How To Reboot A Film Franchise

Reuniting with a childhood friend is always bittersweet – on the one hand, it’s always great to see them and be reminded of the good times we shared over the years, but it’s also sad to see how we’ve both gotten older, that things are different. Nowadays, when every other film is getting a reboot (deserving or not), a little part of us fills with excitement to see where our favourite characters have ended up, but for many of us, there is also a feeling of dread – what if they ruin what we had before?

There is always a feeling of nostalgia from the audience when they see beloved characters again after a long time, and how the reboot uses that to move the story forward can define both the film and the entire franchise. If we consider “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” (2015) and “Ghostbusters” (2016), these are both reboots for hugely successful franchises that were handled completely differently. In “The Force Awakens”, viewers are flooded with that sense of nostalgia right from the trailer, with Han Solo’s line “Chewie, we’re home”. Seeing Harrison Ford as Han Solo again made us WANT to go home to the Millennium Falcon, we WANT to see what happens next.

“Ghostbusters” had a different approach, as the trailer featured the following introduction:

“30 years ago, four scientists saved New York, this summer, a new team will answer the call.”

The trailer had a few references to the original films, but failed to create that feeling of nostalgia that there should have been to excite the audience. If anything, knowing the films aren’t related in any way just doesn’t feel right. Had the “Ghostbusters” reboot been a sequel, with the audience seeing the car being dusted off, and the Proton Packs being handed down from the older generation to the new, maybe we would have felt ready to save the world and embraced the change. Similarly, many viewers felt detached from the story when they saw the original cast as random people in the street. Even the 2009 reboot of “Star Trek” used Leonard Nemoy in his role as Spock and the new film series is proving to be just as successful as the originals.

Do you remember that time on Friends where Joey wore all of Chandler’s clothes and started doing lunges? Or how about the time they were trying to move a couch and Ross shouted “PIVOT!”? Those were some great moments that a lot of us will always find funny, but personally (even though a Friends film would be brilliant), I wouldn’t watch an entire film made up of the old jokes. An issue with reboots is that a lot of the time, they’ll try and recreate the same jokes from the original with the “Hey, remember when this happened?” kind of effect. A lot of time, effort and money goes into rebooting a franchise, so I feel that the creators should take the risk and create something that will inspire a whole new generation of people to love the characters like the generation before, and not rehash the same old stuff. “Ghostbusters” fell into this trap when they slimed Kristen Wiig over and over again. It’s just not as funny the third time.

Making a film is hard enough as it is without adding the weight of a franchise and the expectations that come with it. It’s important to remember the origin story of a film and where it came from, but also that the film is its own individual piece of art, and has to carry the franchise forward. Let this be a lesson to all the filmmakers out there, these films have a legacy for a reason – use it, build on it and make standard-setting content like the films before, we’ll accept nothing less for the characters we love.