7 Remakes & Sequels That Should Get a Musical Upgrade!

Love them, hate them, musicals still arrive all the same (just like Thanos). For as long as stories have been told, the storytellers have often enjoyed telling them through song and dance. It helped to make people remember them, after all! As time went on, that technique eventually transformed itself into a whole genre of stage and screen: the musical. Musicals have become a beloved genre to so many in the decades of its inception. Audiences love to see characters express themselves in music that ends up being just as catchy to listen to afterwards.

It’s a genre that can be so popular, artists can’t help but reinterpret stories they already love in a more musical fashion. Whether that be the Mean Girls remake from last year (the songs being from the Broadway production) or jukebox musicals like Joker: Folie à Deux that is taking the radical approach to tell this crime story as a musical, it got us thinking: what other movies could have a remake or sequel that’s a musical? 

1. Beetlejuice (Based on the Broadway Musical)

Hot off the success of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, we find it hard not to think about Tim Burton’s version of the afterlife. The original movie was so popular back in its day that it spawned a cartoon series, a whole lot of merchandising, and, of course, a Broadway musical. Blockbusters being adapted into Broadway productions is nothing new, although it was a relief to see how good this version of the Ghost With The Most was. Especially with how the musical loved to make unique versions of their headlining song “The Whole ‘Being Dead’ Thing” for every appearance it made outside of the Winter Garden Theater, we would love to see how this could translate onto the big screen. We hope it doesn’t take too long to make it to movie theatres in case Alex Brightman wants to reprise his role.

2. Smile: The Musical!

Smile 2 creeped into theaters last Fall, and we couldn’t help but wonder if these smiling faces happened to have taken any singing lessons. Taking the base premise of a curse that makes every face you see smile into the world of musicals would undoubtedly have a tint of irony, since anyone who has seen the first movie knows that this curse doesn’t have the happiest results. Still, with the creativity they could employ in turning Smile into a musical, it’s an idea that is almost too good to be true. Who knows, maybe with Naomi Scott playing a pop star in the sequel, they might already be taking this approach. For now, all we can do is wonder and wait to see if Smile can keep its song going long enough to make this fantasy a reality.

3. Guardians of the Galaxy: Musical Mix

With how integral music is to this Marvel franchise, it’s shocking that we don’t have a proper musical starring the Guardians of the Galaxy. For characters that used to be B-list at best for comics fans, they have grown into a worldwide phenomenon in the years following James Gunn’s first foray into the cosmic side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Gunn’s choice to have Peter Quill’s Walkman be a defining part of his character didn’t just make for good story — it created a soundtrack that has defined what the Guardians of the Galaxy are on the big screen. Obviously, if we were to make the Guardians into musical stars, it would more than likely be a jukebox musical that could see any musical era from '70s all the way to 2010s. What form this musical could take is a good question. Our bets are on either another Marvel Special Presentation that features the Guardians singing their hearts out, or a stage adaptation of the first film. Either way, this would be an awesome way to continue the Guardians love!

4. American Fiction: Jazzy Tunes

This one is purely based on vibes. Cord Jefferson’s directorial debut American Fiction was the subject of a lot of acclaim in 2023, garnering himself an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. Nothing in the text of comedic-drama really screams "musical", as it centers around a Black author writing a mocking novel under a pseudonym to critique the way Black storytellers are forced to tell “overtly Black stories”. However, the score by Laura Karpman is wonderfully filled with jazz that is as calming as it is fitting for this story. That music alone got us thinking about what American Fiction would look like if its emphasis on storytelling got paired up with music that is designed to tell the story (and poke fun at some things too). If not through musical numbers filled with soul and blues, maybe they could even use the jazzy background tunes to have sequences where characters speak about things in a manner similar to slam poetry. It might be out of left field, but if Cord Jefferson is listening, we think this would be worth a shot.

5. Scott Pilgrim: Battle of the Bands

Let’s just say that the vibes have taken a sharp turn with this next pick. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is the definition of a cult classic since it released in 2010, earning the love of so many nerds and geeks alike, while not making enough of a splash at the box office to be considered a "success". Despite that, the popularity of the Scott Pilgrim story has lived long enough to prosper into pop culture, earning itself a Netflix anime adaptation and plenty of replays on the soundtrack. Oh yeah, the music to Scott Pilgrim is pretty crucial, to the point where some people could argue the first movie was already a musical. Well, either way you look at it, that means there is plenty of room to explore this side even further if Edgar Wright and the gang were able to get a sequel off the ground. As our makeshift title implies, we imagine a follow-up that takes Sex Bob-Omb into a Battle of the Bands where the winner earns the high score in more ways than one. Come on, that just sounds like too much fun to pass up!

6. The Super Mario Bros. Musical

Wahoo! He was referenced a lot in the last pick, so a musical continuation of The Super Mario Bros. Movie seems ripe for the taking. The 2023 adaptation of the iconic video game made Illumination and Nintendo a whole lot of gold coins at the box office and audiences overall were pretty pleased with how Mario and Luigi came out this time around. The idea of a musical sequel set in the Mushroom Kingdom actually stems from none other than Jack Black himself. Late in 2023, the voice of Bowser suggested on social media having the sequel be called “Bowser’s Revenge” (duh) and making it a musical in the vein of what Todd Phillips did with Joker: Folie à Deux, so the groundwork is already there. Especially after Jack Black’s iconic performance of “Peaches” got snubbed at the Oscar’s last year, it seems like a road that is all but inevitable for the Mushroom Kingdom.

7. Casablanca: A Musical as Old as Time

Lastly, we wanted to go back, WAY back to a 1940s film classic that, frankly, we’re surprised doesn’t already have a musical adaptation to its name. Casablanca is bound to be in every “Top 100 Movies of All-Time" list, and if you see the film, you’d know why. The classic “doomed to fail” romance between Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman ticks off all the boxes of a good movie and a good fit to become a musical. It has great characters, a compelling romance, and a time period ripe for creativity with the songs. Not the least of which is the iconic scene where Ilsa asks Sam to play the song “As Time Goes By”, embodying so much of the film’s soul in one simple piece. It seems inevitable for this Warner Bros. classic to eventually see itself become a musical, so we’ll patiently wait until that inevitably happens, hoping to see a song and tune that’s the start of a beautiful friendship.

With all those notes played out, are there any other movies you would like to see as a musical via a remake or sequel?