.png){kind=logo}
Image via 20th Century Studios
Luc Haasbroek is a writer and videographer from Durban, South Africa. He has been writing professionally about pop culture for eight years. Luc's areas of interest are broad: he's just as passionate about psychology and history as he is about movies and TV. He's especially drawn to the places where these topics overlap.
Luc is also an avid producer of video essays and looks forward to expanding his writing career. When not writing, he can be found hiking, playing Dungeons & Dragons, hanging out with his cats, and doing deep dives on whatever topic happens to have captured his interest that week.
Sign in to your Collider account
Most movie trilogies peak early. The first film sets the tone, the second tries to deepen it, and the third struggles under the weight of expectations. The sophomore slump is a real thing, and a lot of the time, audiences have totally lost interest by the third installment.
But every so often, a trilogy defies gravity. Instead of offering diminishing returns, they get richer, sharper, or more emotionally resonant with each sequel. The trilogies on this list didn’t merely sustain their momentum; they improved with every chapter, going out on top. Guided by a strong creative sense and a daring approach to filmmaking, the movie trilogies on this list get better with each new entry.
Creed Trilogy (2015-2023)
Image via Warner Bros."You’re Creed. I’m Creed." The Creed trilogy is one of the rare modern franchises that evolves organically with its central character. Each movie adds meaningfully to Adonis Creed’s (Michael B. Jordan) ascent from underdog to heavyweight champ to man confronting the shadow of legacy. The first one introduces the character, the son of Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers), as he seeks mentorship from an aging Rocky (Sylvester Stallone). Creed II raises the emotional stakes by pitting him against the son of Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren), the man who killed his father.
By Creed III (directed by Jordan himself), the franchise steps fully into Adonis’s world: no Rocky, no borrowed mythology, just a man facing the ghosts of his past in the form of childhood friend Damian. In other words, each film expands the emotional vocabulary of the series, culminating in a third chapter that feels the most personal, stylish, and psychologically layered.
Millennium Trilogy (2009)
Image via Nordisk Film"Everybody has secrets." Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy took the world by storm in the mid-2000s, serving up bleak but propulsive plots that readers couldn't get enough of. This didn't always come through fully in the English movie adaptations, but the original Swedish ones do a solid job. They get darker and more intricate with each installment, anchored by the magnetic Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace in a breakout role) and her uneasy alliance with journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist).
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo begins as a chilling mystery about a missing girl but evolves into a portrait of systemic misogyny and corruption. The Girl Who Played with Fire shifts gears into a political thriller, exploring Lisbeth’s haunted past and the conspiracies tied to it. By the time we reach The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, the trilogy has become a full-blown crusade: a courtroom drama, espionage narrative, and revenge tale woven together. Even more impressively, all three of these movies were released in the same year.
Deadpool Trilogy (2016-2023)
"Maximum effort." The Deadpool trilogy is a bizarre miracle: a superhero series that gets funnier, stranger, and more emotional with every entry. The first introduces Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) as a terminally ill mercenary transformed into an indestructible, foul-mouthed antihero seeking revenge on the man who experimented on him. Deadpool 2 broadens the world with time travel, surrogate fatherhood, and a surprisingly heartfelt exploration of grief as Wade tries to protect a young mutant from becoming a future killer.
By Deadpool & Wolverine, the trilogy reaches a new level, incorporating multiverse chaos, meta-commentary on superhero fatigue, and the emotional closure Wade has always avoided. Bringing back Hugh Jackman's Wolverine was certainly an audacious move. Sure, these movies are very wacky, with some sections driven more by jokes than actual narrative logic. But still, the Deadpool movies are a ton of fun, especially at a time when most superhero movies are growing stale and tame.
MCU Spider-Man Trilogy (2017-2021)
Image via Sony Pictures Releasing"If you’re nothing without the suit, then you shouldn’t have it." Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man deserves props for creating the blueprint of the modern superhero blockbuster, and Andrew Garfield's take on the character is deeply likable, but the most complete Spider-Man trilogy is Tom Holland's. In Homecoming, we meet Peter Parker as a high-school hero learning responsibility under the shadow of Iron Man. Far From Home raises the stakes by uprooting him from New York and plunging him into a globe-trotting mystery involving Mysterio and the legacy of Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.).
But it’s No Way Home that transforms the trilogy into something mythic: a multiversal adventure that forces Peter to confront loss, identity, and the true meaning of sacrifice. The trilogy matures as the character does, with each film pushing him closer to the iconic version of the character audiences know. By the end, he’s not an Avenger-in-training but a lonely, almost tragic figure who chooses heroism without reward.
Star Wars Prequel Trilogy (1999-2005)
Image via Lucasfilm"You were the chosen one!" When they first came out, the Star Wars prequels caught a lot of flak, but since the sequel trilogy let down so many fans, they have undergone something of a reevaluation. Sure, they are occasionally shaky and contain more than a few problems. However, when viewed as a trilogy, they are decent and genuinely improve with each entry. The themes slowly crystallize across each episode, including corruption, prophecy, fear, and the fragility of democracy.
