Shared cinematic universes were big news last year, as Warner Bros., Universal, and Sony all announced they were going to hitch a ride on Marvel's super-profitable bandwagon. Further plans have also been emerging for spinoff films featuring characters from franchises both obvious (Star Wars) and dubious (The Fast and the Furious). Here are some further suggestions.
Star Trekking With That Little Alien Guy Who Hangs Out With Scotty
One of the more inexplicable elements of the rebooted Star Trek movies is Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott's diminutive alien buddy, Keenser. Who is he? Why is he? Those and many other questions you never thought to ask will finally be answered, as we see what happened between Scotty leaving Keenser behind on Delta Vega in the first film and Keenser's reappearance on the Enterprise at the end. It mostly involves filling out the paperwork to request a duty transfer, but it'll still cost $200 million and be filled with shit blowing up.
Brad! The Story of Brad
Brad, the death-rocker valet of the villainous Erica Raymond's Starlight Music in Jem and the Holograms, has big dreams. His song "Death Spares (Not the Tiger)" by his band Valet of the Damned — which the end credits list as Music by Brad, Lyrics by Brad, Produced by Brad, and Courtesy of Brad — goes on to be the biggest hit this side of Jem's "Youngblood," and armed with his new global fame, Valet of the Damned will set out to solve crimes, occasionally joined by the Holograms in Avengers-style jams to take on the Misfits.
Star Wars: Who's Afraid of Darth Woolf?
It would be a stretch to call the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special "underrated," but it does feature one scene with more actual human drama than would be seen in the trilogy until The Empire Strikes Back in 1980: the Pinter-esque relationship between the lovesick barfly Krelman (Harvey Korman) and his unrequited crush, Mos Eisley Cantina bartender Ackmena (Bea Arthur). We'll learn that they did indeed become a couple after Life Day, and after Ackmena retired, they traveled the Galaxy and occasionally battled the Empire (when not bickering with each other, George-and-Martha style).
Star Wars: The Rock Salt Awakens
Speaking of underrepresented Star Wars characters, it's high time for Willrow Hood from The Empire Strikes Back to get his due. Long known to fans as Ice Cream Maker Guy (due to him carrying a device that looks not unlike an ice cream maker during the evacuation of Cloud City), we'll learn that he was actually a Rebel operative who worked in stealth to ensure that Leia and Chewbacca were able to rescue Luke. And though he'll die in a blaze of creamy glory, he'll go on to appear as Force Ghost in Episode IX alongside Tom Carvel. (The Force works in mysterious ways.)
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