The problem isn’t reboot culture. It is the lack of originality
We live in a world of reboots and remakes and on one hand, I’m not mad about it. On the other, we’re missing the balancing act that should come along with that. Like having original projects outweigh the rebooted ones.
I love revisiting worlds and characters I’ve loved my entire life. But I also am a big fan of exploring new stories at the same time. We used to have a bit more of a balance with original storytelling far outweighing the reboots and remakes that we see today. So when we talk about “reboot culture” it is important to note that both are good and great and we should enjoy them but we also don’t need ONLY remakes and reboots. Get it?
The conversation has become so one side versus the other that people feel the need to defend their work in the reboot sphere. I don’t think it needs to go that far but it did lead to Alien: Earth star Timothy Olyphant explaining beautifully why some reboots work. While speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Olyphant shared that he has had only great experiences coming back to a franchise.
“Every experience I’ve had revisiting characters or working with the same people again, I’m batting a thousand in terms of it being really gratifying,” Olyphant said. He went on to endorse joining a reboot. “I highly recommend it,” he said. “And I don’t have a problem with people remaking or rebooting things. I mean, everybody goes to Broadway to see the same couple plays every few years. It’s such a dumb, shallow argument to say Hollywood has no new ideas just because they’re rebooting things.”
To his point: We do revisit things time and time again. “Ralph Fiennes is doing Hamlet again? Hasn’t that been done? (Laughs.) I’m not comparing what we’re doing on the Disney lot with Hamlet, but why not revisit stories?” he asked. “If someone wants to redo something, God bless ‘em. Just do something new with it. If I’m not mistaken, that Luke Skywalker guy is reminiscent of a Bible story that everybody likes. I think Iron Man went into a cave and came out reborn, too. I wonder if that’s why it works so well? You know what? If we do another Raylan story, I’m putting that f***er in a cave and he’s coming out reborn.”
I do just wish we had a bit more of a balance between the reboots and original films but I don’t mind the culture we’re living in. Original ideas can still thrive and when they do, they pop even more than before. Still, I’d like to see it be more of a 1 to 1 split.
(featured image: Disney+)
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