Walking into the cinema or scrolling on your preferred streaming service often provokes a sense of déjà vu for me recently. It is frequently because I am surrounded by reboots, remakes and spin-offs. These can span from the constant stream of Disney live action remakes of their celebrated classics, to the Mean Girls musical movie, which is adapted from a musical, which was adapted from a movie. It is beginning to feel like we are trapped in an endless recycling of old ideas, which begs the questions: why? And what does this mean for the future of entertainment?
The answer to “why” seems fairly obvious: nostalgia and sentimental emotions sell. For a lot of people, nostalgia becomes a coping mechanism for dealing with a difficult present or daunting future. In times of uncertainty, people crave a sense of familiarity that can often only be found in the comfort of their favourite TV show or movie. For the people who make TV and film, emulating a beloved formula that creates someone’s new comfort watch is the ultimate goal. However, the easiest way to make people feel these powerful sentimental emotions that will get them to the cinema is to write the exact same story with the exact same characters, tweaking it just slightly so that it is different to the original. In Hollywood these would be considered the “safe bets” because they come with a built-in audience. It is also why streaming services continue to promote their older content like Gilmore Girls or the Harry Potter franchise because these are the shows and films that keep customers coming back. Nostalgia becomes a business model.
So, what does this mean for creativity and the cultural landscape? On the one hand, a reboot can be refreshing when it puts a new spin or take on an old idea. For example, there have been many Barbie films created by Mattel, but Barbie (2023) provided a new lens through which we looked at this iconic character and universe that the animated children’s movies did not. On the other hand, revivals and remakes can seem lazy and lack creativity, becoming clear cash grabs that play on people’s nostalgia rather than focusing on quality assurance. Companies would rather squeeze every last drop from their most popular IP than invest their time and money into something new. If this cycle continues in the direction it is going, are we at risk of losing originality altogether? If everything is referencing a reference, the culture of visual media becomes bland, repetitive, and unwatchable.
In spite of this, nostalgia is not a bad thing, and I do not believe that this cycle of nostalgia will end any time soon. Just as now we are obsessed with reviving the 90s and early 2000s, one day a future generation will want to replicate the popular original shows of the 2020s, like Stranger Things or Succession. Everyone wants to feel the same emotions they felt when they watched their favourite film for the first time because it reminds us of who we were, but I think it is important to not get stuck in the past.Â
Nostalgia can be a powerful springboard for reinvention and inspiration. Shows like Stranger Things provide people with nostalgia for a previous era, the 80s, while providing fresh new stories and characters. These tools of sentiment and nostalgia, when equipped correctly, can be the perfect way to push new ideas to the forefront.
Ultimately, it is evident that the future of entertainment will always have one foot in the past, but the industry needs to change the way it utilises nostalgia to maintain excitement and intrigue for upcoming projects.