http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NumberedSequels

Better start learning those Roman numerals, kids!

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A common way to name movie sequels is to take the title of the original, possibly abbreviated, and add a number. So Foomovie will be followed with Foomovie 2, Foomovie 3 (or 3D), etc. Also common is to follow Foomovie with Foomovie, Part 2, etc. - though the word "part" will usually be dropped when talking about the movies. (This is usually done when the stories of the movies are supposed to form one big story.) Sometimes there are subtitles as well.

The result of this is that the original Foomovie will become known as Foomovie 1, and on occasion will actually be rereleased this way (see Retronym). This is actually a recent practice, beginning in the 1970s.

If the movies in a series were made out of chronological order, the numbering can refer either to the order in which they were made or the order in which they take place. The latter gets you titles like Resident Evil 0 and The Lion King 1½. Very rarely, you'll see a prequel with a negative number. The print version of the webcomic Order of the Stick has two prequels, numbered #0 and #-1, and the French comic Donjon (planned to run from #1-#100) has spinoff series planned to run from #-99 to #0 and #101 to #200.

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Some series use Arabic numerals, some use Roman numerals, and some use either. The distinction between Roman numerals and Arabic seems to be the distinction between grand-scale affairs that take themselves very seriously (and thus borrow a bit of grandeur from the western world's most prominent Vestigial Empire), and stories that either don't take themselves entirely seriously, or have a futuristic bent that makes the Arabic numerals look all sciency and mathematical. On occasion, the number in question is spelled out in word form, this can be either for an air of irony, parody, pretension, or some combination.

This trope can be subverted: The Marathon series started with Marathon and Marathon 2 but then jumped to Marathon Infinity. The subsequent release and open-source development of Marathon 2's game engine restored sequential numbering by naming the engine Aleph One, the next largest infinity. (See below.)

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In the Horror genre, a sixth installment may be called 666 (Or sometimes called that even if it isn't the 6th) it will almost always be pronounced "six-six-six" rather than "six hundred and sixty-six".

This is, if anything, even more common in video games than in movies, although the "Part 2" variation is absent there. Literary examples, on the other hand, are very, very rare.

The first use of a number in a sequel title was probably Quatermass 2 in 1957,note The TV miniseries it is based on, Quatermass II, was aired in 1955 the follow-up to The Quatermass Xperiment.note and is technically an aversion, as the title actually refers to a rocket ship literally named Quatermass 2 These were the original UK titles; in the United States the first film was issued as The Creeping Unknown so the second one had to be retitled as well: it was known as Enemy From Space. However such instances were rare, at least before the 70s, because studios at the time felt that it attached a film to an earlier film to the extent of alienating potential audiences who may not have seen the earlier film and so feel discouraged from seeing a sequel titled "Part II" if they had not seen "Part I". It's why all the James Bond films were titled differently and not James Bond 1-20,note that, and the fact the earliest films were straight-up The Film of the Book and why film-series such as the "Carry On" or the Pink Panther series often included "Pink Panther" but slight variations so as to not tie it exclusively. The first major film to change this was Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather, Part II.

For some reason (Four Is Death? Rule of Three?), it's very common for Numbered Sequels to stop at 3, and any subsequent media to be given a subtitle alone instead.

Parodies take this to extremes with Ridiculous Future Sequelisation.

Compare Lettered Sequel, N+1 Sequel Title, Sequel Number Snarl, Episode 0: The Beginning, Title 1. See also Un-Installment.

Contrast Oddly Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo, Recycled Title, Advanced Tech 2000 and Super Title 64 Advance.

Examples:

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Anime & Manga

Comic Books

100 Bullets has an interesting twist on this- every story arc/trade paperback has a title that either incorporates its number into it (eg- book 4 is A Foregone Tomorrow, book 9 is Strychnine Lives) or uses part of a known phrase that includes the number, but leaving the actual number out (eg- book 7 is Samurai and book 12 is Dirty)

The Ultimates 2 and 3.

Fan Works

Films — Animation

Films — Live-Action

Literature

Live-Action TV

The BBC science fiction comedy series Red Dwarf opened its third series with a Star Wars spoofing scroll past of text ending with the line Red Dwarf III: The Same Generation (Nearly). This led the BBC's official listings magazine, the Radio Times, to list the series as Red Dwarf III. Subsequent series were likewise shown as Red Dwarf IV, Red Dwarf V and so on. Eventually, the creators began numbering the series on screen... after which the Radio Times just called it Red Dwarf. This was dropped for the Back to Earth three-parter, although it is referred to (usually unofficially) as Series IX. The 2012 series is referred to as Red Dwarf X which does officially make the Back to Earth three-parter a mini-series.

