10 Things We’d Have Wanted To See In Back To The Future 4 If It’d Ever Happened

Robert Zemeckis has stated that Back to the Future 4 will never happen, and while this is probably good news, there are some things which a sequel could have delivered. The Back to the Future trilogy came out between 1985 and 1990, and although there have been some calls for a sequel, many fans are content to leave it as it is. This makes Back to the Future a rare example of a franchise quitting while it was ahead, ensuring that it’s legacy remains intact.

While Ghostbusters, Blade Runner, Top Gun and many more 1980s classics have received legacy sequels in recent years, Back to the Future is one franchise that seems untouchable. Legacy sequels and reboots have been hit-and-miss, so it may be for the best that Back to the Future remains in the past. Still, this means that all the untapped potential of a Back to the Future sequel will never be realized, and there are a few things that fans of Doc and Marty would have wanted to see.

10

Another Historic Setting

Back to the Future has a lot of fun with its quirky period locations

Back to the Future contrasts the 1980s with the 1950s, and Part III goes even further by sending Doc and Marty to the Wild West in 1885. Any potential Back to the Future reboot or sequel could travel to a completely new time period. If the series stays in America, the characters could find themselves in the Prohibition era facing up to a Biff Tannen-esque Al Capone, or in the midst of the Revolutionary War.

Back to the Future Part III uses its Western setting to parody Western movies. Using this same technique, Back to the Future 4 could try to parody other historical genres, like war movies or Roman epics such as Gladiator and Ben-Hur. A lot of Back to the Future‘s funniest moments come from the similarities and differences between different time periods, so more time travel would undoubtedly be a good thing.

9

A Musical Adaptation

A sequel could adapt the successful stage musical, rather than attempting a true remake

There are many reasons why a Back to the Future remake shouldn’t happen, but a musical adaptation could be one way of avoiding too many direct comparisons. Casting anyone else in the roles of Doc Brown and Marty McFly would be a recipe for disaster, and removing the 1980s charm would also alter the movie beyond recognition. However, this doesn’t mean that a remake of the original is impossible.

A stage musical version of Back to the Future has received positive reviews in London and New York City, and there are plans for a North American tour. Back to the Future is just one of many movies which have become musicals, but it might be a good idea to go via the Mean Girls route and adapt the stage show back into a movie. This wouldn’t please all fans of the original movie, but it would be a great way to reboot the story without directly copying it.

8

More On Jennifer’s Story

Marty’s girlfriend could have had a more active role

Marty McFly’s love interest never gets as much attention as he or Doc do, and Back to the Future could have fixed this. Jennifer’s main role in the movies is simply to be Marty’s girlfriend. She gets a little more development in Part II when she wakes up in the future, but the fact that Back to the Future recast Jennifer twice just goes to show how her character isn’t as important as any of the movie’s other stars.

By the end of the Back to the Future trilogy, Jennifer has learned about Marty’s time-traveling adventures with Doc, and she and Marty seem happy together. This means that her inclusion in any hypothetical Back to the Future 4 would be all but certain. She could have taken on a more active role as a character who shapes the plot for her own reasons. For example, she could have joined Marty and Doc, rather than staying behind like she does in Part III.

7

Tales From The Time Train

Comic books already provide the blueprint for a Back to the Future sequel

Hardcore fans of Back to the Future will know that the story didn’t end with Part III. Back to the Future screenwriter Bob Gale has continued the story in a series of comics made by IDW Publishing. One particularly interesting potential plot for Back to the Future 4 could have been taken from Tales From the Time Train, a series of six comics which follows Doc and the Brown family on an adventure through time.

Back to the Future Part III‘s ending sends Marty and Doc in different directions. Marty stays in his own timeline with Jennifer while Doc flies off in the time-traveling train with his family. Tales From the Time Train shows the Brown family visiting the World’s Fair in New York in 1939, but they are soon drawn into a dangerous plot featuring German spies. Tales from the Time Train has a Doctor Who feel, with Doc inadvertently becoming involved in a mysterious and deadly game of espionage.

6

Jules & Verne

Doc’s children could be the ideal stars for a hypothetical legacy sequel

Whether or not Back to the Future should have taken inspiration from the comics, it definitely could have shifted focus toward Jules and Verne, Doc’s two sons. They appear briefly at the end of Back to the Future Part III, but their future is left a mystery. Presumably, they travel off on several madcap adventures with their parents and their dog, Einstein. Back to the Future 4 could have seen what happened to them after they grew up.

