5 Forgotten Movies That Could Become Great TV Shows, Including Disney’s Cult Sci-Fi Flop

Hollywood has spent years turning movies into television shows, so at this point, almost anything is fair game. A hit movie can become a series, a forgotten movie can become a series, and apparently even movies nobody remembers watching can get a second life on streaming. But that last category is where things get interesting, because some movies were never really bad ideas. They were just ideas that didn’t get enough room to breathe.

That’s what makes digging through older movies so much fun. There are characters who could have gone on for years, worlds that barely got explored, and stories that ended just when things were getting interesting. So instead of asking whether these movies deserve a remake, there’s another question worth asking: why couldn’t this be a TV show? These five have more than enough material to make the jump, and, in some cases, television might be exactly what they needed all along.

5) The Rocketeer (1991)

The Rocketeer is a movie that seems almost perfect for a Disney+ series. It has a 1930s setting, a mysterious rocket pack, gangsters, Nazis, spies, airships, and a pulp-adventure hero. Cliff Secord gets pulled into the whole mess after discovering a rocket pack. Soon after that, he’s blasting off and battling a German villain. 

There was so much packed into The Rocketeer film that it ended up hurting the movie’s experience overall. A television series could spend more time with Cliff, Jenny, Peevy, and the world around them. No more rushing from one adventure to the next without proper story development. It could also lean further into the serial-adventure format that inspired the original comic. The original Rocketeer issues spanned five chapters between 1982 and 1985. With those two arcs, that could be two seasons right there. There is also a new The Rocketeer comic book being published by IDW Publishing in 2026. If you’re a fan, you’ll want to check it out. And if a show ever did materialize—and it became popular—the story can continue to skyrocket.

4) The Last Starfighter (1984)

Imagine finding out that the arcade game you’ve been playing for years is actually a training simulator created by an alien civilization looking for the perfect fighter pilot. That’s the basic hook of The Last Starfighter, and honestly, it’s still a pretty great hook. Alex Rogan thinks he’s stuck in a dead-end life at a trailer park until his high score gets him recruited to fight an actual interstellar war. It’s The Last Starfighter, so naturally, nobody bothers to ask whether he’s ready.

Alex’s first adventure only scratches the surface of the universe waiting beyond Earth, and a series could finally explore the worlds, species, politics, and battles that the original movie could only hint at. It could also spend more time with Alex as he adjusts to the bizarre reality of becoming a space pilot while everyone back home assumes he’s simply disappeared. The original movie had to establish the premise, introduce the characters, and get Alex into space in under two hours. A TV show wouldn’t have that problem. It could actually let the universe play the long game.

3) The Shadow (1994)

The Shadow is about the kind of mysterious masked hero who seemed perfectly at home lurking in the darkness. Lamont Cranston has a complicated past, psychic abilities, a great costume, and a knack for making criminals very nervous. The 1994 movie has plenty of noir-inspired homage and pulpy style, but it also feels like it has only just begun. The movie just lifted the curtain to a world that could have all sorts of adventures in that era.

That’s where a television series could really have some fun. The Shadow doesn’t need to fight the same villain for an entire season, either. Give Lamont a new criminal conspiracy, supernatural threat, or mad scientist every few episodes, and the pulp format practically builds itself. Better yet, the series could spend more time exploring Lamont’s transformation from a man consumed by darkness into someone trying to use those abilities for something better. The movie gave audiences a glimpse of that journey. A series could actually live in it. And considering how many superhero shows television has produced since 1994, it’s almost strange that The Shadow hasn’t gotten another serious shot.

2) The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984)

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension is the kind of movie where the longer you think about the main character, the more ridiculous his résumé becomes. Buckaroo Banzai is a neurosurgeon, physicist, race car driver, rock musician, and international adventurer. He also leads a band called the Hong Kong Cavaliers, has a group of loyal friends who follow him into just about anything, and finds himself caught up in an alien invasion led by Lord John Whorfin. And this all happens in one movie. That’s part of the reason Buckaroo Banzai feels like it was made for television before television was ready for it. It could be part an ongoing superhero adventure, a dash of Star Trek exploration, and a sprinkle of Doctor Who.

The funny thing is that the movie knows exactly how ridiculous all of this sounds and simply keeps going. It throws ideas at the audience as if there’s no chance it will ever run out of them, which is part of its charm. A TV series could finally give all those ideas somewhere to go. There could be alien conspiracies, strange scientific discoveries, international adventures, and whatever Buckaroo’s band gets dragged into that week. The original movie ends with the unmistakable feeling that there should be more, and a series could finally answer the question hanging over the whole thing: what exactly does Buckaroo Banzai do on a normal Tuesday?

1) The Black Hole (1979)

Disney’s The Black Hole is one of those movies where you can almost hear the pitch meeting. “It’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, but with Disney.” Okay, maybe that wasn’t exactly the pitch, but the movie certainly had big ambitions. The story follows the crew of the USS Palomino as they discover a massive spacecraft hovering near a black hole, commanded by the mysterious Dr. Hans Reinhardt. Naturally, they decide to investigate. Naturally, this turns out to be a terrible idea.

The movie has everything a modern series could have a lot more fun with: a massive spaceship, a mysterious scientist, killer robots, a black hole, and a crew slowly realizing that something is very wrong. The original had to cram all of that into one movie, leaving plenty of questions about the ship, Reinhardt, and what exactly is happening on the other side of that black hole. A television series could take its time with the mystery, explore the crew, and actually let this strange corner of Disney’s sci-fi universe breathe. Considering how many ambitious space shows have found audiences since then, The Black Hole feels less like a failed experiment today and more like a series that arrived a few decades too early.

Hollywood loves digging through its old shelves for something it can reboot, remake, or stretch into eight episodes. These five already did the hard part: they left behind worlds worth returning to. All they need is someone willing to open the box, dust off the weirdness, and press play. After all, streaming has revived other questionable ideas—and charged us monthly for them.

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