A sequel is a work in literature, film, or other media that chronologically portrays events following those of a previous work.

In many cases, the sequel continues elements of the original story, often with the same characters and settings. A sequel can lead to a series, in which key elements appear in a number of stories. Although the difference between more than one sequel and a series is somewhat arbitrary, it is clear that some media franchises have enough sequels to become series, whether originally planned as such or not.

Sequels are attractive to creators and to publishers because there is less risk involved in returning to a story with known popularity rather than developing new and untested characters and settings. Audiences are sometimes eager for more stories about popular characters or settings, making the production of sequels financially appealing.

If the main character dies at the end of the first work, a new character (perhaps a son or daughter, or a supporting character) may take up the role in the sequel. In other cases, the main character is simply brought back, or determined not to have died, or simply replaced by a new character.

In movies sequels are quite common. Sometimes sequels have unrelated titles (such as The Jewel of the Nile, the sequel to Romancing the Stone or The Dark Knight, sequel to Batman Begins) but sometimes only a number is added to the original's title (e.g. Lethal Weapon 2, Spider-Man 3). Subtitles are also frequent (e.g. ''Home Alone 2: Lost in New York').

Chronologies

There are a number of ways that subsequent works can be related to chronology of the original. Various neologisms have been coined to describe them.

Sequel

The most common approach is for the events of the second work to directly follow the events of the first, either picking up dangling plot threads or introducing a new conflict to drive the events of a second story.

Prequel

main: Prequel A sequel that portrays events which precede those of the original work, called a "prequel." These can often avoid the plot problems associated with having to deal with the consequences of the original (e.g. the death of an important character). However they pose the challenge of maintaining dramatic interest when the outcome is already known from the original work, so the focus is usually on the character interactions or revealing how the characters and situations of the original work developed.

Interquel

When there are already two or more completed works, a sequel can portray events which happen between them, bridging one story to the other. An "interquel" is therefore a sequel to one work and a prequel to another. For example, the video game Metroid Prime and its sequels were released after Metroid and Metroid II, but take place between them. This is more common in ancillary works in other media rather than works in a popular series. For example, the novel The Godfather Returns takes place between the events of the films The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, and the Star Wars multimedia project Shadows of the Empire takes place between the films The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Similarly, the 2008 film Star Wars: The Clone Wars and the subsequent television series take place between Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The new film Fast & Furious takes place in the time between 2 Fast 2 Furious and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. The video game Street Fighter IV takes place after Super Street Fighter II Turbo but before Street Fighter III 2nd Impact. Also, the Street Fighter Alpha series takes place after Street Fighter but before Street Fighter II: The World Warrior. In the Star Trek franchise, the 2009 movie Star Trek is set after Star Trek: Enterprise and before Star Trek: TOS.