Based on Doc’s relationship with Marty, it’s safe to assume that he would have been a loving father, but he probably would have thrust his two sons into some dangerous situations from time to time. It’s unknown how this would have affected the boys growing up. Because there are two of them, Back to the Future 4 could have been like a road trip movie through time, with Jules and Verne taking the DeLorean for a joyride.

5

Marty’s Life As A Father

Marty’s life would have been different to the one that was shown in Part II

Back to the Future Part II shows Marty as a father, but his life isn’t as happy as he thought it would be. Fortunately, Marty turns down the street race that will cause most of his problems in Back to the Future Part III, so he avoids the troubled marriage and the unfulfilling career ahead of him. Part III ends with the hopeful message that Marty’s future is still unwritten, and it can be anything he wants it to be.

This happy ending is an optimistic conclusion to the trilogy, but if Back to the Future 4 ever happened, then it would also be a great open-ended set-up for Marty and Jennifer to go on some more adventures. With their future uncertain, anything could happen to the two of them, and their children, if they still had them, likely wouldn’t be very similar to the ones which appeared in Part II.

4

Robert Zemeckis As Director

Back to the Future 4 should never happen without the original director’s approval

Robert Zemeckis won’t allow a Back to the Future reboot to take place within his lifetime, and neither will his writing partner Bob Gale. Any attempt at continuing the franchise without either of both of these men would be met with disappointment from fans, and it would probably be little more than a hollow imitation of all the things which have made Back to the Future so popular for so many years.

The only acceptable way for Back to the Future 4 to become a reality would be for Robert Zemeckis to change his mind about the project. Perhaps if he came up with a new idea that was as exciting to him as the original trilogy, then he would want to revisit the story, but any reboot or sequel should be on his terms. Legacy sequels without the same team of creatives rarely if ever strike the correct tone.

3

A Look At The Different Timelines

Back to the Future could provide the antidote to multiverse fatigue

Doc explains in Back to the Future that altering the events of the past can send shockwaves through to the future, and that making different decisions sometimes creates alternate timelines which branch off from the reality that he and Marty experience. This suggests that Back to the Future could have a multiverse, although the franchise came out decades before multiverses would become the latest Hollywood trend.

With the MCU, the Spider-Verse movies, The Flash, The Lego Movie, Everything Everywhere All at Once and more contributing to the influx of multiverse movies, it’s the perfect time for a fresh set of eyes to deconstruct the phenomenon. Back to the Future could take a playful approach to its multiple timelines in much the same way it toyed with the tropes and paradoxes of time travel sci-fi. It could be fun to see all the different versions Marty existing across the multiverse.

2

Doc Figuring Out Why 2015 Was So Different

Back to the Future could explain why 2015 wasn’t filled with hoverboards

Back to the Future Part II shows Marty in the distant future of 2015. Some of Back to the Future‘s predictions have come true, like digital currency and video calls, but many more are still sci-fi fantasies, like automated dog walkers and flying cars. Back to the Future has a complex timeline, so it’s possible that Marty’s actions in Part III somehow stopped the future which is shown in Part II from ever happening.

A modern-day sequel or reboot of Back to the Future would have to choose how to represent the 21st century. The movie could either show 2024 in the same way that Part II shows 2015, with hoverboards and people wearing two ties, or it could show a more realistic modern age. If this were to happen, Doc would have to figure out what events caused the timeline to shift so dramatically.

1

Cameos From The Original Stars

Back to the Future could have paid tribute to the originals, even if it came decades later

Back to the Future 4 wouldn’t feel the same without Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox, but if the franchise ever wanted to move forward, then it would have to formulate a plan to do so without them. However, this doesn’t mean that they should be cut entirely. A hypothetical Back to the Future 4 could use the franchise’s old characters just like Star Wars or Ghostbusters, with them in reduced roles, but still playing an important part.

Michael J. Fox has hinted at returning to acting, even though he previously announced his retirement in 2020. Fox has been living with Parkinson’s disease since the 1990s, and he has spoken about how this has made acting much more difficult for him. This would limit the kind of role that he could have in Back to the Future 4, but fans would love to see him involved in whatever way is possible.