From The Godfather Part II to Indiana Jones to X-Men: First Class: The History of the Movie Prequel
In 60 years, prequels made from creative decisions to economic decisions and everything in between.
By most measures, 2011 is the Year of the Sequel; there are more follow-ups coming out this year than ever before, which is really saying something. (Remember 2009, when we got new Transformers, Terminator, and Twilight movies and a Squeakquel? That was a mere runner-up!) And on June 3, we'll see that increasingly common subspecies of sequel: the prequel, this time in the form of X-Men: First Class. Once a rare phenomenon reserved either for inordinately ambitious storytellers or moguls out to make a desperately quick buck (and, maybe in the case of one George Walton Lucas Jr., both), it's quickly becoming a popular approach for any big Hollywood franchise wishing to either reinvent itself or reboot with cheaper actors. So just as prequels tout themselves with the come-on "See how [iconic villain/hero] became the character we all know," let's take a history course and see just how prequels became the trend we all know.