When the credits roll, the season hangs off a cliff, and the last word is read, do you find yourself asking, What happens next?!
Not us. We think, What happened before? And with the immense newfound popularity of prelude shows like Fear of the Walking Dead and whispers of a written Harry Potter prequel, we’re clearly not alone. So come with us as we trudge forward by looking backward.
A prequel to Trainspotting and its sequel Porno, Irvine Welsh takes Sick Boy, Spud, and Renton fans on a bit of deeper dive into their psyches, shedding light on how and why the trio allow their bodies to eventually become infested with heroin. Ready yourself, it’s a blunt read.
When it comes to the epic juggernaut that is George Lucas’s Star Wars, one measly two-hour film is just not enough reel to tell the entire story of how Anakin Skywalker goes from young slave to the man in the creepy black mask. It takes three.
Before she was was having Sex in the City, Carrie Bradshaw was just a high schooler navigating the labyrinth of love, sex, and Manolos amid NYC’s urban playground. Though it ran for just two seasons, it still managed to catwalk its way into our hearts.
If you’re a child of the ’80s, odds are you spent Saturday mornings camped out in front of the tube watching baby Kermit, Piggy, Gonzo, and the rest of the nursery get in touch with their imaginations. Like candy from a baby, the animated series took countless Emmy noms and awards.
Apologies, Brosnan buffs, but Daniel Craig breathed new life into the James Bond franchise with this debut installment. A mix of high-stakes card games, dapper tuxes, and chiseled poker faces, it takes us back to 007’s very first mission as, well, 007.
The animated tale about a cat clearing his name, which leads up to Puss’s adventures with Shrek and Donkey, is just too darn adorable not to include. Plus, Puss and his femme feline, Kitty Softpaws, doing the litterbox (a four-legged dance craze) is a must-see.
Superman wasn’t always the spandex-wearing brawny hero depicted in the movies. He was once just a superboy coming of age and learning to harness his alien powers in a small town. So goes the plot of the incredibly successful, 10-season series based on the classic DC comic.
It’s official: Couch potatoes crave zombies. We are a population with a fascination rooted in the undead, as is evident in the now-cult status of AMC’s The Walking Dead and the enthusiastic reception of its pre-zombie apocalypse show, Fear of the Walking Dead.
The third book in the Lonesome Dove tetralogy but the first in chronological order, Larry McMurtry’s Dead Man’s Walk hits the beaten path with Texas Rangers Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call as they battle a 19th-century Wild West frontier.
Though it’s second to release in the Hannibal trilogy, it’s first in chronological order. Before Clarice Starling went quid pro quo with the doctor, Lecter was pen-palling around with the demented Tooth Fairy in this equally terrifying thriller.
Bravo, Anthony Cipriano, Carlton Cuse, and Kerry Ehrin. One, for having the courage to bring Hitchcock to the small screen. Two, for casting Vera Farmiga as your primary scream queen. And three, for finally filling us in as to how Norman became the cross-dressing psychopath we all know and love.
It’s not uncommon for an author to add on to some of literature’s best stories, as is evident in this list with Rhys and Clinch. However, The Magician’s Nephew is both a prequel to a C.S. Lewis series and written by Lewis himself. Though the children’s fantasy book is the sixth to publish in the Chronicles of Narnia seven-book series, it’s actually first in Narnia history.
Writer/director David Wain’s 2001 film, Wet Hot American Summer (the last day of camp) was a bit, shall we say, detested by critics when it first released. However, his eight-part Netflix prequel charting the campers’ first day of camp, won them over like a bad campfire song you can’t get out of your head – even 14 years later.
So, according to Sir Ridley Scott, Adam and Eve were . . . aliens. Yes, Scott throws out some big ideas in an even bigger movie that takes viewers on a journey to a far-away planet to unearth the origin of man. And it actually makes quite the impact back here on Earth.
If you’re going to use Mark Twain as a springboard for your debut novel, you better make it good. And Jon Clinch does. In this prelude to The Adventures ofHuckleberry Finn, Clinch provides backstory on one of literatures most mysterious characters: Finn’s father. And it was named one of the best novels of 2007 by The Washington Post and The Chicago Tribune.
The public was aching bad for Breaking Bad, and creator Vince Gilligan knew it. So he crafted a spin-off, which takes us back six years before Heisenberg and stars Albuquerque’s most beloved sleazy attorney, Saul Goodman, to serve as their fix. Well done, Gilligan.
Writer/director Christopher Nolan takes the comic-book series and turns it into Oscar bait. His prequel kicks off the epic tale, introducing us to a pre-bat suit Bruce Wayne, whose training in Asia leads to his role of winged Gotham City protector.
A prequel to Charlotte Brontë’s renowned Jane Eyre, British author Jean Rhys’s postcolonial novel takes on themes of gender and race inequality, and it finally releases Brontë’s “madwoman in the attic.” Rhys’s story about a Creole heiress driven out of her mind scored big with Time, WH Smith, and, obviously, us.
A prequel to the novels and the films, Hannibal might be the only show to ever score a 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes then get cancelled. About the early relationship between the Dr. Lecter and an FBI agent who empathizes with killers, the show teeters between drama and horror, with powerful visuals that really take it over the top.
Technically a prequel and a sequel, the second installment in the Corleone saga from writer/director Francis Ford Coppola can also be considered one of the greatest films of all time. A diptych narrative, it sheds light on Vito’s early life back in the ’20s, while concurrently tracking Michael’s rise to criminal power in 1958 Cuba.
