CROSSOVER MADNESS

 

Albert Pyun, in directing 2010's TALES OF AN ANCIENT EMPIRE, could not have made a more problematic crossover had he been trying to frustrate future crossover-ologists, which probably means only me.

So, at the end of 1982's SWORD AND THE SORCERER, the producers floated the possibility of a sequel to the first adventure of heroic Prince Talon (Lee Horsley). In 2008 Pyun and company announced a sequel at last in the works, in which Horsley would participate, presumably reprising his role. But in the finished film, Horsley only had a cameo as an unnamed character, and Talon's name is never mentioned. The signature projectile-sword of the 1982 hero appears in the hands of a new character, Oda, and the script re-uses several names used in the 1982 film, almost none of them have anything in common with the original film's characters. 

The dominant theory is that though Pyun and his producers meant to do a sequel with Horsley, their budget was too low for him to do anything but a cameo, and thus the script created a new character, Oda (Michael Pare), who did everything that Talon would have done in the original concept. But the presence of a sword that might be Talon's is not enough to indicate a sequel, much less a crossover.

However, two of the characters with re-used names, Rodrigo and Verdugo, are just standard warrior-types, just as they were in SORCERER. Though played by different actors in 2010, these characters are the only elements that strongly establish EMPIRE as existing in the same world as SORCERER, so EMPIRE is definitely a sequel because of these characters. If Talon himself had appeared, then one could logically consider the new starring characters as "spin offs" of the original hero, and so I would have characterized EMPIRE as a low-stature crossover. As it is, Rodrigo and Verdugo allow me to term EMPIRE as a low-charisma crossover instead, because the two warriors have a very small modicum of agency thanks to their alliance with Oda.