Another BBC comedy, Black Adder, was followed by Blackadder II, Blackadder the Third and Blackadder Goes Forth

In Robot Wars if a team came back with a new version of an old robot they would often call it (Name of Robot) 2 (or whichever number they got up to), one example would by Firestorm which by the time the series ended had got up to Firestorm 5!

An early episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit was called "Closure." In the second season, the victim from that episode was brought back as a vigilante. The follow-up episode was called "Closure 2."

Stranger Things Season 2 named itself as Stranger Things 2.

Music

Many a Chronological Album Title overlaps with this trope.

Led Zeppelin's self-titled debut album was followed later the same year by Led Zeppelin II, and by Led Zeppelin III the following year. The untitled album that followed it is informally called Led Zeppelin IV by fans.

Meat Loaf's breakout album Bat Out of Hell was followed sixteen years later by Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell, with Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose following thirteen years after that.

Metallica released the song "The Unforgiven" on their self-titled album. Six years later, on the album Reload, came the song "The Unforgiven II". Subverted a bit in the lyrics; they are about the Unforgiven from the previous song finding a lifemate and asking "are you unforgiven too?". Another twelve years later, on Death Magnetic, Metallica released "The Unforgiven III". Strangely enough, it's the only song in the cycle that doesn't contain the word Unforgiven in any of the lyrics, and musically and lyrically it has very little to do with the other two. Although it doesn't contain the musical motif or the word "Unforgiven" it does have the lyrics "And how can I blame you, when it's me I can't forgive?"

Guns N' Roses Use Your Illusion I & II (though released simultaneously)

Pink Floyd's The Wall has the three-part song "Another Brick In the Wall" (the one involving schoolteachers is Part II).

King Crimson started the "Larks' Tongues In Aspic" sequence of songs with Parts 1 & 2 bookending the Larks' Tongues In Aspic album in 1973, continued with Part III (switching to the Roman numeral convention) on 1984's Three Of A Perfect Pair, and concluded it with Part IV (which itself consists of three separate but identically-titled tracks) in 2000, on the album The ConstruKction Of Light.

Like Led Zeppelin, Queen's debut album was the eponymous Queen, which was followed by Queen II a year later.

Chicago. They're up to about Chicago 30 now.

Overkill's self-titled song has currently four sequels.

The Dethalbum by Dethklok was followed by The Dethalbum II. Also, "Murmaider" from the former was followed by "Murmaider II: The Water God" on the latter.

Most of Nine Inch Nails' albums, singles and EPs have a "Halo number" appended to the title, indicating the chronological order of its release. The Downward Spiral, for example, is designated "Halo 8", while their most recent release, The Slip, is "Halo 27". Usually the releases that don't have a Halo number are releases that Reznor's record company forced him to release and fall under Canon Discontinuity.

As a response to the NWOBHM, Guitar Player columnist Mike Varney established the Shrapnel Records label, and issued a U.S. Metal compilation to spotlight unsigned American metal bands. U.S. Metal Vols. II-IV followed.

An unusual case of this happening with a band name: King Missile III, so named because it was the second time they'd made significant lineup changes since forming. Technically, there was never a King Missile II: The first incarnation of the band was King Missile (Dog Fly Religion) and the second was simply King Missile.

Big Audio Dynamite became Big Audio Dynamite II once Mick Jones was the only original member left.

Normally, in classical music, number of works isn't really that important, but there's a particular superstition around writing exactly nine numbered symphonies... Gustav Mahler, superstitious that several other previous composers had died either leaving 9 symphonies, or 8 and an unfinished 9th, at one time said that the symphony now numbered his 9th was actually his 10th, by counting the symphonic cantata "Das Lied von der Erde" as a symphony and thus as his actual ninth (this is what qualifies him for this trope). Subverted in that nobody else has since accepted that renumbering, so "Das Lied" remains defined as a symphonic cantata, is NOT counted in the sequence of symphonies, and the 9th symphony as a 9th. Oh, and he died shortly afterwards, leaving sketches for a half-completed 10th. Double subverted in that the examples Mahler was thinking of were Beethoven, Schubert, Dvorak and Bruckner... but of those, Schubert's "7th" never existed beyond the sketch stage (and still doesn't), the 8th is famously unfinished (and performed in its incomplete version), the 9th *was* completed, but none of them beyond the 6th were published during his lifetime: Bruckner died part-way through writing his own 9th (still performed in its incomplete version) but left at least two "unnumbered" published student works to which critics have given the numbers "0" and "00": and Dvorak retired after *his* 9th, lived quite a few years afterwards without attempting to write another one, but had attempted to withdraw his first four symphonies from publication and refer to symphonies 5-9 as 1-5, and they were published under those numbers for years until the earlier ones were rediscovered... leaving only Beethoven as someone who had definitely written exactly 9 symphonies. (And also left partial sketches for one or two movements of a 10th, but had apparently not touched them for some time.) On the other hand, both Ralph Vaughan Williams and Malcolm Arnold have written 9 symphonies and then died. At a very advanced age in both cases.

