Written – January 2024
Last week I wrote about how the TV and movie streaming services are killing older, but still popular TV shows and movies, and how with studios stopping production of physical media, we might never be able to see some of this content ever again.
There is another problem facing our TV shows and movies though that’s also killing exciting and innovative content. The difference here is this is content that’s not even been created yet. If you’ve heard the term “franchise fatigue” then you’ll almost certainly be aware of what the term means and why it exists. It’s been more than fifteen years now since Marvel released their first film in what became known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Since then there have been countless movies and TV shows released on a regular schedule.
Marvel isn’t the only company that’s been doing this however, there have been multiple new TV series and movies for Star Wars, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, DC superheroes, Minions, The Fast and the Furious, Mission Impossible, Indiana Jones and many more. Now don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a large amount of this. I’m a fan of several of these franchises including Star Trek, James Bond, and Mission Impossible, and I’ve enjoyed many a Marvel TV show and movie.
The problem comes though when so much of the new content we see released is franchise-based and how this affects creators, the audience, creativity and innovation. It’s completely understandable that studios want to make money. They’re businesses after all and the more money they make, the more money they can put into making more new content. It’s where that creative circle gets stuck in a cycle of repeating the same franchises for the sake of making more money. That’s where there’s harm being done.
Look at Star Wars for example. This franchise is in a bit of a mess lately with critics and fans largely agreeing that the only two good pieces of content that have been released in recent years were the first season of the Mandalorian, and the show Andor. Everything else, including some major movies was lacklustre at best.
This leads me to wonder just how much new and creative content we could get instead if the studios were prepared to put that money into something other than a brand they believe they can rely on. When you do this you get amazing series like The Expanse, or the reboot of Battlestar Galactica (I’m excusing this as it was just one show and came at a time when its audience would likely not even be aware of the original, let alone having watched it).
Let me put this into context. It’s entirely because studios were prepared to take a gamble on new and innovative content that we got some amazing movies like Star Wars, Raiders of Lost Ark, and Iron Man to begin with!
I’m not the only person who believes it’s time for studios to relax their franchise releases and start producing more new and original content instead, as many commentators and creatives are saying the same thing. When you’re taking your children to the cinema to see the same franchises that your parents took you to see, things have probably been going wrong for a while.
So what new, original and creative content would you like to see, or would you just like to be surprised by the huge amount of creative talent that’s out there in the world. I for one can’t imagine, but I’d like to find out.
