@fillertrack@slime.global if you don't mind a rando replying, this is something I've seen a bit in video games Legend of Zelda, the US releases of Super Mario Bros. are fine examples. Experimented far beyond the first game, considered a little too weird, and everything since has been closer to the original than the sequel Bubble Bobble, a game about two cute dinoaurs blowing bubbles to defeat enemies, had a sequel. the dinosaurs turn into humans and make rainbow bridges instead of bubbles Donkey Kong, the classic action platform game series that acted as a blueprint for the whole genre to build off of, followed with Donkey Kong Jr, which was actually still close to the game. Donkey Kong 3 though, I kid you not, was a vertical shooter. played more like Galaga than practically any platformer moving away from video games to tabletop, Dungeons and Dragons had a pretty clear lineage, from original, to the basic/advanced split, second edition, merged back for third edition, [redacted], and the current 5th edition. what transpired between 3e and 5e is practically treated as a cognitohazard today, it was such a departure from everything before or since sorry for late night rambling, it was something I was excited to talk about. I don't know much about movie franchises to know of examples in that space but I bet they're out there