With Hollywood’s focus on building up successful IPs, there are a lot of new TV show spin-offs in the pipeline, with plenty that could be really special. Spin-offs are nothing new. As far back as popular TV exists, there are TV show spin-offs that follow connected characters and build out the world from a new direction. While initially, this was typical for comedy shows like Cheers, Happy Days, and The Tracy Ullman Show which spawned equally, and occasionally more successful spin-offs like Fraiser, Mork & Mindy, and The Simpsons, spin-offs have evolved.
Now, spin-offs keep up their connections with the original series to some degree, and they enhance and enrich the story from the original series. Whether that means expanding the story of Saul Goodman to see how his life led him up to the events of Breaking Bad in Better Call Saul, or picking up the story that was left hanging in The Walking Dead with a variety of new spin-offs, these shows can ensure a franchise is bigger than one show or one set of characters. And studios are still heavily invested in creating more spin-offs to keep their strongest IPs in vogue.
9 The War Between The Land & The Sea
Doctor Who
First up, the oldest sci-fi show still on TV today is Doctor Who. And in the course of the more than 60 years that the show has been on the air, there have been more than a few efforts to create spin-offs which connect to that series with varying success. Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures stand out as two of the more successful efforts, with both stemming from showrunner, Russell T Davies’ marvelous creativity.
Now, RTD has returned to helm the original show, and in doing so, he has once again revived the efforts to expand the universe of the show beyond Doctor Who. While RTD has hinted that a couple of spin-offs are in development, the one with the most progress is The War Between the Land and the Sea. This series will see some of the popular characters who work with UNIT in Doctor Who join forces with some familiar faces in new roles to face off against the Sea Devils. The name and concept may be fairly ambiguous, but it indicates the start of something bigger, which is exciting.
8 Vought Rising
The Boys
From sci-fi to fantasy, one of the most popular shows in streaming right now is the dark and twisted story of supes who use their powers for personal gain, The Boys. Within the world of The Boys, supes have become cultural and pop icons that stand for so much more than safety, protection, and hope. However, the business of making heroes has also become incredibly profitable, and the power and praise the supes get has gone to their heads in a way that makes them reckless and proud.
Of course, this shift wasn’t necessarily something that happened overnight, and standing behind every supe worth their salt is the mysterious and all-powerful Vought corporation. To explore the story of how Vought came into power, their relationship with supes, and how they turned powers into profits, Vought Rising is set to expand the franchise of The Boys as it looks back at the origin of supes and Vought, and their connected journey to the top of the corporate ladder.
7 Neagley
Reacher
Lee Child’s popular series of novels based on the character of Jack Reacher, a former military policeman who now roams the country as a drifter and stumbles into a large-scale conspiracy which he is uniquely suited to investigate has been adapted to another incredibly popular series on Amazon Prime Video. Reacher, starring Alan Ritchson, is entering its third season, and the action series continues to delight audiences. Alongside the heroic Reacher, his closest friend and ally is Frances Neagley, played by Maria Sten.
Neagley possesses similar strengths to Reacher, though her approach to investigating and solving crimes and mysteries differs due to her smaller stature. After two successful seasons which saw Neagley assert herself as Reacher’s sidekick, she is now being granted the chance to lead her own adventures in the spin-off series, Neagley. Once again, Reacher will return as a guest star, though he likely will not be present in every episode.
6 A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms
Game Of Thrones
Game of Thrones proved to be a tremendously popular fantasy epic series on HBO when it first aired in 2011. Since the original series wrapped, HBO has looked at the expansive source material provided by George R. R. Martin, the author who created the original novels, as well as several spin-off stories set within the fantasy world of Westeros at various points in time. The first spin-off, House of the Dragon, has proven popular with its exploration of the breakdown of House Targaryen almost 200 years before the original show’s events.
Now, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms draws inspiration from the Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas by Martin which follows another set of characters approximately 90 years before the original story, and about 70 or so years after House of the Dragon. The series will provide another important piece of the puzzle which shows the struggles between the different Houses in Westeros and the breakdown of power which led to the events of Game of Thrones.
