Although the Back to the Future trilogy is one of the rare Hollywood franchises with a definitive ending, several spiritual sequels exist. Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale have been adamant that there will never be a Back to the Future reboot, remake, spinoff, or sequel. This decision has preserved the trilogy’s flawless reputation, built on its airтιԍнт story and cast.

Back to the Future Part III ends with Marty leaving time travel behind while Doc Brown returns with Clara and their children in a steam-powered time machine. Doc’s time-hopping adventures continue, but only off-screen. While the creators will never extend the trilogy itself, various projects serve as continuations to Back to the Future‘s story.

Back to the Future: The Animated Series (1991–1992)

Though it leaned into Saturday-morning comedy, Back to the Future: The Animated Series is a non-canon sequel. Its plot centers on Doc Brown, Clara, and their sons Jules and Verne, who frequently get tangled in time-travel escapades alongside Marty. Christopher Lloyd appears in live-action wraparound segments, and Thomas F. Wilson reprises his role as Biff and various Tannen descendants.

Canonically, the animated series occupies a tricky space. Episodes featured exaggerated adventures such as encounters with dinosaurs and overly comedic versions of historical figures. The time-traveling hijinks with Doc’s family so soon after Part III contradicts the trilogy’s conclusive ending. Hence, the animated series is seen as an alternate-timeline sequel.

Back to the Future: The Ride (1991–2007)

Back to the Future: The Ride opened in 1991 at Universal Studios Florida and Universal Studios Hollywood, with a third version debuting in Japan in 2001. Executive-produced by Steven Spielberg, the official BTTF ride let audiences join Doc Brown on a new time-travel adventure that pitted him against Biff Tannen. After over a decade of popularity, it closed in the U.S. in 2007 and in Japan in 2016.

Although the ride was lost for years after its closure, Universal released nearly all of its pre-show and ride footage in 2009. Since then, Back to the Future: The Ride remains a memorable part of BTTF history. The ride’s plot focused on Biff stealing a DeLorean time machine from Doc’s Insтιтute of Future Technology, forcing guests to pursue him across time to prevent chaos.

In the queue and pre-show videos, visitors were welcomed as recruits to Doc Brown’s Insтιтute of Future Technology. Once guests boarded their eight-pᴀssenger DeLorean, Biff hijacks a prototype time machine and triggers a chase through the past. The ride itself featured a frantic pursuit from the Ice Age, to a dinosaur-filled prehistory, to a 2015 Hill Valley.

As for canon, Back to the Future: The Ride‘s place in continuity is debatable. The Insтιтute of Future Technology is never referenced in the movies, and the existence of multiple DeLorean prototypes contradicts the trilogy’s scarcity of working time machines. Still, fans could treat the ride as a “soft-canon” continuation since it uses the original Doc and Biff actors.

Back To The Future: The Game (2010-2011)

Developed by Telltale Games, Back to the Future: The Game takes place in 1986, just months after the events of Part III. When the DeLorean mysteriously reappears without Doc, Marty McFly teams up with a younger Emmett Brown in 1931 to stop gangsters like Kid Tannen. The episodic game introduces alternate-timeline versions of Doc.

The game’s popularity led to Back to the Future: Citizen Brown, a 2016 comic adaptation by IDW that retold part of the game’s story arc. In this alternate timeline, Hill Valley is turned into a dystopian surveillance state run by Doc Brown as “First Citizen Brown.” The comic reinforced the game’s place as a continuation of the Back to the Future trilogy.

Bob Gale himself described Back to the Future: The Game as “BTTF 4,” while clarifying it isn’t strictly part of the trilogy’s official continuity. Like other IDW comics, the BTTF game occupies a soft-canon tier. It doesn’t contradict the movies, but it plays more like a hypothetical but very authentic sequel that could exist in an alternate timeline.

Doc Brown Saves the World! (2015)

The 2015 short film Doc Brown Saves the World! was created to celebrate Back to the Future’s thirtieth anniversary and was included in the Back to the Future: 30th Anniversary Trilogy Blu-ray set. Starring Christopher Lloyd as Emmett Brown in a single location, it follows a seasoned Doc as he explains how his experiments accidentally caused catastrophic events, including a nuclear holocaust and an overreliance on technology.

