Though the Back to the Future trilogy is without doubt one of the uncommon Hollywood franchises with a definitive ending, a number of non secular sequels exist. Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale have been adamant that there’ll by no means be a Back to the Future reboot, remake, spinoff, or sequel. This resolution has preserved the trilogy’s flawless popularity, constructed on its hermetic story and solid.
Again to the Future Half III ends with Marty leaving time journey behind whereas Doc Brown returns with Clara and their youngsters in a steam-powered time machine. Doc’s time-hopping adventures proceed, however solely off-screen. Whereas the creators won’t ever prolong the trilogy itself, numerous initiatives function continuations to Again to the Future‘s story.
Again to the Future: The Animated Sequence (1991–1992)
Although it leaned into Saturday-morning comedy, Back to the Future: The Animated Series is a non-canon sequel. Its plot facilities on Doc Brown, Clara, and their sons Jules and Verne, who incessantly get tangled in time-travel escapades alongside Marty. Christopher Lloyd seems in live-action wraparound segments, and Thomas F. Wilson reprises his function as Biff and numerous Tannen descendants.
Canonically, the animated collection occupies a tough house. Episodes featured exaggerated adventures similar to encounters with dinosaurs and overly comedic variations of historic figures. The time-traveling hijinks with Doc’s household so quickly after Half III contradicts the trilogy’s conclusive ending. Therefore, the animated collection is seen as an alternate-timeline sequel.
Again to the Future: The Experience (1991–2007)
Again to the Future: The Experience opened in 1991 at Common Studios Florida and Common Studios Hollywood, with a 3rd model debuting in Japan in 2001. Government-produced by Steven Spielberg, the official BTTF trip let audiences be part of Doc Brown on a brand new time-travel journey that pitted him in opposition to Biff Tannen. After over a decade of recognition, it closed within the U.S. in 2007 and in Japan in 2016.
Though the trip was misplaced for years after its closure, Common launched practically all of its pre-show and trip footage in 2009. Since then, Again to the Future: The Experience stays a memorable a part of BTTF historical past. The trip’s plot centered on Biff stealing a DeLorean time machine from Doc’s Institute of Future Expertise, forcing friends to pursue him throughout time to forestall chaos.
Within the queue and pre-show movies, guests had been welcomed as recruits to Doc Brown’s Institute of Future Expertise. As soon as friends boarded their eight-passenger DeLorean, Biff hijacks a prototype time machine and triggers a chase by way of the previous. The trip itself featured a frantic pursuit from the Ice Age, to a dinosaur-filled prehistory, to a 2015 Hill Valley.
As for canon, Back to the Future: The Ride‘s place in continuity is debatable. The Institute of Future Expertise is rarely referenced within the films, and the existence of a number of DeLorean prototypes contradicts the trilogy’s shortage of working time machines. Nonetheless, followers might deal with the trip as a “soft-canon” continuation because it makes use of the unique Doc and Biff actors.
Again To The Future: The Sport (2010-2011)
Developed by Telltale Video games, Again to the Future: The Sport takes place in 1986, simply months after the occasions of Half III. When the DeLorean mysteriously reappears with out Doc, Marty McFly groups up with a youthful Emmett Brown in 1931 to cease gangsters like Child Tannen. The episodic recreation introduces alternate-timeline variations of Doc.
The sport’s recognition led to Again to the Future: Citizen Brown, a 2016 comedian adaptation by IDW that retold a part of the sport’s story arc. On this alternate timeline, Hill Valley is was a dystopian surveillance state run by Doc Brown as “First Citizen Brown.” The comedian bolstered the sport’s place as a continuation of the Again to the Future trilogy.
Bob Gale himself described Again to the Future: The Sport as “BTTF 4,” whereas clarifying it isn’t strictly a part of the trilogy’s official continuity. Like different IDW comics, the BTTF recreation occupies a soft-canon tier. It doesn’t contradict the films, but it surely performs extra like a hypothetical however very genuine sequel that would exist in an alternate timeline.
Doc Brown Saves the World! (2015)
The 2015 quick movie Doc Brown Saves the World! was created to rejoice Again to the Future’s thirtieth anniversary and was included within the Again to the Future: thirtieth Anniversary Trilogy Blu-ray set. Starring Christopher Lloyd as Emmett Brown in a single location, it follows a seasoned Doc as he explains how his experiments by accident precipitated catastrophic occasions, together with a nuclear holocaust and an overreliance on expertise.
