What Back To The Future's Director Regretted About The Sequels

Director Robert Zemeckis took a unique approach to the making of the Back to the Future sequels, and he ended up having a major regret over the second movie because of it. Although he ended Back to the Future on a cliffhanger that teased another time-traveling adventure, Zemeckis never intended to continue the story in a sequel. It was only after Back to the Future became a huge box office hit that Zemeckis and co-writer Bob Gale started kicking around ideas for a follow-up.

They didn’t just make one Back to the Future sequel; they made two back-to-back, rounding out a trilogy. These days, it’s common to shoot multiple movies back-to-back to get them out quicker and strike while the iron is hot. The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, and The Lord of the Rings trilogy were all shot back-to-back, and James Cameron has been filming four Avatar sequels simultaneously. But when Zemeckis completed the Back to the Future trilogy, it was a relatively new approach to franchise filmmaking.

Back To The Future’s Director Had A Regret About Making The Sequels So Close Together

Zemeckis Was Editing Part II While Shooting Part III

The ambitious practice of filming Back to the Future Parts II and III together allowed the trilogy to feel like a more cohesive, complete story. Part II slyly foreshadows plot points from Part III, like having Biff watch a scene from A Fistful of Dollars that Marty will recreate when he goes back to the Old West. Part II ends with a trailer for Part III, which blew audiences’ minds back in 1989 when movies weren’t expected to tee up their own sequels in the end credits.

Custom image of Doc and Marty looking shocked in Back to the Future

1 Clever Back To The Future Line Predicts The Second Movie’s Entire Plot

A throwaway line that Doc Brown says to Marty McFly in the first Back to the Future movie slyly foreshadowed the almanac storyline for the sequel.

But this approach also had some drawbacks. On the “Making the Trilogy” DVD featurette, Zemeckis said that it was “very difficult” to make the second and third films simultaneously. He was editing Part II while he was shooting Part III. This meant that he couldn’t give Part II his full attention, and the film “suffered a little” because of it. It’s tough enough to direct one movie at a time; directing two at once is nearly impossible.

Why Back To The Future Part II Is Still Great (Even If It Doesn’t Match The Original)

Back To The Future Part II Is Delightfully Dark

Doc talking to Marty and Jennifer in Back to the Future Part II

While it’s widely accepted that Back to the Future Part II doesn’t quite live up to its perfect predecessor, it’s still a great movie. The sequel takes some really dark turns when Marty returns to a dystopian alternate 1985, and that tonal shift is not only effectively shocking, but makes for a really gripping story. It was an ingenious conceit to send Marty back to the events of the original Back to the Future — sequels don’t get much more meta than that.