Van Halen has a weird case: Van Halen II is a Chronological Album Title (and basically a sequel to the Self-Titled Album as well). Van Halen III is the band's 11th - but third line-up.

The Beatles' sixth album released by Capitol Records in the U.S. was Beatles VI.

The first two albums by Queen are titled Queen and Queen II. They also released Greatest Hits, Greatest Hits II and Greatest Hits III.

Periphery title their albums like this; Icarus Lives (sometimes just called Icarus or Icarus EP) and Clear are exempt because they're eps. As is Juggernaut Alpha/Omega as that's a (technically two) concept album(s) outside of their regular releases. That leaves us with Periphery and Periphery II: This Time it's Personal with Periphery III on its way.

Jean-Michel Jarre named the 2016 second "sequel" to his 1976 classic Oxygène Oxygène 3. While he was at it, he renamed the 1997 first sequel (formerly known as Oxygène 7-13) Oxygène 2. Yes, this interferes with the track naming on many Jarre albums including all three Oxygènes that uses numbers instead of titles, too; "Oxygène 2" and "Oxygène 3" are shortened names for "Oxygène (Part II)" and "Oxygène (Part III)" from the first Oxygène.

The Dear Hunter is writing six concept albums that tell one continued story, which are entitled, in chronological order, as follows: Act I: The River South, The Lake North, Act II: The Meaning Of, And All Things Regarding, Ms. Leading, Act III: Life And Death, Act IV: Rebirth In Reprise, and Act V: Hymns With The Devil In Confessional. As of yet, Act VI has not been released.

Pro Wrestling

WWE's WrestleMania Pay-Per-View events are normally numbered (although they seem to have trouble deciding whether to use Roman or Hindu\Arabic numerals), with three exceptions: the sixteenth was dubbed Wrestlemania 2000 in reference to the year it took place, and the seventeenth and eighteenth were Wrestlemania X-Seven and Wrestlemania X8, respectively, for Xtreme Kool Letterz effect. Their other Pay-Per-View events don't use any form of numbering, instead being identified by the year in which they were held The only other Wrestlemania not to use Roman numerals was 13 - which was promoted with Arabic numerals. 21, 22, and 23 used Hindu\Arabic numerals as well (the installments between 2005 and 2007). 2012 sees a return to Hindu\Arabic numbers with 29, although its logo is still shown as " WrestleMania NY NJ ◊ ". 29 also began a trend of the logos just dropping the number altogether (31 is "WrestleMania Play Button", 32 is "WrestleMania Star", and 33 will be "WrestleMania Sun"; although all the shows are still appropriately numbered on the WWE Network). 30 is the exception to this, as it's a Milestone Celebration so they retained the numbering with a Roman numeral (WrestleMania XXX). WrestleMania XXV was promoted as "WrestleMania 25th Anniversary" or "The 25th Anniversary of WrestleMania".

WCW's first nine Superbrawl PPV events were appropriately numbered, then the next was named Superbrawl 2000 much like WWF did with Wrestlemania. This was followed by Superbrawl Revenge, the final Superbrawl before WCW was closed down.

When TNA began numbering their annual Slammiversary show (so named because it marks the anniversary of the company's founding) beginning with the 2010 event, they decided to number the shows based on which anniversary they were celebrating rather than how many Slammiversary events had been held. This means that the 2014 event, Slammiversary XII, is the tenth event in the series.

Roleplay

Survival of the Fittest, a RP board, is split up into "versions" by Danya. Each version takes place on a different island with ~150 characters trying to be the last one standing. Version 0 refers to the final "test run" which was only shown on an obscure channel, and Version 1 was shown nation-wide (and the first where people started writing). These were followed a year later by Version 2 and another year later by Version 3. The fourth version takes place in 2008.