Doc Brown Saves the World! was conceived as each a playful celebration of the franchise and a method to give Christopher Lloyd’s Doc Brown a brand new highlight within the real-life 2015. Whereas Lloyd returned, Michael J. Fox didn’t seem, and the quick is just not considered official canon by Common or the creators, although it may be loosely slotted into the timeline.
The implications of the quick movie are surprisingly deep. Doc Brown Saves the World! reveals that Doc traveled to 2045, the place he was pressured to return by a nuclear apocalypse. Extra intriguingly, Doc Brown Saves the World! introduces the AI system “Quantum Thoughts Jar” a couple of years earlier than the popularization of real-world AI. The quick movie additionally means that Doc’s fixed time touring erased many technological innovations from existence.
Maybe probably the most complicated facet comes on the finish, the place two parallel Doc Browns are proven coexisting. In Again to the Future Half II, Doc and Marty efficiently keep away from interacting instantly with their future selves. If Doc Brown Saves the World! is taken into account canon, then the whole Back to the Future timeline could also be in grave hazard as a consequence of Doc’s tinkering with the far future.
Again to the Future IDW Comics (2015–2021)
Additionally in 2015, IDW Publishing launched a Again to the Future comedian collection co-written by franchise co-creator Bob Gale. The collection ran till 2021, unfold throughout a number of story arcs and miniseries. The comics didn’t inform a single linear continuation however moderately a mosaic of adventures filling in gaps. Key tales embrace Doc Brown’s time within the Manhattan Venture, Marty’s first actual assembly with Doc, and a number of alternate timelines.
The mainline collection was adopted by expansions like Biff to the Future, which chronicled how Biff consolidated energy after gaining the Sports activities Almanac within the alternate 1985, and one-off tales exhibiting Marty, Doc, and even Jennifer Parker caught in ripple results of paradoxes. The comics combine standalone tales with serialized arcs to develop an expansive view of Hill Valley’s previous and future.
In relation to canon, the IDW comics sit in a semi-official grey zone. Bob Gale himself oversaw the tales and clarified that the comics exist as “expanded universe” content material; not contradictory to the movies however not strictly canon both. The comics are expansions that enrich the lore however shouldn’t be handled as obligatory elements of the timeline.
Tales from the Time Practice (2017–2018)
Revealed as a by-product miniseries to the principle IDW line, the six-issue Tales from the Time Practice comics decide up instantly the place Again to the Future Half III leaves off, with Doc Brown, Clara, and their youngsters touring to 1939 New York throughout the World’s Honest, the place Doc turns into entangled in historic occasions. The comedian storyline is introduced because the closest factor to a correct continuation of Half III.
Tales from the Time Practice is trustworthy to Back to the Future Part III‘s ending. Since Bob Gale co-wrote it, Time Practice might be seen as a attainable continuation, although like the opposite IDW comics, it’s not thought of arduous canon. Gale has emphasised that Again to the Future is a self-contained trilogy, however this collection is the last word non secular Half IV.
Again to the Future Nike Air Magazine Sneakers Business (2015)
In 2015, Nike formally unveiled the self-lacing Air Magazine sneakers launched in Again to the Future Half II. To advertise the discharge, Christopher Lloyd starred in a particular quick clip the place Doc Brown by accident travels to 2011. Proceeds had been directed to the Michael J. Fox Basis for Parkinson’s Analysis.
Whereas primarily a promotional piece, the clip works as a delicate continuation of the trilogy. The Nike industrial performs into the concept Doc made many extra journeys than the trilogy steered. It isn’t framed as a severe enlargement, but it surely pays homage to the films with the addition of a number of iconic traces like “that is heavy” and “[they’re] my density.”
Marty McFly & Doc Brown Go to Jimmy Kimmel Stay! (2015)
On October 21, 2015, Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd reunited in character as Marty McFly and Doc Brown throughout a dwell Jimmy Kimmel Stay! particular. Arriving onstage within the DeLorean, the duo reacted with confusion and disappointment to the actual 2015. They commented on the shortage of flying vehicles, hoverboards, and different futuristic guarantees.
Fox and Lloyd’s 2015 return is probably probably the most heartfelt Again to the Future reunion thus far, as they had been welcomed with a thunderous standing ovation from the viewers. Huey Lewis additionally made a cameo and carried out a musical quantity. In idea, this look serves as a contemporary journey for Doc and Marty, because it depicts them as veteran time vacationers who’ve seemingly visited numerous timelines.
