Hardly any properties, movies, TV shows, or IPs are safe from the relentless churn of reboots, remakes, legacy sequels, reinventions, and reimaginings, but it definitely helps us sleep a lot safer at night knowing that Back to the Future is about as untouchable as it gets.
Dual-wielding Bobs Zemeckis and Gale have been adamant for decades that nobody is going anywhere near the property until the time comes when it has to be pried from their cold, dead, fingers, with the director and writer wisely deciding to hold onto the rights to the beloved sci-fi saga, a rarity in today’s Hollywood when everything and anything is typically up for grabs.
Zemeckis has been clear countless times that he won’t even entertain the idea, while Gale helpfully pointed fans in the direction of supplementary media material he views as canon that continues the story. However, despite it being nailed-on that we’re not getting Back to the Future Part IV, the residents of Reddit have been arguing about whether or not it should exist anyway.
It’s an entirely hypothetical argument, and as you’d expect, the discussion ranges from “technically every movie is unnecessary” to “why does everything need to be franchised into the ground?”. Not that there’s any chance it would involve Michael J. Fox or Christopher Lloyd should the unthinkable happen and the Bobs suddenly decide to change their minds, and it would almost certainly be a pale imitation of the all-time great trilogy anyway.
Back to the Future will remain as it is for the foreseeable future, and the majority of fans old and new couldn’t be happier about it.