Roger’s $0.02 - Too Much Nostalgia (Patreon)

In my last column, I mentioned the nostalgia play behind many game, movie, and streaming show franchises. The idea is that an IP that’s broadly familiar with a potential audience has a greater chance of finding success versus a new or unknown property that won’t have an automatic audience. And while it’s cool to have a new Ghostbusters movie coming out, or have a frachise that plays up its cinematic origins, heavy reliance on audience nostalgia for success can easily lead to stagnation and audience apathy.

When Star Wars was released in 1977 it was an instant hit. Its blend of fantasy, sci-fi, and fairytale stories made for a unique and memorable cinematic experience. So much so it spawned an entire genre of copycats and inspired a generation of moviegoers to become filmmakers. Because Star Wars had a high level of brand awareness, leveraging the franchise’s popularity has always been seen as a surefire way to make a money maker. And so the sequels came. First the prequel trilogies, then the animated series of the Clone Wars, then the sequel trilogy, and then streaming content on Disney+. While the movies attracted audiences and a profit, others bombed spectacularly. The hit-and-miss continued on Disney streaming with a few like “The Mandalorian” doing well and most of the others not so well. In my view, this unevenness breeds a level of contempt and cynicism over the property. Something that was once hallowed has been tarnished in the eyes of the public. Because Star Wars needs to hew to its legacy concepts; Jedi, a universal magical power “the Force”, starship battles, and some sort of interstellar war it can never change. If it does it ceases to be Star Wars. A great example is the series “Andor”. It had won rave critical reviews, including from me, but it floundered. While some would say a sea of uneven Star Wars streaming offerings on Disney+ caused it to do poorly, I argue it’s the fact that “Andor” was the most un-Star Wars-like show in the franchise. It featured excellent writing, directing, acting, and storytelling but it lacked the element that Star Wars awareness demands: Jedis fighting villains with lightsabers and the Force. And because you need to continue telling the story that the original writer/writers created, nostalgia stories can easily turn into a straight jacket limiting the ability of other writers to maneuver or tell stories outside of the traditional scope of the series.

The second issue I find with nostalgia is audience cynicism and apathy. While the occasional reboot or refresh of a series can bear fruit, continuous overexposure to an already-worn franchise can decrease viewer interest. Star Wars’s stablemate at Disney, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, has already shown the limits of what you can get away with by playing to nostalgia. Understand, this nostalgia goes beyond simply using the same IP as the backdrop for a new adventure. But rather the same story is repeated with different characters and actors. There are only so many world/universe/reality-ending conflicts before they all feel the same. And because much of the value in the MCU is from existing or well-known heroes they often show up in features or streaming shows to find any real traction. Shoehorning characters into movies or stories where they may not have a natural fit can affect a plot line, character arc, or both in a way that can be detrimental to viewer interest. Add in the comic-book structure that the MCU is built around, namely needing to watch multiple movies and streaming shows to understand the backstory, makes for a monumentally huge ask for a viewer with only a passing familiarity with the brand to engage in. This nostalgia fatigue manifests itself in disinterest and apathy by an audience. Why go watch a movie that you’ve seen multiple times before just with different actors?

Ultimately, this formula isn’t going away anytime soon. Which is unfortunate. There are plenty of stories that can be told in an entertaining fashion that might use familiar elements but feature unique stories and characters. Stories that aren’t the same old ones with a new coat of paint. But with so much money invested into blockbuster movies, streaming shows, and games the desire to see a substantial return demands the safest road is taken. Risky ideas don’t attract investors the same way a successful blockbuster series does.