memes

Absolutely, there's a lot of stories that would have been better received as their own original IPs. Unfortunately, it's a lot safer to make a sequel so you can count on sales from the pre-established fanbase. Another good example I always go to is the Thief video games, where I got my username. The reboot dramatically changed all the mechanics and ditched a lot of what made the first games so engaging, very little aside from a few proper nouns has any resemblance to the original. It could have been a decent stealth game if it sold itself on its own merits(it certainly wasn't terrible) but as a Thief game, it justifiably got fans upset.