Because nostalgia fuels the industry, Hollywood’s back lots are littered with the remains of potential sequels that almost materialized. The Goonies and Ghostbusters are but two beloved franchises that almost added another film to the series (and still may).
Add Nick Castle’s 1984 classic The Last Starfighter, about a videogame-savvy teenager (Lance Guest) recruited by an alien race to help them in an intergalactic war, to the ever-growing list. Considered one of the first films to heavily utilize CGI, Starfighter nearly doubled its gross in 1984 ticket sales which, at the time, almost led to a sequel.
And it still may, if Castle gets his way. While attending something named MonsterMania in New Jersey, a Moviehole reader spoke to Castle who confirmed that the rumors of a sequel were true, and the plot involved the son of Alex (Guest) and Maggie (Catherine Mary Stewart), who grew up to become a Starfighter.
The son of an iconic figure who embarks on his father’s adventure? Sounds like Tron: Legacy, ironic that Tron came out around the same time as Starfighter (just a little earlier) and it only recently managed to get its sequel on the screen. I’m against it. The sequel-remake train is getting extremely old, and if I’m going to rally the “troops” for any type of project, it’s going to be for an original idea, not a 25-year-old concept reheated for the next generation.