The Phantom Menace introduces young Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd) and the political tensions destabilizing the galaxy. Attack of the Clones expands the conflict into a full-scale separatist crisis while developing Anakin (Hayden Christensen) and Padmé’s (Natalie Portman) tragic romance. Then Revenge of the Sith locks everything into place: Anakin’s fall, Palpatine’s (Ian McDiarmid) coup, the destruction of the Jedi, and the birth of Darth Vader. The film at least tries to be interesting, and it respects the franchise's mythology rather than undermining it.
Planet of the Apes Trilogy (2011-2017)
Image via 20th Century Studios"Apes together strong." The modern Planet of the Apes trilogy (Rise, Dawn, and War) is one of the most sophisticated sci-fi sagas in recent memory. Rise follows Caesar (Andy Serkis), a genetically enhanced ape raised by humans, as he leads his fellow apes toward freedom. Dawn explores the fragile peace between Caesar’s emerging civilization and the surviving humans after a devastating pandemic, unraveling into a Shakespearean tragedy about betrayal and mistrust.
War completes Caesar’s arc as he becomes a mythic leader navigating vengeance, sacrifice, and survival. Each chapter ups the moral complexity and emotional resonance. What begins as a clever reboot evolves into a sweeping meditation on leadership, violence, and evolution. War is the grimmest installment in the saga, but it's also poignant, action-packed, intelligent, wonderfully acted (particularly by Serkis), and amazing to look at, delivering a worthy payoff for all the buildup.
Wolverine Trilogy (2008-2017)
Image via 20th Century Studios"Don’t be what they made you." Wolverine strikes again. Deadpool & Wolverine made for an entertaining coda, but the core Wolverine trilogy (X-Men Origins: Wolverine, The Wolverine, and Logan) is surprisingly perfect as it is. It's also one of the most dramatic quality escalations in franchise history. Origins is a messy, uneven attempt to explore Logan’s backstory, but anchored by winning performances. The Wolverine shifts into a moody, atmospheric Japanese noir about immortality, trauma, and honor.
Then Logan arrives and elevates everything, serving up a bruised, elegiac Western about a dying hero trying to protect a young mutant who mirrors his younger self. Each movie sharpens the character’s emotional truth until the trilogy resolves in one of the greatest superhero films ever made. All in all, Jackman's run went above and beyond what fans hoped for, to the point that it's difficult to imagine anyone else in the role ever again.
Before Trilogy (1995-213)
Image via Warner Independent Pictures"If you want love, then this is it." Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy is perhaps the most unusual trilogy on this list: three dialogue-driven romances that become richer and more emotionally intricate with each installment. Before Sunrise follows strangers Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Céline (Julie Delpy) walking through Vienna for one magical night. Before Sunset reunites them in Paris nine years later for a single afternoon, examining regret, longing, and the weight of choices. Before Midnight brings them together again in Greece, now as a couple grappling with middle age, routine, and the erosion of idealism.
Each film becomes more honest, more vulnerable, and more devastating. The trilogy grows with its characters (and with the audience), transforming youthful infatuation into adult love, then into the hard work of staying together. If anything, the star's performances get stronger as the years roll by, and Linklater's storytelling grows wiser and more empathetic. Simply put, it is one of the greatest movie trilogies ever made.
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-2003)
"For Frodo." Some fans prefer the warmth of Fellowship, but the grandeur and ambition of Return of the King is undeniable. The Lord of the Rings movies start strong and never falter. The first one establishes the world: hobbits, wizards, kings, Ringwraiths, and the fragile fellowship tasked with destroying the One Ring. The Two Towers broadens the story into a war saga, with new kingdoms, new enemies, and Gollum’s (Andy Serkis) tortured arrival.
The Return of the King then pulls off a graceful landing, bringing a sprawling tangle of subplots to a satisfying conclusion. The visual effects in the third one are the best of the trilogy, and the set pieces are the grandest: the battle of the Pellennor Fields, the march on the Black Gate, the collapse of Sauron, and Frodo’s (Elijah Wood) final, painful test. All in all, these movies set a high benchmark for fantasy cinema that has not yet been surpassed and perhaps never will be.
Dollars Trilogy (1964-1966)
Image via United Artists"When you have to shoot, shoot. Don’t talk." Sergio Leone’s Dollars Trilogy (A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) is the blueprint for how a trilogy can expand its world and grow more operatic with each entry. It's arguably the defining Western saga, one that is now practically synonymous with the genre itself. In particular, the trilogy almost single-handedly invents the modern cool-blooded antihero and perfects him by the finale.
The first film introduces the Man With No Name (Clint Eastwood), a mysterious drifter manipulating rival gangs for profit. The second adds new dimensions to his myth as he teams with a bounty hunter on a revenge mission. The third transforms the trilogy into an epic Civil War–era treasure hunt culminating in the greatest three-way standoff in film history. Each film grows larger in scope, richer in character, and more confident in style, culminating in one of cinema's most enduring masterpieces.
English (US) ·