Say you've got a work that gets successful enough that it's greenlit for a sequel, new season, or the like. How would you differentiate its logo from that of the previous installment? Some of the easiest ways are simply tacking on a number or giving it a subtitle. However, one of the flashier ways of getting the point across that a work is a sequel is either slightly modifying or changing wholecloth the series logo (Often in tandem with the earlier mentioned examples) so that it in some way reflects the sequel's subject matter.
This is a Supertrope to Sequel Logo in Ruins, which is when a sequel or prequel has the work logo either partially or fully destroyed to represent its Darker and Edgier or more dire nature, so examples where that is the primary focus should go there. A Pictorial Letter Substitution can count as an example if done for thematic purposes. Compare Variant Cover and Evolving Title Screen. Logo Joke is a closely related trope but for publisher logos and Vanity Plates.
Since this trope deals with sequels, all spoilers on the page will remain unmarked.
Example subpages:
Other examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Boruto: The logo has Naruto's classic orange almost replaced by pinkish-red to represent Boruto's inner jacket color.
- Four Knights of the Apocalypse: The logo for its prequel The Seven Deadly Sins, which was sunset-colored and unbordered, is replaced with a rectangle of night sky, perhaps signifying the death of Sunshine-wielder Escanor. Percival's helmet is perched on one of the letters.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
- Golden Wind: The anime logo contains one of Giorno's ladybug jacket pins to reflect his motif.
- Stone Ocean: The logo's subtitle is crossed with string behind the butterfly seen on Jolyne's shirt, representing the power of her Stand, Stone Free.
- Yu-Gi-Oh!:
- Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's: The logo has a stylized dragon to represent the Signer Dragons the first portion of the plot revolves around.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS: The logo is partially glitched out to represent the story partially taking place within cyberspace.
Fan Works
- The Background Noise of Defiance: An In-Universe example. The usual channel logo for the space-YouTube channel Scrap Hunting is two suns overlaid by a speeder, a nod to the channel's origins on Tatooine. While the channel's first (and eponymous) video on fixing up TIE-Fighters uses the channel's usual logo, the last video uses the emblem of the Jedi Order as its logo instead, reflecting how the video doubles as a declaration of war against Emperor Palpatine/Darth Sidious and an announcement of the Jedi Order rising from the ashes after its fall at the end of the Clone Wars, almost two decades earlier.
Films — Animated
- The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part: The "2" in the logo is made of transparent blue bricks similar to the Glassteroids that Emmet encounters trying to go through the Stairgate.
- Toy Story 4: The film's logo is sometimes stylized to look like a lit fairground sign due to a fair taking place in the town where most of the film is set in.
- Zootopia 2: The "2" in the logo is made to resemble a snake due to reptiles, snakes included, playing a major part in the film.
Films — Live-Action
- Avatar: The Way of Water has the logo lettering change to an ocean blue to represent the setting shifting to Pandora's seas as opposed to the jungle of the first film.
- The Batman film franchise is very fond of doing this, with various variations of the Bat logo incorporating nods to the film's themes or antagonists.
- Batman Returns changes the yellow of the symbol to white, representing how it is set during winter and its subdued color palette with contrasting white and black.
- Batman Forever replaces the oval around the symbol with the curve of a question mark, representing the Riddler, and gives it green and blue highlights representing Two-Face.
- Batman & Robin has Robin's new Nightwing inspired logo overlaid onto Batman's.
- The Dark Knight Trilogy has variations of the logo for each film, beginning with the rusted Bat representing the decay of Gotham. The Dark Knight has it backlit, with the poster featuring a version burned onto a skyscraper representing Joker's reign of chaos. The Dark Knight Rises features the logo shattering apart, representing the fracture that occurs within Gotham.
- Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice features the merging of the two protagonists' logos.
- Ghostbusters II has the ghost in the Ghostbusters logo stepping out of the sign and holding up two fingers. Why this is also the team's new logo in universe is unclear.
- Jurassic Park III: The usual Tyrannosaurus has been replaced by a Spinosaurus and the "III" is gouged out with its three-clawed hand (T. rex only has two clawed hands) to represent the latter being the story's new Big Bad.
- Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- Ant-Man and the Wasp: Unlike the pure red first movie logo, the sequel's logo is half red to represent Ant-Man and half yellow to represent The Wasp and her involvement in the plot.
- Avengers: Infinity War: The logo is turned gold to represent the golden Infinity Gauntlet.
- Thor: Ragnarok and Thor: Love and Thunder both have colorful and ostentatious logos to represent their more comedic nature, as well as the inspiration taken from '80s Rock and Metal. Additionally, the Ragnarok logo has technological details to represent the planet of Sakaar where half of the movie is set.
- Sonic the Hedgehog (Film Series):
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2: The "2" added to the logo is orange and has Tails' twin tails sticking out of it to represent his involvement in the plot.
