‘Underworld’: There’s Only One Way This Franchise Can Survive

Inevitably every movie franchise reaches a point of diminishing returns, and not even necessarily due to poor creative choices or bomb installments (though Underworld certainly has both of those things).

The problem for Underworld, and why even a legacy sequel down the line wouldn’t really work, is that every other major character who isn’t Selene (Kate Beckinsale) was only in a couple installments before dying or being sacrificed to the Budget Gods of the Bottom Line.

As great as Kate Beckinsale was as Selene, and as great as Beckinsale continues to be in other projects, Selene can’t be the be-all-end-all if Underworld is to have a future.

The way things were left in Underworld: Blood Wars, the underperforming fifth installment from 2017, there certainly could be more story with Selene, but letting things end is okay — especially in Hollywood, where finality is only a temporary state of being.

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