Dear God, the apocalypse is upon us! Studios, such as Disney, are losing money hand over fist and they don't know what to do to stop the bleeding. I think I hear trumpets. Is that Jesus returning? What ever shall we do? I know, let's all go on strike! That will fix it. After all it's capitalism and ist and phobe fans who are the real problems, not the woke nonsensical, and bad content we are creating.
Anyway, lets move on. Today I want to cover something that Hollywood can do to at least slow their demise. In my last post I talked about some possible IP's that they could use to bring new and fresh content to consumers. They won't, however, but it is something I feel will actually work to bring in new viewers. Changing already established IP's to try and appeal to new fans doesn't work. It alienates the fans you already have for an ephemeral imagined group of consumers that you think would be interested in the IP if you changed it to fit them. All this thinking produces is a slow agonizing death for those IP's as they bleed fans while not gaining new ones. Growing your customer base is the only way for any company to grow, and Hollywood is not excluded from this principle.
So today, I have another idea that might help Hollywood. Let some of these IP's die. Let them go. Let them go. Don't hold on to them anymore. (See what I did there?) This year we have seen yet another Disney live action remake, Star Wars shows that flopped, more bad Star Trek, countless Marvel projects that have tanked and many many more I could mention. Maybe we should set the Walking Dead zombies on these studios and see which IP's survive. Anyway, here is a list of 5 IP's I feel need to go away, or at least, be put on the shelf for a few years.
Star Trek
Ok, I really do like Star Trek Strange New Worlds. It's a beacon of hope in the dark expanse the Star Trek universe has become. It isn't, however, enough to save the franchise. Not as bad as Discovery or Picard, but not as good as anything given to us during the height of Star Trek.
Lower Decks is amazing and I love it, but it is a humorous animated show that is more of a spoof. In other words, it's not cannon or something most adults are going to watch. No animated show, no matter how good, is going to keep an IP like Star Trek afloat. The truth is, that their fanbase is older and they haven't been able to capture the hearts of a new generation of fans. Hollywood needs to let Strange New Worlds be the end of Star Trek for now. I won't lie, I will always watch good Star trek content, but I am almost 50. My kids, don't care about Star Trek and neither do most people from their generation and without them the IP isn't sustainable. If I were Paramount I would be looking for a new IP to replace it. Check my last post for a few suggestions.
2. Batman
Ok, I know that Batman is still the highest grossing comic book character DC has. Even bad Batman content still makes a general profit, but we all need to move on from him. The death of Kevin Conroy (May he rest in peace.) was, in my opinion, a sign it's time we let the Dark Knight go.
One of the elements that made Spiderman work in the MCU was that they didn't give us yet another origin story. Everyone already knows the story and we didn't need to see it to except Tom Holland as Spiderman. The same goes for Batman. We just had another mediocre Batman reboot and a plethora of Else Worlds Batman stories. In fact, one of the things that started the death of DC comics was the New 52 which was an attempt at Batmanizing the rest of the DC universe. Just stop already. The world is facing Super Hero fatigue, but if you found an actual new character with a good story, I think you would strike gold. Just look at Amazon's Invincible. (If your interested, I have a good book series I would love to have made into a movie or show. Just saying.)
3. All Disney Renaissance Characters
Well, as the abysmal Little Mermaid remake showed us this year, we need to leave these IP's alone. Just resist the urge to touch them. Smack! Stop it Disney! No! No! Bad Disney! Bad! Of course, The Little mermaid was the first LAR that didn't make money, so Disney won't stop. (Well Mulan failed as well, but that was because it was made for China and they hated it. Plus, COVID the universal excuse for failure in the modern age.) In truth, it might have faired better if they hadn't made unnecessary SJW changes to the story. (See Mulan again.)
For those of you who don't know, the Disney Renaissance took place from 1989-1999 and spanned from the Little Mermaid to Tarzan. People like me, grew up with these films and we shared them on VHS and DVD with our kids. To Disney, these are guaranteed money makers because they have nostalgic appeal. What they don't realize, however, is that they are actually hurting these IP's as well as their brand with these poor remakes. If Disney wants to save it's brand, then they need to let go of the past and create new content. That means new shows and characters kids and families can get behind. They won't, and parents no longer trust Disney because of the preachy, children indoctrinating, SJW content Disney continues to ram down their throats. Unless they change course, the death throws will continue to get more severe until there is nothing left of the great brand.
4. Jurassic Park
Well, in my opinion, pretty much all but the first were mediocre at best. I did like Jurassic World, but it was pretty much the original story rehashed. (Kind of like The Force Awakens which is just a New Hope regurgitated.) I made the mistake of reading the Lost World book and so I absolutely hated the movie. It was one of the worst book adaption I have ever seen. It was just so bad. So bad.
Dinosaurs will always appeal to kids, but this franchise truly needs to be allowed to fossilize. Not even the amazing Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard could breath new life into these old bones. Thankfully, I think Jurassic World Dominion truly was the end of the series. CGI dinosaurs are no longer new and exciting and the stories are just the same thing over and over again. Man opens park for dinosaurs and dinosaurs get out and kill most of them. Rinse and repeat. Kind of like the Walking Dead, but I digress. It is time for Hollywood to let this series die and maybe in 40 years a new generation can dig it up and breath new life into it. Of course, in the words of Dr. Ian Malcolm, "Just because we can do something, doesn't mean we should."
5. Star Wars
Ok, I really hate to say this, but Star Wars should probably take a few years off. I truly love Star Wars and I absorbed all the expanded universe content I could get. I read all the books, played the games and watched every movie, cartoon and show. I still do, and I was very hopeful when Disney bought Lucasfilm, but boy was I wrong. Disney over all has broken my heart and they have gone down a path I can't follow. (A little Star Wars reference for those of you who are imperfect humans and don't watch Star Wars.)
I do have high hopes for Ahsoka, but I'm sure I will be let down again. I'm still gonna watch it with stars in my eyes though. (The fact I am in love with Ahsoka and Rosario Dawson has nothing to do with it. Nick and Sef just shut up!) In my opinion only the animated content has been truly great. Yes, I did like the Mandalorian and Andor, but neither of them wowed me and lets just not mention the Book of Boba Fett or the sequel Trilogy. In truth, if Disney would just fire Kathleen Kennedy and give it over to Dave Filoni and John Favoro we might be able to salvage Lucasfilm, but they won't.
The rumor that they were going to has been around since the Last Jedi, and every time, it was proven wrong. Disney leadership is incapable of taking accountability for their failure and firing Kathleen Kennedy would be an admission of failure. This refusal to accept accountability and to pass blame, has become synonymous with Hollywood in general and is one of the main reasons why they're dying. You can't give us trash and then tell us we're the problem, because we don't want to eat it. We will take our money elsewhere and give it to your competition. So as much as I hate to admit it, it might just be time to allow Star Wars to disappear to a galaxy far far away. At least, until the bad taste Disney Star Wars has left in our collective mouths had been washed away.
J