- Sonic the Hedgehog 3:
- The "3" added to the poster logo is red to represent Shadow the Hedgehog, who makes his first film appearance as a major antagonist.
- The logo seen in the first trailer is a direct homage to the one for Sonic Adventure 2, Shadow's original debut.
Live-Action TV
- Doctor Who: The first half of Series 7 has a Couch Gag where the logo of the show would appear different each week with a texture appropriate to the episode. For instance, "Asylum of the Daleks" has Dalek bumps, "A Town Called Mercy" is textured with bullet-riddled wood panels to represent the Western setting of the episode, and "The Power of Three" uses a tessellated cubic pattern to represent the fact that the enemy is a slow invasion of cubes.
- Each season of Star Trek: Discovery changes the visual elements during the main title sequence to reflect elements of that season (such as having a picture of the Red Angel in Season 2, or changing from a 23rd century phaser pistol to a 32nd century one in Season 3). The series title is also rendered in a harsh, Klingon-like font for the first two seasons, but changes to a rounder, more "futuristic" one starting in Season 3 to reflect the setting change to the 32nd century.
- Supernatural: The opening logo's design is always changed every season to reflect each season's storyline.
- Season 2: The logo is Wreathed in Flames, foreshadowing the Gates of Hell being opened near the end of the season.
- Season 3: The logo is set amid a backdrop of black smoke, representing demons that came out of Hell in the previous season roaming Earth.
- Season 4: Brief shots of bird wings flapping before the logo appears, likely representing vultures, long held as a sign of the end times.
- Season 5: The logo is set on a white backdrop with blood dissolving in water, representing Sam's and Dean's destiny to become the hosts of Lucifer and Michael, and how their brotherly ties mirror the angels' own.
- Season 6: Glass breaks into pieces to form the logo, representing Sam breaking out of Hell but losing his soul (and mind) in the process.
- Season 7: Black goo splatches out of the logo, representing the true form of the Leviathans, the Big Bad of the season.
- Season 8: Runes and ancient symbols decorate the logo and background, reflecting the demonic and angelic tablets that are the primary MacGuffin of the season.
- Season 9: The logo is set on the backdrop of torn, burning angel wings, representing angels falling down to Earth and losing their wings in the process.
- Season 10: The logo's background is a pentagram, a symbol of witchcraft, hinting at the season's Big Bad, Rowena MacLeod.
- Season 11: The logo is swallowed by a mass of pitch black darkness, representing the Darkness breaking out of her prison.
- Season 12: The logo's background features the Men of Letters symbol. The British Men of Letters are the season's primary antagonists.
- Season 13: The logo overlaps with a glowing golden eye that represents Jack, the Nephilim son of Lucifer.
- Season 14: A pair of glowing blue wings frames the logo, representing the Apocalypse World version of Michael.
- Season 15: The logo is framed by a rotting, dark brown web, representing the alternate universes God is destroying one by one.
Tabletop Games
- Vampire: The Masquerade: The stylized logo of the first edition remained unchanged all the way to the 20th Anniversary version of the game. This finally changed with the announcement of Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition, which added damage to the font and the frame around the word "vampire" as a way to emphasize the changes in the status quo of the setting, like the rise of the Second Inquisition.
Toys
- Three LEGO toy ranges have used altered versions of the original Classic LEGO Space logo (a spaceship breaking out of its orbit around a cratered planet):
- The 2022 LEGO City Space range use a version where the planet is Earthlike and the spaceship hasn't travelled so far, implying that this is earlier in the history of space exploration.
- The Ice Planet 2002 sets carry a version where the planet has a prominent icecap and the spaceship is in a static orbit.
- In the Dreamzzz range, Mr Oz's Spacebus carries a version where the planet is replaced with the Dream Chasers' hourglass logo.
Web Original
- Chuggaaconroy: Starting from 2013, each of his channel logos have changed to reflect whatever game he's playing at that time.
- Escape the Night: Each season uses a distinct typeface reflecting its era.
Western Animation
- Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero has the Bat symbol made from ice with the title carved into it representing the confrontation with Mr Freeze.
- Ben 10: Omniverse: The "Galactic Monsters" arc gives the subtitle a purple, bubbling font to represent the season plot centering around aliens based on horror movie monsters like the vampire-esque Lord Transyl.
- Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous: The logo is completely wooden to represent the fact that the story begins in an adventure camp before the events of Jurassic World (Of which this story is an Interquel to) make things go completely off the rails.
- Legends of Chima: Season 2 has the logo resemble vines with thorns to establish the season takes place in the Outlands, and Season 3 has the logo be made of ice with the Chi in the "i" replaced with a Fire Chi due to both elements playing a major part in the season.
- Steven Universe: The logo for Future has a sharpened font with its subtitle colored in pink to signify the new changes after the fifth season.
