Photo via @disneystudios
There are a plethora of remakes, sequels, prequels, and requels (remakes/sequels) these days. A built-in audience is presumed when these shows and movies are greenlit. If a bunch of people enjoyed the original Lion King movies, they’d certainly rush out to the theater to see the new releases.
TV shows and movie concepts are almost being treated like plays: iIt doesn’t even matter who is playing which role anymore. For example, the Harry Potter franchise was green-lit into a TV series adaptation, bringing back some old cast members while adding new kids to play Harry, Ron, and Hermione. So what if Daniel Radcliffe was known as “The Boy Who Lived” for a few decades? He’s apparently easily replaced for the next generation of Harry Potter fandom. The most recent movie in the series was released in 2011, and now, just 14 years later, the series will be entirely remade for a new generation.
I’m curious to see just how far nostalgia-based media like this can travel when it’s running on fumes. Reboots really are happening with lightning speed, leaving less room for a show or movie to solidify its impact. Perhaps these entries are becoming disposable. Instead of creating a fandom or building an actor or director into a star, these things are just a flash in the pan.
Sometimes it feels like things get remade just because that’s the only way they’ll get greenlit. For example, a new TV spinoff of The Office was just announced. The Paper, announced in July 2025, doesn’t follow the hijinks of Michael Scott anymore. Instead, they’ll follow the documentary crew to a new office. And that’s just… an entirely different show. But perhaps it only got greenlit due to its association with the entertainment juggernaut that was The Office.
Photo via baymacsdad1
When one person went into the r/StarWars subreddit to ponder how younger generations will feel about the Star Wars prequels, they predicted that these kiddos simply “don’t care” about them. They might not have seen the original Star Wars, which was an enduring success when it came out in 1977. It’s not a terrible question to ask: Why would a child born in the 2010s-2020s give a hoot about a film series that started 40-50 years prior? How far exactly does nostalgia carry on? Not to mention that if you’re a young person today, maybe you’ve only seen the newest Star Wars offerings, like 2019’s Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker. Or maybe you sat down and watched the 2019 spinoff show, The Mandalorian, which spanned three seasons. Maybe you think it’s crazy that someone could’ve seen these, but not the originals, but the Star Wars franchise has existed for so long now that it’s entirely possible there are folks out there who only know the most recent entries. So… will they be nostalgic for the franchise?
Commenters loudly let this person know that “yes,” their kids do still watch movies, and if you’ve spent any time with kids, you’ve probably had to watch the same movie 100 times, just because it’s their favorite. Some people think that in the aftermath of creating tons of live-action kids' movies, there will be a 2D or 3D animation renaissance. The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie made waves in 2024 as the “first fully-animated feature-length film in Looney Tunes history.” The same year also brought us Flow, a 5-year-long passion project of a movie entirely animated on the 3D modeling software Blender. I think we’ll start to see more movies like these in the future: they have small teams and tiny budgets, but they’ll gain cult status thanks to their rewatchability and impactful messages.
Maybe AI technology will even step in and do most of the hard work. Perhaps we’ll see something like a Lion King 1 ½ that’s made with 2D animations, but instead of lovingly hand-drawing each frame of the movie, AI will assist in the process.
Or it’s possible that the answer to what comes next is simpler than we thought. I came across this TikTok video with a “Mom hack” for the summer: All you have to do is find a theater with a $1 showing, and you can bring your own snacks and drinks. This Mom also decided to use her Kindle during the movie, which is a polarizing thing to do. But the larger point is that many parents view movies and TV as just a thing to plop their kids in front of so they can relax. Their kids will watch whatever’s in front of them, and they’ll grow up with the same IP their parents did. Sure, it’ll be a different and possibly watered-down version. It probably won’t be as good or thought-provoking as the original. The Hollywood machine has decided that this is what we’ll all consume.
But there’s still hope! Even if Disney and other huge media outlets keep the remakes coming, an increasingly internet-literate generation will discover the hidden, smaller-budget passion projects on their own. It might take some extra effort to find these things, but the kids will find a way to fall in love with cinematic masterpieces the same way their parents did.
Photo via @samanthalyn2
