Sequelitis

Can you guess which A-list film stars have never made a sequel? Fewer than you’d think, I’d imagine.

It does rather depend on how you define the A-list, of course. Kate Winslet isn’t included, for example. Ditto Sean Penn. Both have bagged Oscars recently and been nominated multiple times over the last decade, so I find it difficult to understand why they wouldn’t be deemed to be A-list.¹ I can’t think of a sequel featuring either actor.

It’s tempting to suggest that this is because those two actors tend not to go for blockbuster scripts, preferring to do relatively small films with juicy parts for them, but it could just be pot luck. For all I know Sean Penn just missed out to Gary Oldman for the part of Jim Gordon in Christopher Nolan’s Batman films, and Kate Winslet had a scheduling conflict that prevented her from taking up the lead role in the Underworld movies that went to Kate Beckinsale.²

1. The short answer is, ‘Because the Forbes list Movieline based their article on didn’t include them.’ ^
2. For the record, I’m not seriously suggesting either actor was up for those roles. The point is that something like those decisions could quite plausibly have landed either actor in a sequel, just as Julia Roberts could have a record unblemished by sequels to this day if the Ocean’s Eleven remake had flopped, or even if she’d simply had a scheduling conflict that prevented her returning for the sequel. ^