2026 Hollywood: The Year of Frankensteined Franchises
An abysmal schedule of remakes and reboots awaits
A quick Google search on 2026 Western movie releases will provide one with a very curious list:
The Odyssey, The Batman Part II, Blade, Masters of the Universe, The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender, Aladdin 2, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, Scream 7, Fantastic Beasts 4 (really? another one?), Shrek 5, Toy Story 5, Jumanji 3 (which should be the fourth one, but people seem to have forgotten about Robin Williams' (R.I.P.) film), The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping (what more of this franchise could there be to tell?), Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu (people will only show up for Grogu), Spider-Man: Brand New Day...
And of course, Avengers: Doomsday.
The common denominator: all remakes, reboots, & sequels of once popular franchises Frankensteined back to life. And while indie films and East Asian cinema - which is on the rise in popularity for Westerners - are producing original scripts, they are not receiving the spotlight. As a matter of fact, the franchises 2026's releases owe their existence to were once original blockbusters, whose creators took a leap of faith - a risk - in getting a script produced and seen. The rest was history.
It is truly depressing that in an age of economic turbulence, looming wars, political divide, ballooning depression rates, and social media addiction, we have to suffer through a creative stagnation of Western cinema as well. As if we have no chance at any escapism. There is, of course, nothing stopping a person from seeking out the aforementioned original stories still being made, or older, better films, but it has certainly never been tougher. The average John and Jane certainly aren't going to make the effort, and their children might not know any better when their introduction to these spectacular franchises is through a sequel or reimagining that will, almost absolutely, be lacklustre and terrible compared to its predecessors.
This phenomenon certainly isn't new. Hollywood has been dipping their toes into the pool of remakes and sequels for over a decade now. Some believe it began with The Force Awakens, others with Ghostbusters (2016), some believe that 2019 was the last good year for cinema. The fact of the matter is, it has indeed been all of this; a gradual descent into imaginative bankruptcy, further incentivised by the 2020 pandemic, when cinemas had to be shut down and then re-opened. Studios lost plenty of time and money that needed to be returned fast, as the replacement of cinema via the streaming wars had also begun.
Another theory suggests that after the success of the 80s and 90s blockbusters, investors became too comfortable with their earnings, and more averse to the risk of creative exploration. This has been expanding into other spheres of art as well, with the obvious comparison being the video game industry (how many remakes of The Last of Us are we at, again?), and the unintuitive comparison to aesthetics. A shift towards minimalism and corporate blandness - in architecture, digital art - is a result of cutting costs. What is ultimately more efficient to make and see a return on, a laptop for the era of Y2K with a reflective, clean UI, or a straightforward design communicating exactly what it needs to communicate? Just take a look at the evolution, or rather regression, of the Firefox logo. Less embellishment + more to the point = more money and quicker. In short, we've become too afraid to take chances, and this is reflected in what productions Hollywood chooses to invest.
Do yourself, and your family, a favour, and save the expenses, the energy, and the time of a trip to the cinema to see an uninspired cash grab that both audiences and studios know is an attempt at nostalgia intended to gaslight the masses into liking a product. It's all in the hands of the consumer; money talks, that's why these safe investments in films are happening. If Hollywood can't pivot towards originality, it may be time for the behemoth to hang up the cape, and allow aspiring artists bursting with original ideas to enter the soundstage.
Speaking of which, how's Harrelson and McConaughey's Texas movie studio coming along...?
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