How to Properly Reboot a Franchise

Star Wars I

Star Wars tried to rebuild their franchise with the prequel trilogy but those films were flawed and didn’t gain a lot of traction with fans.

Fans have loved the books, animated television shows, and comics for years now. It was finally the right time to restart the film franchise.

Star Wars VII - The Force ReTread

But they went about it the wrong way again. This time it might even be more unforgivable than the prequel flops. All they did was retell the same story that had already been told twice before in the original films.

I wrote extensively about this already, but I wanted to touch on this subject again to show that it is possible to reboot a franchise and breathe new live into the property while pleasing die-hard fans and attracting new ones.

RiseOfThePlanetOfTheApes

The latest two movies in the Planet of The Apes franchise were brilliant. I loved every moment of them. They effectively paid tribute to the original films without having to retread old familiar stories. They effectively told a prequel story the way George Lucas wanted to with Episode I.

How did they do this?

They took note of the past. There were all sorts of Easter eggs in the Apes movies that would have gone unnoticed to brand new fans, but that us, die-hard fans, appreciated greatly. They didn’t feel the need to use an old and tried plot to attract new fans to their fictional world.

They learned from the mistakes of their past.

Planet_of_the_Apes_Reboot

They tried the story-retell thing before and it didn’t work for precisely the same reasons the new Star Wars film doesn’t. The whole thing just felt stale.

Pay Tribute While Being Novel

It’s a hard balance to achieve but it has been done. You can breathe fresh air into a dead franchise without having to overhaul the whole thing.

Battlestar Galactica

I loved the way Battlestar Galatica didn’t just retell the same old story. They updated it by having robots that looked human. It added a new terrifying sense of drama to the series. They didn’t throw out what made Battlestar, Battlestar. They kept all of the elements you wanted to see and expected to see.

Star-Trek-Movie-Poster

Star Trek is doing it wrong, So is Star Wars.

Seeing that this year marks the 50th Anniversary of Trek, I was so excited for big things with this franchise, but the new trailer shows just how far the film-makers have strayed from the essence of Trek.

Star Trek was always at its best in deep space. That is the entire premise. so having two Star Trek films in a row not set on the ship is a huge disappointment.

Let’s not Dumb-Down the Scripts 

The audience is always smarter than you. That’s one of the cardinal writing rules, but when it comes to blockbuster films, it seems that this rule has been forgotten.

I want to see well-told stories and no more retreads or rehashes. Is that too much to ask for?