20 prequels centered around the younger versions of characters

The show is willing to ask, “What if Sheldon was young?” Sure, the title was oh-so simple, but we completely understand why CBS wanted a prequel spinoff of “The Big Bang Theory” based on that show’s breakout character. “Young Sheldon,” which focused on the childhood of wunderkind Sheldon Cooper, was also a success in its own right, and it, too, got a spinoff. Wheels within wheels!

Eventually, “Sex and the City” would get a legacy sequel, a goofy one people seemed to enjoy more out of morbid curiosity than actual quality, but before that there was a prequel. Don’t worry, it was a bit tamer than “Sex and the City,” since it aired on The CW and focused on Carrie Bradshaw in high school. The show had a good aesthetic, and young Samantha was added in the second season, but “The Carrie Diaries” was still canceled after that second season.

The fourth “Psycho” film is also a prequel, with Anthony Perkins’ Norman Bates reflecting upon his childhood (the “Psycho” sequels are uniformly bananas but all interesting in their own ways). “Bates Motel” plays fast and loose with “Psycho,” but it focuses on young Norman and his mother, Norma. Unsurprisingly, the two have a weird relationship. “Bates Motel” lasted for five seasons. It was also on A&E, which feels weird now.

Not one, but TWO young Indiana Joneses in one show! It’s almost like George Lucas struggles with self-editing. After the original trilogy, Lucas developed a television show based on Indy's early adventures. Sometimes, it was a pre-teen Indy. Other times, it was a version of Indy anywhere between 16 and 20 or so. Oh, and the show was framed by a nonagenarian Indiana Jones telling these stories. Three Indiana Joneses in one show!

If you are of a certain age, “Muppet Babies” is the quintessential “young version of characters” story. The animated show, focused on toddler versions of several notable Muppets (plus Skeeter), aired from 1984 through 1991 on CBS, and then reruns aired on Nickelodeon for years and years. Many Millennial Muppet fans were born from watching “Muppet Babies” back in the day.

Sure, “A Pup Named Scooby-Doo” screams, “Look, we’re out of ideas,” but about half the stuff in the world of Scooby-Doo is just throwing things at the wall. It’s, if nothing else, better than “The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo.” As you have surely surmised if you haven’t seen it, this is about Scooby-Doo as a puppy alongside little-kid versions of the Scooby gang (no Mystery Machine to be found). There is at least one good recurring bit where Fred is always accusing the town bully, Red Herring, of being the culprit.

Before he was Superman, he was a Superteen. “Smallville” focuses on Clark Kent’s time living in Smallville, Kansas with his adoptive parents, which of course was part of the established backstory of Superman. “Smallville” was quite popular, so much so it bridged the death of The WB and the birth of The CW. It ran for over 200 episodes, and they didn’t even get to General Zod until the ninth season!

Let’s stick to young versions of DC superheroes. “Gotham” is packed to the brim with young versions of “Batman” characters. The show’s central pivot point is a young Jim Gordon, but to be fair, Bruce Wayne is still a child. By the time the show ended, we got Catwoman, Penguin, Riddler, and, of course, Mad Hatter. “Gotham” is very silly. It’s pretty stupid at times. However, once it leaned into that a bit more, the show became more enjoyable.

Showtime/Paramount never really got over bringing “Dexter” in for a close. Apparently, they just can’t get enough of the serial killer who kills other serial killers. They had “New Blood,” which brought Michael C. Hall back as Dexter, only to conclude his story pretty definitively again. So, in 2024, they brought us “First Blood,” which focused on Dexter Morgan when he was but a forensic intern for the Miami police. While “First Blood” was well received and a second season was planned, Hall said, “JK, I’ll play Dexter again,” so they canceled “First Blood” to pave the way for “Resurrection.”

Frankly, we're struggling to see the point of “Elle,” one of the newest additions to this landscape. It really feels like major I.P. mining, since it’s a prequel focused on Elle Woods in high school from “Legally Blonde.” Literally, the whole juice of “Legally Blonde” is Elle going to Harvard Law School and growing and changing. What could “Elle” possibly be about? There is no story there! Anyway, it was renewed for a second season before the first season even debuted.

Young Willy Wonka makes more sense than young Elle Woods, but only just. “Wonka,” while imperfect, has a couple of things going for it. One, it was directed by Paul King, the “Paddington” guy. Second, Timothee Chalamet plays young Wonka, and casting can go a long way in a situation like this.

Speaking of casting helping out, though, going back into history in the “X-Men” story makes way more sense than “Wonka.” “First Class” is largely set during the Cuban Missile Crisis, so it fits within the franchise's narrative history decades before “X-Men.” While we see a few younger versions of X-Men characters, it’s primarily about Charles and Erik, aka Professor X and Magneto.

Why did “Dumb and Dumber” work? Because Jeff Daniels and Jim Carrey pulled off the silly, scatological humor. Nobody cared about Harry and Lloyd’s lives before the film, after the film, or really all that much during it. We’re there for the jokes. “When Harry Met Lloyd” answers zero interesting questions, and also it doesn’t star Daniels or Carrey. It’s pretty much completely forgotten by this point, which is for the best.

“The Lion King” is Simba’s story. “Mufasa” is about his father, making him more than just the lion who dies and freaks Simba out. Plus, Scar is in it, but he’s not called Scar, and we don’t remember what he was called, and we don’t care. The main issue with “Mufasa” is that it is done in the photorealistic animated style of the “Lion King” remake, which means it looks bad and is kind of a chore to watch.

Speaking of George Lucas (and not being able to leave well enough alone). “The Phantom Menace” was as hyped as any movie possibly ever. The “Star Wars” trilogy had ended that world, but now a new movie was coming 15 years later. And it was a prequel! About Obi-Wan and young Anakin Skywalker! The movie was a huge hit that birthed a new trilogy. Also, “The Phantom Menace” is terrible.

One more prequel from the “Star Wars” universe that didn’t exactly pan out. That being said, “Solo” is a better-made movie, in part because it was in the hands of “Everything I Do Is a B-” director Ron Howard. The main issue with “Solo,” aside from its two different directorial lives, was that it kept hitting the “unveiling every piece of Han Solo lore” button over and over.

“Fury Road” was a “Mad Max” movie, but the standout elements were the practical effects and Charlize Theron as Furiosa. She popped so much that the character got a prequel film, though, of course, that meant Theron wasn’t in the role. While Anya Taylor-Joy is a good actress, “Furiosa” was just off in some way that, even now, is hard to figure out.

“Monsters, Inc.” ended with the landscape of the world completely changing, so a sequel would have been tricky to pull off. So, instead, we got a prequel. As the title suggests, “Monsters University” is about Mike and Sulley in their college days. All things considered, it panned out, and both critics and audiences received the film well.

Anthony Hopkins won an Oscar for playing Hannibal Lecter, but famously he had little screen time for a Best Actor winner. Hopkins had a larger role in “Hannibal” and “Red Dragon,” and the latter is also a prequel to “The Silence of the Lambs,” though not a “Young Hannibal” movie. “Hannibal Rising” is the “Young Hannibal” movie. It’s kind of lacking in ideas, and it’s totally lacking for a two-time Oscar winner in the lead role.

Suzanne Collins started writing prequel books to her “The Hunger Games” series, and those movies were a huge hit, so why not adapt the prequels as well? There are a few instances of young versions of characters, but the lead character of “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” is young Coriolanus Snow, who is President of Panem in the original movies. A sequel to the prequel, “Sunrise on the Reaping,” arrives in November 2026.