Would still love to see a prequel

There have been many movies of course where we know the ultimate outcome, yet as you say a good director can keep us in suspense -- we forget what we intellectually know will happen and find ourselves caught up in the suspense anyway. So that probably shouldn't be a problem. Besides, at this juncture we can't assume everybody has seen Forbidden Planet, so a prequel might be a surprise for a lot of people.

Of course, they'd have to either cop many of the effects scenes from the original -- the Krell machine and underground -- or reproduce them pretty much as they appeared in 1956, without too many updates or refinements. How well they could do this to satisfy modern audiences, especially those who have not seen the original, is another question. But the can't have a drastically different conception if the original is to continue to be the template.

You're right, though, there are so many plot and scene possibilities, just based on what we learned from FP, that there'd be no problem creating a prequel. You could also add some details not previously alluded to, as long as they didn't conflict with anything in the original film.

I've been hearing for ages that a remake of FP has been being planned. I'll believe it when I see it. If not a prequel, perhaps an expanded story that would include the events pertaining to the Bellerophon (which would otherwise be the subject of a prequel), then lead into the remake of the 1956 film, would be a better way of telling the complete Forbidden Planet saga.

This would also obviate the need to invent some torturous means of keeping the ultimate revelation of the nature of the killings contained, as you would have to in a straight prequel. An all-encompassing film, including both the prequel elements as well as the remake of '56, wouldn't have to worry about more than one revelation of the Id monster: at the end, as in the original. In fact, this would make the suspense even better -- seeing what happened 20 years ago, leaving it at the vaporization of the Bellerophon, then fading to 20 years later, and the events that unfold with the arrival of the rescue ship.

I like your ideas (two posts back) for an FP sequel -- not prequel -- of what happens after they get back to Earth. So now that's three films!

I've always wondered whether the crew listened at the Captain's door after he and Altaira were shacked up on the return voyage. After all, cooped up for 378 days would surely lead to lots of psycho-sexual problems -- the film's optimism on this topic notwithstanding. I suspect having a beautiful woman on board among the remaining 13 men (12 others, excluding Adams) would make things considerably more trying.

Plus only the Captain can marry people in space -- but he can't perform his own marriage ceremony, and they have no chaplain. So either they're unwed for 54 weeks or they have Robby certified as a minister by some mail-order (or subspace) religion, and let him perform the rites.

Morbius's Id monster was invisible but tangible, while most Krell creations were quite visible as well as tangible, according to what we hear. As long as the subconscious is functioning steadily it would be a matter of having a large number of successive, instantaneously-created Ids replacing each disintegrated one, so rapidly that you would have hundreds if not thousands per second -- like persistence of vision creating the sense of continuous motion, a long series of monsters formed so close to one another that they have the effect of a single being.

I understand Maddy's point about the prequel, and indeed many times such a story would not be good or necessary. But I think FP is one of those stories where the elements of a prequel contain sufficient material for a good tale in itself -- one which just happens to segue neatly into the follow-up film of 20 years later, the actual Forbidden Planet. I don't agree with the analogy about The Thing 1982 and its prequel. There, I agree, the prequel was totally unnecessary and of no point or purpose. (I also happen to dislike both films intensely -- for me only the brilliant 1951 original has merit.) I don't think that would be the case with Forbidden Planet, however -- quite the opposite.

But besides avoiding creating an interminable and increasingly lame franchise, we must also avoid that crashingly dull and stupendously unimaginative hallmark of modern movie-making: entitling sequels II, III, IV, V, etc. Once upon a time sequels had separate, independent, original titles unique to themselves. But since the 70s it's usually just the same title with changing Roman numerals.

If I had that $250,000,000, one of the things I'd spend it on is bullets to do away with the first studio exec to demand the remake be titled Forbidden Planet II: The Return. Or maybe we could spend the money to create a real Krell mind machine and just Id the guy to death...and create the movie by mere thought, at no expense.