Sequels to popular films have been considered a safe bet in Hollywood for a long time. The hunger of fans for new films from well-known brands has always made the trousers of studio bosses bulge. So-called legacy sequels are still quite a recent phenomenon. The term refers to films that continue an acclaimed classic, reviving old stars while attempting to expand the brand name into a franchise or simply lure it to a new generation.
These brands don’t always have to be idle for ages, in the case of Star Wars, for example, there was a ton of material in the form of comics, video games, and prequels in the decades leading up to the official sequel. But these are mostly films in which the first part dates back decades. Basically, I have no problem at all with the fact that big, popular brands stand the test of time and that heroes like Rocky, Luke Skywalker, Neo and Trinity or Laurie Strode still have a place on the big screen.
What annoys me is the extreme focus on nostalgia in these projects. And I’m not writing that because I’m a spoilsport and curmudgeon. Alright, maybe I’m a bit of a curmudgeon. But that’s not because I don’t begrudge fans to indulge in childhood memories.
I would describe myself as a fan of some of these cult films and understand the anticipation that comes with the announcement of a sequel to a beloved film series. What pisses me off, though, is when looking through nostalgic glasses ruins what makes a story.
Halloween Kills
Quelle: Universal Pictures
Just because the fans have had so much time to intensify their love for the original and to think about all the characters and developments, the expectations are high and a certain level of fan service is to be expected. Finding this measure, however, turns out to be correspondingly difficult.
You can never please all fans and due to the enormous admiration that the franchises receive, it can quickly happen that the audience comes out of the cinema angry because the new film does not meet the special expectations. If you advertise with nostalgia, you also have to deliver it.
As a result, all those then-pioneering or highly idiosyncratic films are doomed to remain exactly as they always were. Never evolving and always using the same iconography. The fans dictate what their favorite franchise should be like, and then they’re disappointed when they don’t get the feeling they want. Have you seen it all somewhere else? When it was new. And exciting.
Prime example Ghostbusters
The legacy sequel Ghostbusters: Afterlife gave me the reason for this column. A franchise I’ve loved since I was a kid and I’ve seen all the offshoots of it.
