Franchises that eventually went to space... Literally.

[Rocketman]

Okay. A friend challenged me to name all the franchises that weren't meant to go to space in one of their films; in other words, they inappropriately went to space in it's fourth sequel and beyond, because the creative juices weren't flowing anymore.

For example, the only three that I could name are:

1. Jason X - the 10th film of the Friday the 13th franchise, and the only one to take place in space.

2. Leprechaun 4: In Space - Creatively titled.

3. Moonraker - A James Bond movie, although based on a novel, was the first and only film of the franchise to be in space (awkwardly).

See what I'm saying? In other words, the franchise wasn't originally supposed to end up in space, but the curse of bad sequels just ended up putting less-than-superb films up in the cosmos. So a film that wouldn't be correct in the list would be films like Alien, Star Wars, Austin Powers, and so on.

Apparently, there's a bunch of these, but I can't remember more. Anyone?

 

[Pink Ranger]

Gilligan's Planet

Stargate (FTL ship travel wasn't even a thing in the original movie, but the TV shows introduced traditional space opera elements)

And of course, this:

 

[Blitzkrieg Bop]

Hellraiser: Bloodline

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

What about the Highlander movies? I have never wanted to see the sequels as they are supposed to be so bad, and mess up the first one with ret-cons, but wasn't one of those ret-cons that the immortals were all aliens? So, I don't know if the franchise literally 'went to space' in the process of illustrating that.

edit: I have no idea of Santa Clause movies were ever a popular genre, lol, so don't know if 'Santa Clause vs the Martians' counts, but it does make you think they were running out of Santa ideas for movies there.
I forgot I have this one on dvd, still have not watched all of it, I do not want to watch that one sober.

 

[bullets]

The Muppets

 

[Secret Fawful]

Abbott and Costello
The Three Stooges

 

[TruerToTheCore]

Hellraiser