While some cynics may complain that sequels are ruining the film industry, the truth of the matter is that there’s always room for a franchise to grow and evolve over time. Bad sequels may be the subject of audience blowback, but many of the greatest films of all-time are sequels; The Empire Strikes Back, The Godfather: Part II, and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King are all good examples.
That being said, any ongoing saga that has managed to produce seven entries may struggle with new stories to tell. These are the ten best seventh entries in franchises, ranked.
10 ‘Diamonds Are Forever’ (1971)
Diamonds Are Forevermarked Sean Connery’s return to the James Bond franchise after audiences soured on George Lazenby’s performance in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, which was a decidedly darker entry in the series.
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Comparatively, Diamonds Are Forever is Bond at peak campiness, and the Las Vegas setting introduces a ton of new places for Bond to get into misadventures. Connery may not have the same swagger that he did in Goldfinger or From Russia With Love, but it only takes one delivery of “shaken, not stirred” to confirm that he is still the definitive 007.
9 ‘Furious 7’ (2015)
The Fast and the Furious saga slowly transformed from a simple Point Break ripoff about street racing into essentially a series that emulated the Mission: Impossible series. Furious 7 sees Dom (Vin Diesel) and Brian (Paul Walker) having to save the world as they’re threatened by Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), the brother of their Fast & Furious 6 nemesis Owen (Luke Evans).
While the film contains just as many crazy set pieces as its predecessors, it's the emotional way that Furious 7 dealt with Walker’s real-life passing that makes it one of the saga’s standouts.
8 ‘Friday the 13th Part VII- The New Blood’ (1988)
The Friday the 13th franchise needed to evolve quickly after the release of Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, as the satirical sixth entry had solidified the saga’s clichés with its self-aware style.
Related:Every 'Friday the 13th' Movie Ranked From Worst to Best
Friday the 13th Part VII- The New Blood puts Jason back in the woods, except this time he’s basically battling Carrie. Introducing witchcraft into a series that had pushed past the parameters of its original premise a long time ago was a fun way to keep the kills fresh. The “sleeping bad murder” is one of the best kills in the entire franchise.
7 ‘Star Trek: Generations’ (1994)
The first theatrical film that starred the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation featured the team up that Star Trek fans had been begging to see for years; Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and Captain Jean Luc-Picard (Patrick Stewart) were working together!
While many original cast members from the original Star Trek series had appeared in guest roles on The Next Generation, including Leonard Nimoy, Shatner never reprised his role as Kirk. While they only share the screen together for a short amount of time, Stewart and Shatner are absolutely electrifying together.
6 ‘The Muppets’ (2011)
Who would have thought that a new Muppet movie in the 21st century wouldn’t have been overly cynical and depressing? The Muppets is one of the rare “legacy sequels” that does it right; the film addresses both the merits and flaws of fan culture by starring characters that grew up loving the original Muppet series.
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While it may lack the depth of prior installments (or the sheer insanity of Muppets From Space), The Muppets does hit the emotional beats very well; it would be hard for anyone who grew up loving these characters to not get through the final rendition of “Rainbow Connection” without tearing up.
5 ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- Part 1’ (2010)
It has become an increasingly common trend for major novel adaptations to split their final installments into two chapters, and both The Hunger Games and Divergent franchises failed with this approach. Comparatively, J.J. Rowling’s final Harry Potter novel was so packed with revelations and emotional moments that it felt justified to split it into two films.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 is certainly the darkest entry in the series, as Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint), and Hermione (Emma Watson) are forced to abandon Hogwarts and go on the run to find the mysterious Horcruxes.
4 ‘Creed’ (2015)
Even though Rocky Balboa seemed like the definitive end to the journey of Sylvester Stallone’s tenure as the titular character, Creed breathed new life into the Rocky series by turning him into a mentor. Ryan Coogler’s brilliant continuation of the saga featured Rocky becoming a mentor to Adonis (Michael B. Jordan), the son of his former rival and longtime friend Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers).
Stallone gives his most complex and emotionally riveting screen performance since the original Rocky, and earned himself a surprising Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
3 ‘Wes Craven’s New Nightmare’ (1994)
After five sequels, the A Nightmare On Elm Street saga had turned into a parody of itself, and original director Wes Craven was not happy about it. Instead of trying to wrap up the story threads of some of the more disappointing sequels, Wes Craven’s New Nightmare changed the context of the entire series by setting Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) loose in the real world to terrify the original cast and crew of the 1984 film.
While it may have been divisive at the time of its original release, the self-aware nature of New Nightmare clearly influenced what Craven would do shortly thereafter with the Scream saga.
2 ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ (2015)
The beauty of Star Wars: The Force Awakens is how the film perfectly balances nostalgia with something genuinely new and fresh. While seeing Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) on the deck of the Millenium Falcon again may have been rewarding for a moment of brief nostalgia, the real standout moments of The Force Awakens belong to the young heroes Finn (John Boyega) and Rey (Daisy Ridley).
Related:Every 'Star Wars' Movie Ranked from Worst to Best
Adam Driver deserves serious credit for his performance as Kylo Ren, who stands as the most complex villain in the entire Star Wars saga. Is there anything scarier than a young, angry man whose room is filled with fascist memorabilia?
1 ‘Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’ (2023)
While some franchises seem to dwindle with age, the Mission: Impossible saga is the rare ongoing series that manages to keep topping itself. The franchise entered bold new territory when Christopher McQuarrie stepped into direct 2015’s Mission: Impossible- Rogue Nation, as he has turned the franchise into a bold, global journey about a hero who refuses to let any innocent people die on his watch.
Mission: Impossible- Dead Reckoning Part One not only features some of the series’ best action yet (including a riveting heist aboard the Orient Express), but introduces a great new hero in Hayley Atwell’s Grace.
