The Top 10 Best Spin-Off Movies
5. Ocean’s Eight
Ocean’s Eleven might have been one of the greatest remakes of all time, but 2018’s Ocean’s Eight proved to be one of the greatest spin-off movies I’ve ever seen. The film stars Danny Ocean’s sister, Debbie (Sandra Bullock), who has followed in her older brother’s footsteps in a life of crime. Despite being the younger Ocean, Debbie proves to be every bit as cunning as her brother and puts together a team to pull off an incredible multi-million dollar heist at Met Gala. Just like Ocean’s Eleven, Ocean’s Eight is filled with beautiful actors playing colorful characters that are the best of the best in their respective fields. It’s an incredible heist movie and a perfect spin-off when it comes to capturing the spirit of the original without seeming like a pale imitation.
4. Creed
Rocky is one of the best sports films of all time. However, after six movies over the course of 30 years, Balboa (and Sylvester Stallone) were starting to get up there in years. Thus it decided to invest in some spin-off movies, and the Creed series was born. The film feature Michael B. Jordan as the illegitimate son of Rocky’s rival and best friend, Apollo Creed. The series follows the young Adonis Creed as he tries to live up to his father’s legacy by becoming a professional boxer. While he might have the natural skill needed to be one of the greats his daddy issues and unfocused anger have him up against a wall. Luckily, Rocky ain’t dead yet and he returns as the young boxers mentor. I wasn’t a huge fan of the original Creed, but Creed II proved to be everything I could want from a spin-off.
3. Finding Dory
Some might consider Finding Dory a sequel to Finding Nemo, but I see it as a spin-off. Nemo and Marlin return for Dory’s feature film. However, they play relatively minor roles as they try to track down their amnesic friend who has set out on a journey to discover her past. While the first film followed the fishy friends journey across the ocean, Finding Dory features them trying to navigate a giant aquarium filled with aquatic animals from all over the world. That means there are plenty of new characters to meet as Dory tries to find her long lost parents. In typical Pixar fashion, Finding Dory is a beautifully animated film filled with laughs, tears, and a heartwarming plot at its core.
2. Bumblebee
To be honest, I was never a big fan of the Transformers films. To me, they were nothing but big explosions, terrible jokes, and poorly design robots in fight scenes that looked like they were choreographed by a 5-year-old smashing action figures together. That all changed with the franchise’s addition to this list of movie spin-offs, Bumblebee, which turned out to be one of my favorite movies of 2018. Of course, it still features giant robots duking it out for the fate of the planet, but this time around there’s more heart to the story. Instead of rock-em-sock-em robot, audiences were treated to a tale of a girl befriending a giant robot who was lost and alone on Earth. Together they form an unbreakable bond and join forces to defeat the Decepticon’s who are hunting him. Michael Bay should definitely take a few notes from this spin-off.
1. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Star Wars is a franchise filled with sequels and prequels, but by far and away my favorite movie in the series is the spin-off Rogue One. It’s a movie that expands on the adventure a rag-tag group of rebels underwent in order to get the plans for the Death Star to Princess Leia in order to stop the Empire and doesn’t really deal with the whole light-side-dark-side plot at the core of all the other movies in the franchise. The film takes place moments before the start of A New Hope and features incredible new characters while expanding on the mythos of the Star Wars universe. It’s a film that’s about making sacrifices for the greater good and has one of the best endings I’ve ever seen from a sci-fi film. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll even be a full-blown Star Wars fan by the end of this incredible spin-off.
Honorable Mention: The Wolverine and Logan
Yeah, I know I said no Marvel or DCEU movies on this list. However, the Wolverine trilogy follows a character that wasn’t necessarily the core character of the previous films. Instead, the universe branches out to discover who he is when he isn’t fighting for the X-Men anymore.
What did you think of this list of spin-off movies? Did your favorite earn a spot? Were there any that didn’t deserve a shout out? Leave a comment below to let me know your thoughts and be sure to share what spin-off movies you’d love to see in the future. As always, I’ll be updating this list of great spin-off movies as more hit the big screen!