Why Texas Chainsaw Massacre's Timeline Is So Messy

screenrant.com:

Many horror franchises have had their timelines twisted, but few are as convoluted as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Much like in its fellow slasher franchise, Halloween, which has retconned itself multiple times, continuity in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies often seems tossed out the window between most of the installments. Leatherface is the only real constant presence, and even he is rarely presented the same from film to film, making the messy timeline even more mysterious.

Leatherface has also only once been portrayed by the same actor in two different movies, that being the towering Andrew Bryniarksi in the 2003 Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake and its 2006 prequel Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. Leatherface's surrounding cannibal family is almost never the same between movies either, completely changing fromThe Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 to Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3, then changing again from the third entry to Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation. This casting consistency represents a real continuity problem, making Leatherface's saga increasingly difficult to track.

Related: The Unreleased Texas Chainsaw Massacre Spinoff (& Why It Will Never Be Seen)

Although the multiple families and inexplicable time-jumps are confusing, the main reason the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise's timeline is so fractured is that the rights to the property have changed hands so much that most of the movies have been made by completely different teams. Only once has the same director directed two Texas Chainsaw Massacres, and only twice has the same production company or distribution studio made two of them. With so many different cooks spending time in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre kitchen, it's no