What was the reaction to Spock's death when Wrath of Khan came out?

Fans absolutely had no expectation that there would be another Star Trek film. The first movie made money, but cost a ton of money to make and wasn't really received that warmly. Paramount was not particularly keen to make a second film and at the time there was even talk of just making TWoK a made for TV film. They ended up handing over about 20% of the original films budget to make TWoK, so already the deck was stacked against the film and certainly the concept of a third movie was well out of consideration.

As far as what was in the movie giving clues to a sequel, those were very slight. Yes, Spock sort of mind melded with McCoy and said "Remember." But it was one 5 second moment in the film that had no further mention or payoff in the rest of the film. This was well be before shows like The X-Files and Lost made every moment on camera worthy of scrutiny...and just on the cusp of VHS and cable channels replaying moments like that. Yes, it happened, but so did 500 other things in the film so it was a curiosity at best.

The Genesis planet with Spock's torpedo tube on it was also a mixed bag of information. Yes, it did soft land and was sitting there comfortably, but consider the scenes right before this. Spock dies in front of Kirk, Kirk gives a tremendously moving speech, Scotty plays the bagpipes, Kirstie Ally cries, Spock is fired off into space. For a Star Trek fan, we had seen NOTHING like this (maybe Amok Time, but that situation resolved in a matter of minutes). It was so real and emotional and had such a heavy weight to it that if you weren't tearing up, you were likely a Vulcan. So the final shot of the torpedo on the Genesis planet almost felt like some sort of catharsis for the audience. It was a final, positive image of that we could take away so that at least we knew that Spock's final resting place was a beautiful one. Was there the possibility of other meaning to that shot? Maybe. That shot, combined with Nimoy reciting the "Space, the final frontier..." monologue at the end, certainly gave you hope. But considering how devastating everything up to that point was, as an audience member you wanted to hold on to something to get you through the day.

Fortunately, we didn't have to wait too long with these feelings of sorrow and possible hope. TWoK blew up with critics, the fans and the box office, and Paramount greenlit the sequel almost immediately. Looking back, especially if you weren't there to experience it in real time, it seems like the sequel was inevitable and obvious. But in 1982, nothing was certain. Little did any of us know that this little film would be the spark that would revitalize the franchise.

/r/DaystromInstitute Thread