Beloved movie/TV franchise characters being revived decades after the previous installment

it was great.

Many xps, I knew about Lewis's movies like The Wizard and Troop Beverly Hills, but the idea that she acted on a sitcom with Lucille Ball is kinda O_O.

Morbs she is the erstwhile lead singer for Rilo Kiley, now solo artist, etc.

We need less of this and more crossovers.

http://www.themovienetwork.com/sites/themovienetwork.com/files/imagecache/630x375/x-files-richard-belzeer.jpg

The 1998 Lost in Space film featured cameos from most of the original cast - and Dick Tufeld returning to his old role as the voice of the robot. Similarly, Lou Ferrigno voiced the Hulk in the 2008 film (the MCU one, not the Ang Lee one) and his voice was composited with others for the first two Avengers movies.

Most of the main cast from TV's 21 Jump Street make cameos in the Lord & Miller film, except Richard Grieco and Dustin Nguyen. Grieco & Nguyen then showed up in 22 Jump St.

cameos like that don't count. They basically happen in every semi-ironic franchise reboot

Yeah, if the movie is clear reboot (such as the new Ghostbusters) with original actors having some jokey cameos, it's not the phenomenon I'm talking about here. It's when movie/TV series is revived in the same continuity, with (mostly) the same actors playing the same roles.

I still think it's interesting if they're going to the trouble of tracking down people to carry on a significant role, as with the Robot and Hulk - like, they obviously don't have to do that, and almost nobody will notice without being told, so what's the assumption behind it? James Garner in the Maverick movie would be another weird borderline case - very far from a cameo (he's basically the third lead) but not exactly reprising his original character. In that case maybe there was real hope it'd get old fans of the show interested, since he was prominent in the marketing.... whereas presumably nobody is going to decide they'll give 21 Jump Street a shot because they heard a rumor one of the old stars has a brief jokey appearance.

very far from a cameo (he's basically the third lead) but not exactly reprising his original character

hmmmm, did you see the last scene?

I did but honestly couldn't remember exactly how big the reveal/twist was.

ive never seen the Maverick TV show, but it seemed like an a-ha moment

spoilers for the 1994 throwback wild-west con-artist film MAVERICK: in the last scene, James Garner is revealed not to be a lawman butting heads with Mel Gibson's Bret Maverick, but in fact his father, working in cahoots with him all along. i took this to mean that Gibson was playing TV's Maverick and that they cleverly found a way to use the original star in a major role - but it's certainly plausible that Garner is meant to be the original Maverick and that this film takes place thirty years after the show, in a part of the old west that hasn't changed too dramatically. sadly, no work was found for Roger Moore, who played the original replacement character "Beau Maverick."

cameos like that don't count

absolutely, I was following up Dr Casino with an example of how diligently widespread that sort of Pokemon approach to cameos has become