5 Theoretical Character Sequels to Classic Movies

The entire concept of a character sequel (not sure if this is the correct term for such a film, but I first heard it used by Nathaniel over at The Film Experience, so giving credit where it's due) is a breath-of-fresh-air in a world where I feel like everything has to have a sequel (seriously-I don't want a follow-up to Big Little Lies!).  While a sequel seems to just be a continuation of the story, a character sequel checks in on a specific character instead, much like how Victoria & Abdul did this year, not focusing on what happened to Queen Victoria immediately after Mrs. Brown, but waiting decades to tell the tale.  It made me wonder about some of my favorite movies, and whether or not they had sequels that could have (or still could!) be situated in their tales.  Below I list out five of the characters I wish had had sequels, roughly when I would have wanted the movies, and what I hoped they would have entailed. (Spoilers Ahead if you haven't seen these movies)

Midge in Vertigo (1983)

Set 25 years after the events of Vertigo, Midge is a widow who is on the cusp of selling her lingerie empire, and contemplating what to do next in her life.  She meets a young man who inspires her into a brief affair, all-the-while being haunted by her late husband Scotty, who died of liver failure years earlier, and whether or not he ever loved her.

Laura Hunt in Laura (1974)

Laura Hunt, once the darling of the New York social set, lives a rather lonely life in Queens, with her gruff soon-to-be-retired ex-cop husband.  She begins to write a romantic mystery inspired by real-life events in her youth, and watches as her life is torn asunder when she once again becomes the suspect in a death that eerily mirrors the events that took place in her life thirty years previously.

Sandy in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1999)

Technically this is cheating, as in the book we see Sandy quite often in the future (the movie and the novel differ greatly on that front), but as Sandy is one of my favorite complicated villains, it makes sense to show a movie of her as a nun, a writer of some renown but largely reclusive, still under the spell of Miss Jean Brodie.

Betty Schaefer in Sunset Boulevard (2000)

I actually quite like this idea, of Schaefer's life being chronicled by a reporter.  We learn that after the events of Norma Desmond's life, she ended up writing what would largely become the script for Sunset Boulevard, and then became a feminist pioneer and the first female Hollywood studio head  This becomes a look at how Hollywood treated women behind-the-camera in the 1970's and 1980's.

Nina in Nightcrawler (2026)

Set in the future, Nina is the producer of a trashy low-budget cable talk show, similar to Sally Jesse Raphael but with a vapid, coked-out young woman as the lead.  Broke and in-need of money, she sets out to blackmail Lou Bloom, who is about to become the CEO of a major news network.

Okay, I'm aware that some of these toe the line into being a straight sequel, rather than a character one, but I'm still playing with the concept.  Below, let me know some of your favorite characters from the movies you want follow-ups regarding!