After Saints Row: The Third, Volition seems to have lost track of what made the franchise popular in the first place and neither Saints Row IV or Saints Row: Gat out of Hell were commercial hits. This led to a seven-year-long break for the series until the reboot Saints Row was released last year - but failed in just about every way, and ultimately led to Embracer shutting down the developer Volition as a part of their ongoing restructuring.
But according to the YouTuber mrsaintsgodzilla21, things could have been very different. Volition reportedly wanted to return to the foundations of the series with a game more in line with Saints Row 2, including characters like Aisha, Dex, Pierce, Shaundi and of course Johnny Gat. The game was meant to be more grounded, but still have the over-the-top moments we loved with the series.
Unfortunately, the publisher Deep Silver didn't like this idea, and changed the direction quite a bit into the actual development. This ultimately led to the somewhat washed out and broken reboot from last year. Despite Volition being gone, the publisher has already said that we will get more Saints Row in the future. Let's hope they return to Volition's original ideas for the game, as it did sound like something the fans would appreciate - or what do you think?
Thanks, GamingBolt.