1. Listen to the pros.
“Each time has to be for the first time,” said Patrick Stewart, whose career has partially been defined by his turns in two franchises, “Star Trek” and “X-Men.” “You keep it fresh whether it’s a stage performance you’re doing eight times a week or a character you’re playing on a series who goes from episode to episode or a recurring character in a franchise. ” 2. Remember, not every old hit needs to be a remaquel. Audiences didn’t see the point of last year’s “Point Break,” “Poltergeist,” “Pan” or “Victor Frankenstein.” Nostalgia reaches only so far. 3. Don’t veer off the main road. Though they gave us fresh perspectives and new characters, “Mad Max: Fury Road,” “Jurassic World” and “The Force Awakens” felt like sequels on a common story line, not paradoxical side stories like the time-jumping shambles “Terminator Genisys” and Lucas’ dismaying “Star Wars” prequels. The story should be fairly simple but nonetheless allow for many variations. 4. Make it work as a character-driven feature with a great villain. “Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” makes an unforgettable character out of Gollum, elevating the epic above its earlier and later chapters. The haunting Joker does the same in “The Dark Knight.” In contrast, April’s “Batman v Superman” operates as a long-form commercial for upcoming DC adventures, while its Lex Luthor has a small cameo role at best. It’s a film without firepower or a wicked target. 5. Don’t keep repeating yourself, duh. The “Hangover” sequels were blurry carbon copies of the original, and the “Die Hard” movies simply made Bruce Willis’ hard-luck hero John McClane increasingly bald. Don’t just make the last story bigger, make it deeper. 6. Hire talented young turks with something to prove. Marvel Studios’ president, Kevin Feige, described his empire’s success as depending on fresh creative energy drawn from talented outsiders. “Captain America: Civil War” is directed by the Russo brothers, who were Emmy winners for “Arrested Development.” As Feige told entertainment website Vulture, Marvel chooses “from a pool of filmmakers not who have done big, giant films before but who have done interesting things that made us stop and go, ‘That’s cool.’?”