The Robert Langdon franchise has long been one of the stranger ones in Hollywood. Based on a series of novels by Dan Brown (about symbolist Robert Langdon) that have always sold a ton of copies but never gotten much critical respect, combine action and chase scenes with academic and theological talk, as well as villains always connected in some way with the Catholic Church. Supporting casts and female leads differ, but the constants are always the Brown source material, star Tom Hanks, and director Ron Howard. With the exception of his voice work in the Toy Story movies, the Robert Langdon series is the only multi-film franchise that Hanks has ever been a part of in his long career. And now, Hanks and Howard are both coming back for a third installment in the series, Inferno, set for release this fall.