Doc Brown Saves the World! was conceived as both a playful celebration of the franchise and a way to give Christopher Lloyd’s Doc Brown a new spotlight in the real-life 2015. While Lloyd returned, Michael J. Fox did not appear, and the short is not regarded as official canon by Universal or the creators, though it can be loosely slotted into the timeline.

The implications of the short film are surprisingly deep. Doc Brown Saves the World! reveals that Doc traveled to 2045, where he was forced to return by a nuclear apocalypse. More intriguingly, Doc Brown Saves the World! introduces the AI system “Quantum Mind Jar” a few years before the popularization of real-world AI. The short film also suggests that Doc’s constant time traveling erased many technological inventions from existence.

Perhaps the most confusing aspect comes at the end, where two parallel Doc Browns are shown coexisting. In Back to the Future Part II, Doc and Marty successfully avoid interacting directly with their future selves. If Doc Brown Saves the World! is considered canon, then the whole Back to the Future timeline may be in grave danger due to Doc’s tinkering with the far future.

Back to the Future IDW Comics (2015–2021)

Also in 2015, IDW Publishing launched a Back to the Future comic series co-written by franchise co-creator Bob Gale. The series ran until 2021, spread across multiple story arcs and miniseries. The comics didn’t tell a single linear continuation but rather a mosaic of adventures filling in gaps. Key stories include Doc Brown’s time in the Manhattan Project, Marty’s first real meeting with Doc, and multiple alternate timelines.

The mainline series was followed by expansions like Biff to the Future, which chronicled how Biff consolidated power after gaining the Sports Almanac in the alternate 1985, and one-off tales showing Marty, Doc, and even Jennifer Parker caught in ripple effects of paradoxes. The comics mix standalone stories with serialized arcs to develop an expansive view of Hill Valley’s past and future.

When it comes to canon, the IDW comics sit in a semi-official gray zone. Bob Gale himself oversaw the stories and clarified that the comics exist as “expanded universe” content; not contradictory to the films but not strictly canon either. The comics are expansions that enrich the lore but shouldn’t be treated as mandatory parts of the timeline.

Tales from the Time Train (2017–2018)

Published as a spinoff miniseries to the main IDW line, the six-issue Tales from the Time Train comics pick up directly where Back to the Future Part III leaves off, with Doc Brown, Clara, and their children traveling to 1939 New York during the World’s Fair, where Doc becomes entangled in historical events. The comic storyline is presented as the closest thing to a proper continuation of Part III.

Tales from the Time Train is faithful to Back to the Future Part III‘s ending. Since Bob Gale co-wrote it, Time Train can be seen as a possible continuation, though like the other IDW comics, it is not considered hard canon. Gale has emphasized that Back to the Future is a self-contained trilogy, but this series is the ultimate spiritual Part IV.

Back to the Future Nike Air Mag Shoes Commercial (2015)

In 2015, Nike officially unveiled the self-lacing Air Mag sneakers introduced in Back to the Future Part II. To promote the release, Christopher Lloyd starred in a special short clip where Doc Brown accidentally travels to 2011. Proceeds were directed to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.

While primarily a promotional piece, the clip works as a soft continuation of the trilogy. The Nike commercial plays into the idea that Doc made many more trips than the trilogy suggested. It isn’t framed as a serious expansion, but it pays homage to the movies with the addition of multiple iconic lines like “this is heavy” and “[they’re] my density.”

Marty McFly & Doc Brown Visit Jimmy Kimmel Live! (2015)

On October 21, 2015, Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd reunited in character as Marty McFly and Doc Brown during a live Jimmy Kimmel Live! special. Arriving onstage in the DeLorean, the duo reacted with confusion and disappointment to the real 2015. They commented on the lack of flying cars, hoverboards, and other futuristic promises.

Fox and Lloyd’s 2015 return is perhaps the most heartfelt Back to the Future reunion to date, as they were welcomed with a thunderous standing ovation from the audience. Huey Lewis also made a cameo and performed a musical number. In theory, this appearance serves as a latest adventure for Doc and Marty, as it depicts them as veteran time travelers who have seemingly visited countless timelines.