Sports

Each Super Bowl is known by its Roman numbered ordinal. This began with Super Bowl III in 1969, after the first two were simply known as the "AFL-NFL Championship Game" and later retconned into Super Bowls. Except for the 50th Super Bowl in 2016, which the NFL is marketing as Super Bowl 50 (not "L"). See The Other Wiki for an explanation.

The Olympic Games are officially referred to by number. The 2016 Summer Olympics will be the Games of the XXXI Olympiad. It's worth noticing the ones cancelled due to World Wars still count for the Summer Games, but not for the Winter Games. Makes a certain amount of sense since an olympiad is a measure of time. Numbering the Winter Games in the same manner as Summer Games could have become awkward once the IOC changed the Winter Olympic cycle to fall in the middle of an Olympiad (the even-numbered year between Summer Olympics). Since an Olympiad is officially defined as starting on January 1 of a Summer Olympic year, the 25th Olympiad (19921995) had two Winter Games (1992 and 1994).

In boxing and mixed martial arts, rematches between notable competitors are often numbered, such as Ali-Frazier 2.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship began using numbered sequels after the first event, which was retroactively renamed "UFC 1: The Beginning." Interestingly, there was much fanfare over UFC 100, even though it was actually the 105th UFC event due to the fact that five previous events did not follow the traditional numbering scheme. The smaller Ultimate Fight Night series of events used a numbering scheme until UFN 6, after which they were usually named after their headliners. The Ultimate Fighter reality series is numbered based on season. A new line of free events airing on the Versus channel is set to debut with "UFC Live on Versus 1," a rare instance of a work receiving a number before it has any sequels. Many other mixed martial arts promotions have followed suit by numbering each of their events.

In rugby league, the Super League of Europe (OK, mostly England, but with one team in France) has officially numbered its seasons with Roman numerals since its creation in 1996. The most season of 2015 will be Super League XX.

Theatre

William Shakespeare's Henry IV, part 2, and Henry VI, parts 2 and 3. Spoofed by The Book of Sequels, a book consisting of humorous fictional sequels, spinoffs, and adaptations of famous works, with Romeo and Juliet Part 2, which reveals that Romeo's poison was actually a sleeping potion, the knife was actually a fake prop knife, and that Romeo and Juliet live on to go on a bunch of wacky adventures.



Video Games

Web Animation

An Adventure of Sheep and Chicken: Part Three of the first series is titled Part III.

Homestar Runner: Parodied with the movie, "Dangeresque 2: This Time, It's Not Dangeresque 1". The end of that e-mail announced "Dangeresque 3: The Criminal Projective" (in 3D). In an e-mail concerning Dangeresque 3, Dangeresque 1 was revealed as "Dangeresque 1: Dangeresque, Too?" (not in 3D). In the Halloween cartoon "Three Times Halloween Funjob", Coach Z tells Homestar he's dressed as Kool Moe Dee of the Treacherous Three (and not "Wesley Snakes"), and Homestar remarks "I only saw Treacherous 1 and 2, so I wouldn't know." A Halloween cartoon is titled Jibblies 2, although it is pointed out that there was no original Jibblies. Quoth the Strong Sad: "Original? Horror movie? Not these days."



Web Comics

The Sluggy Freelance Story Arc "KITTEN" was based around parodying horror movie tropes. Naturally, it was given a sequel titled "KITTEN II."

Web Original

In the Facebook app Rock Band World, the only goal to get one of these is the Scavenger Hunt goal "Rock Band Petting Zoo". With seventeen songs, "so think of this as the main event to Part 1's opening ceremony."

Western Animation

Spoofed in Steven Universe. Three episodes involving Lion as a driving force are titled "Steven's Lion", "Lion 2: The Movie", "Lion 3: Straight to Video", and "Lion 4: Alternate Ending". Despite their titles, the latter three are not Sequel Episodes to the first, the second is not The Movie, the third is not a direct-to-video special, and the fourth is not a Revised Ending for another episode. The subtitles refer to the plots of those particular episodes (Steven going to the movies, finding an old video tape, and finding another old video tape, respectively).

Starting from the third season of Miraculous Ladybug, a few episodes feature the return of previously akumatized villains, and are named this way. However, this is downplayed with "Gamer 2.0" where although his design is the same, the "2.0" is actually part of his name and his powers are slightly different. Also averted with Reflekta's return, the episode is instead named "Reflekdoll" after a sentimonster that Mayura created for her, who becomes the main threat after Reflekta is defeated about halfway through the episode.

The Simpsons "Treehouse Of Horror" episodes are numbered, accordingly going even past XXX.

Real Life