5 Welcome To Derry
It
Spin-offs have also existed in the horror space for some time, but typically, they all happen in the same medium. For the popular It movie and it’s sequel, based on the novels by Stephen King, the story is now expanding into a TV series which will look closer at the dark town of Derry in Maine. Welcome to Derry will follow other events in the town which is plagued by the terrifying clown Pennywise.
The novel explores briefly that the town of Derry was plagued by Pennywise’s presence in a way that appeared to infect the residents and inspire hatred and violence. While these scenes were additional, small snippets that were separate from the main events of the novel, they were incredibly tense and intriguing for building the heavy feeling that was present in the city and from which the members of the Losers club attempted to escape by moving away. Now, Welcome to Derry has the opportunity to give these side stories the attention they deserve.
4 Dream Productions
Inside Out
However, spin-offs are not exclusive to adult TV shows and films. There has also been a longstanding tradition to create spin-offs for popular Disney and Pixar shows aimed at families. Monsters Inc. had Monsters at Work, and other Disney properties have had plenty of spin-off shows. The latest to get the spin-off treatment from these studios is the incredibly popular Inside Out series of movies, which explores the emotions that control a young girl named Riley as she makes her way through the challenge of growing up.
Dream Productions will explore another part of Riley’s internal workings as it explores the department responsible for producing dreams for Riley to enjoy on a nightly basis. The series will see tension between different parts of this department as they disagree on what makes a good dream, and what should be projected into Riley’s mind while she sleeps. The series will expand the franchise and potentially lead to other spin-offs that help explore Riley’s innermost thoughts.
3 Vision Quest
WandaVision and MCU
While the MCU is a massive juggernaut of entertainment with multiple new releases every year, many of these projects exist within splinter franchises. Such as the Iron Man trilogy, Thor’s series of movies, and the Avengers crossover films. However, Wanda Maximoff and Vision have sparked a franchise of their own that is primarily set on the TV side of the MCU. Starting with WandaVision, and now continuing to expand with Agatha All Along, the franchise is set to have another entry where Vision will star as he comes to terms with who he is.
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MCU Vision Show: Everything We Know
WandaVision’s ending left a lot of loose ends, as it ended with White Vision fleeing Westview, but the Vision show will answer everything.
Vision as he existed in previous iterations died in Avengers: Infinity War. However, Wanda revealed just how powerful she is when she took his lifeless body and restored him to life. However, this was merely an imitation of the character who died when the Mind Stone was separated from his body. Vision Quest will follow the newly activated White Vision, who was recreated by S.W.O.R.D. and then had his memories restored by the Vision created by Wanda, as he searches for his identity and his purpose.
2 Dune: Prophecy
Dune
Another prequel spin-off, Dune: Prophecy, will expand the world of Denis Villeneuve’s epic sci-fi franchise. These stories are, of course, based on the even more expansive and impressive novels by Frank Herbert and Dune: Prophecy will follow the events of the late Herbert’s collaborative work, Sisterhood of Dune, which was completed by Kevin J Anderson and published in 2012.
While the films follow Paul Atreides and his journey to becoming the long awaited Kwisatz Haderach, the spin-off will follow the Bene Gesserit, who spread the story of his coming in the centuries before he was born. The series will add a whole other dimension to the Dune franchise that helps to enlighten how Paul Atreides was prophesied and what it even means to be the messiah of the series.
1 Alien: Earth
Alien
For as long as Alien has been a franchise, it has existed mainly in films, with no live-action TV spin-offs. That will change with the introduction of Alien: Earth. As the series has expanded with new chapters that reveal the origins of humanity, the Xenomorphs, and their repeated connections that link the humans and these horrifying creatures to each other, Alien: Earth will reveal another point in the timeline, with the threat coming closer to humankind than ever before.
In every other chapter to date, the aliens have encountered humans in space, on asteroids, and deserted planets that are distant from the general human population. Now, the Xenomorphs will be seen on planet Earth, three decades before the events of the 1977 original movie. Obviously, it appears that humans have succeeded in fighting off the threat due to the later entries, but this still presents a real threat that feels greater than in earlier films.