences are still debating Star Wars: The Phantom Menace to this day. The movie was sluggish and meandering for some, but Phantom Menance was also full of great action scenes. After the polarizing movie ended, regardless of whether audiences thought it was good or bad, they were unanimously left wondering where the mysterious “phantom” was.

In regards to “the phantom menace,” a now-deleted Reddit user rhetorically asks, “What was it?” Where the previous Star Wars movies had such succinct and to-the-point subtitles, such as A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, the 1999 movie’s title left even the biggest fans confused.

Terminator Genisys (2015)

The Terminator movies have arguably become increasingly meaningless and questionable with each consecutive release. Many fans believed that it would have been hard for a Terminator title to get worse than the run-of-the-mill-sounding Terminator: Salvation, but that’s exactly what the franchise achieved with Terminator Genisys.

The movie managed to both be a generic title as well as inexplicably and intentionally misspell a word, and Siggeplump believes the studio made that decision because it thought, “it looks cool, maybe.” The follow-up movie, Terminator: Dark Fate, had a just as generic title, but at least it didn’t misspell “fate” to be quirky.

Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes (2014)

Any one of the seven Planet of the Apes sequels could be in contention for the worst sequel title ever, as they’re more like full sentences instead of movie names. But TheLimeyLemon votes for Dawn Of The Planet of the Apes as the worst of the lot, and it isn’t just because of the exhausting use of “of the.”

The Redditor explains that “‘Dawn’ is a bit redundant when the apes have already risen.” The user is referring to the fact that the movie is following 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and, in this context, the two verbs essentially mean the same thing. While Dawn is one of the best movie remakes of the 2000s, the name doesn’t make all that much sense.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

There’s no secret that Last Jedi is a massively polarizing blockbuster, and even its title has caused a fuss. DarkWizardPluto is the most critical of the name, asking, “who titles their second movie in a trilogy with ‘Last’ as the adjective?”

However, while some audiences might not have noticed, The Last Jedi cleverly connects with its predecessor’s title to form a full sentence, which also explains the movies’ plots. When coupled with the title of the previous movie, it states, “the force awakens the last Jedi.” Unfortunately, the studio also shot itself in the foot by doing that, as the third movie, Rise of Skywalker, doesn’t follow that pattern.

Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

GnRgr2 is critical of the second movie in the Star Trek reboot series, Star Trek Into Darkness, and they posit that “Using ‘trek’ as a verb is despicable.” But compared to other movie sequels, it’s a clever way to have a subtitle without actually having a subtitle.

In a landscape that’s full of meaningless and generic subtitles, such as Revelations or Retribution, Abrams eradicated that in a unique way. However, the title does fail in one major area, which is that there isn’t actually anything remotely dark about the sequel.

No Time To Die (2021)

With the exception of Quantum of Solace, all of Daniel Craig’s Bond movie titles have been tied to the plot in some way. Skyfall related to where Bond grew up and Spectre was the name of the secret society led by Blofeld. But No Time To Die ended that pattern.

Davel23 makes an observation that the title “sounds like something a random Bond movie title generator would spit out.” There’s even a cringey moment in the film when a character says the movie’s title out loud before killing someone. But, at the same time, it’s a great nod to the goofier Roger Moore-led entries in the franchise.

The Lion King 1½ (2004)

Where the Jackass movies release .5 versions of each movie, which feature alternate takes, Disney used “½” in its title to tell a story that takes place at the same time as the original The Lion King. Paperd criticizes the title not because of how bad it is, but because of the much better possibilities at hand.

The Redditor explains that, as “the plot was essentially Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, it would have been great if they would have called it Timon and Pumba are Dead.” Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are characters in Hamlet, and the 1990 movie follows the two angels as they comment on the events of the Shakespearean tragedy, and that’s exactly what happens in The Lion King 1½.

Troll 2 (1990)

Though Troll 2 was released in 1990, it was in the mid-2000s when it started to gain attention, as it was the subject of the acclaimed documentary, Best Worst Movie. The documentary went into great detail about what happened behind the scenes of Troll 2, such as the actors having to buy their own outfits and the star of the film being a dentist.

But most interesting of all is that it was never meant to be a Troll sequel. Interestingly, the monsters in the movie are goblins, not trolls, and as AstonVanilla points out, the movie “has nothing to do with Troll.”

2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)

The history of the Fast & Furious franchise’s movie titles are almost as entertaining and ridiculous as the movies themselves. The fourth movie caused so much confusion, as it was simply titled Fast & Furious, and the most recent movie barely even bothered with a title, as the studio went with F9.

But the outrageousness of the titles began with the very first sequel, 2 Fast 2 Furious, which TBatWork explains is a “ridiculous precedent that only works for the sequel.” However, it would have been a brave move if Universal decided to go with 3 Fast 3 Furious instead of Tokyo Drift.