Trilogy is a Four-Letter Word

Do you know what word often makes my skin crawl when used in reference to comic book movies?

Trilogy.

Comic books are a medium in which the stories continue, and continue, and continue. I’d like to see movie companies put the word trilogy away and start using another: series.

Properties such as Spider-Man, Batman, Superman have seemingly limitless amounts of source material to draw from in terms of popular storylines and classic villains. I see no reason to limit them to three-picture deals.

Take the X-Men films for example. The X-Men comics have spawned hundreds of characters and dozens of titles over its ever-expanding five decade run. Why stop at three movies? The surface was hardly scratched in the Bryan Singer/Brett Ratner-helmed films. Yes, I understand that there is a new X-Men film coming out, but that’s an all new film with new characters. Cyclops, Wolverine, and Kitty had more stories in them.

I think film companies would be better served to think of their comic book franchises as a series—like the James Bond films. Those movies go on and on, the same character played by different actors in stories that follow the same formula (sometimes good, sometimes to a fault).

But this should be the approach to comic book films in general.  Sure, it’s nice to have a well structured series such as what Christopher Nolan has planned for his Dark Knight trilogy. But if I can be honest, I would prefer a series of Batman films. There may not be another comic book character with the celluloid resiliency of the Caped Crusader thanks to decades of material and arguably the best rogues gallery in comics.

Spider-Man is another hero that deserves something more committed than a trilogy. Marvel’s favorite everyman has enough material to produce so many films that Tobey Maguire could eventually portray Uncle Ben in the series. And they’d never have to get into all that clone saga stuff.

I’ve mentioned previously that I believe there are comic book properties that are limited in the stories that can be developed on film. I think characters like Daredevil, Punisher, or even Wolverine, might only be able to sustain a trilogy because, tonally, they’re darker protagonists than audiences usually respond to (on an ongoing basis).

So let’s stop using the word “trilogy” dear movie companies. Let’s begin using “series.”