There have been several Walton Goggins movie sequels he appeared in over his career, but not in franchises he helped start. Goggins got his big break on television thanks to the drama series The Shield​​​​, but he had been acting for almost a decade before that, and even appeared in several movie sequels before his television success.
In only his third movie role, and the first where he had an actual character name, Goggins starred in a sequel to the Karate Kid franchise, and four years later, he had a role in a sequel to the sports comedy franchise Major League. In all, Goggins has starred in eight different sequel movies, to mixed results.
8
Major League: Back To The Minors (1998)
In 1998, Major League: Back to the Minors was released as the third movie in the comedy sports trilogy. However, only three stars from the first two films were back for this entry. The franchise’s main stars, Charlie Sheen and Tom Berenger, sat this one out, with Scott Bakula stepping in as the new lead.
Corbin Bernsen was back as the new team owner, Dennis Haysbert returned as the only active player from the first two movies, while Bob Ueker was back as the sarcastic announcer who had as many bad things to say about the team as good. Goggins played the new home run hitter, Billy “Downtown” Anderson.
Walton Goggins’ fellow The Shield cast member Kenny Johnson also starred in the Major League sequel.
Unlike the first movie, where the owner was trying to create a losing team, Bernsen’s Roger Dorn wanted to make a winner out of a team of misfits. The reviews were terrible, with a 22% Rotten Tomatoes score, with critics saying it never came close to the humor of the first two movies in the series.
7
The Crow: Salvation (2000)
While the first movie in The Crow series was a fantastic gothic thriller, the sequels were almost universally panned, and none came close to the brilliance of the original Brandon Lee film. However, the one sequel that came closest was the third movie in the franchise, The Crow: Salvation.
Eric Mabius was the best Crow after Brandon Lee, and Kirsten Dunst was excellent in her role as the sister of a murdered young woman. The story was different enough, with Mabius playing Alex, a man framed for the murder of his girlfriend and executed, only to return as the Crow and learn that corrupt cops were responsible.
Walton Goggins stars as Stanley Roberts, one of the corrupt police officers whom the Crow hunts down and exacts revenge on. Reviews were terrible, with it sitting at 18% on Rotten Tomatoes, but the audience score of 43% shows that it was a bit better than critics believed, mostly living as a solid low-budget gothic thriller.
6
GI Joe: Retaliation (2013)
G.I. Joe: Retaliation was the sequel to the 2009 action movie G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, but the studio did something interesting with the sequel. The first thing that happened was that the original G.I. Joe team from the first movie was framed for treason and killed, including Channing Tatum’s Duke.
This led to what is primarily a reboot for the franchise, with Jon M. Chu (Wicked) now in the director’s chair. Dwayne Johnson replaced Channing Tatum as the main lead, and Bruce Willis came on board as the original Joe, albeit in nothing more than a minor supporting role. What resulted was an underwhelming sequel.
Walton Goggins joined the cast as Warden Nigel James, the warden of a German prison that housed Cobra Commander. He had a fun role as one of the last lines of defense as Cobra Commander and Storm Shadow pulled off the prison break.
5
Machete Kills (2013)
Machete got its start as a fake movie trailer for Grindhouse before Robert Rodriguez turned it into a feature-length exploitation action film. Danny Trejo stars as Machete, an ex-Federale with a unique skill set that enabled him to take down a drug lord and corrupt cops in the first movie.
Machete Kills brings in Mel Gibson as the villain and adds some big names in the cast, including Michelle Rodriguez, SofÃa Vergara, Vanessa Hudgens, Amber Heard, and Charlie Sheen. Walton Goggins plays El Camaleón 1, one of the identities of the Chameleón.
This was a fun role, with the other Chameleón identities played by Cuba Gooding Jr., Lady Gaga, and Antonio Banderas. Machete Kills received mostly poor reviews from critics, but fans had a better reception, with people wanting more exploitation action, satisfied with the film.
4
The Next Karate Kid (1994)
One of Walton Goggins’ earliest movie roles came in the fourth movie in the Karate Kid franchise, The Next Karate Kid. This was the first Karate Kid movie that didn’t star Ralph Macchio as Daniel LaRusso, although Pat Morita was back as Mr. Miyagi. His new student was a young woman named Julie Pierce, played by Hilary Swank.
This was Swank’s first leading role in a movie. Julie is the granddaughter of Mr. Miyagi’s former commanding officer in World War II. When she finds herself the target of a ruthless fraternity trained in karate by Colonel Dugan (Michael Ironside), Miyagi agrees to train Julie to defend herself.
The Next Karate Kid was Walton Goggins’ first movie in more than a cameo role. Goggins plays Charlie, a member of the evil fraternity, but someone who has second thoughts about what his commanding officer is demanding they do. While the movie has terrible reviews, it remains a solid sequel with good performances.
3
Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018)
Maze Runner was one of several dystopian young adult novels turned into movies in the 2000s, with this franchise based on the series by James Dashner. The story follows teenagers who wake up in a giant maze and have to figure out a way to escape. The overall world outside the maze is a devastated, apocalyptic society.
Walton Goggins is part of the third and final movie in the Maze Runner trilogy. He is one of the only new characters in the third film, the leader of a Crank Army that oversees the Last City. He ends up helping the heroes get to the city to rescue their friends. Goggins had a big role, as a sacrifice to help start the Attack on the Last City.
This was a fun role for Goggins, who had face prosthetics to remove most of his nose, and had a similar appearance to his later character of The Ghoul in Fallout.
2
Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
Walton Goggins appeared in the second film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Ant-Man franchise. He had a minor role as a secondary antagonist who was mostly there to get in the way of Ant-Man and his allies as they battled the main villain of the film, a former assassin known as Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen).
Walton Goggins returned as Sonny Birch in the animated series What If…?
Goggins plays Sonny Birch, a low-level criminal who wants to steal the Pym Tech so he can sell it on the black market. This character comes from Marvel Comics, but he is primarily a minor character there and part of Cross Technologies (Darren Cross was the villain in the first film). Here, he is more of a low-level gangster.
Goggins provides some fun battles for Ant-Man and the Wasp, but he is no match for them, allowing his character to mostly exist for humor as the two heroes deal with him before moving on to bigger things.
1
Predators (2010)
The best sequel that Walton Goggins ever appeared in was Predators, the 2010 standalone sequel to Predator 2. This film came out 20 years after the previous movie in the franchise. Things were very different here, as several people were dropped onto a foreign planet and found it was a hunting world for predators.
Walton Goggins was one of the prey dropped on the planet, along with Adrien Brody, Topher Grace, Alice Braga, and Laurence Fishburne. It was a nice return to the action that made the first movie so good, with a group of highly-trained mercenaries forced to defend themselves from three large Predators.
Predators had a positive 65% fresh Rotten Tomatoes score, with critics praising the return to form after the disappointing films, mixing it with the Alien franchise. For Walton Goggins, it was a significant role and easily the best sequel of his career.
