With the release of Ridley Scott’s sci-fi epic Prometheus in 2012, it changed the way a filmmaker approaches an established franchise and became a revolutionary method in the making of new ideas. Ridley Scott was able to innovate the previous Alien franchise with Prometheus by adding a subplot that interlinks well with the original film.
By doing this, Scott valued originality and familiarity in equal measure when he decided to execute this particular picture. This balance between old and new content is important to any franchise if it wishes to innovate and branch out into new areas of storytelling, however most franchises have not pursued this instead, they have chosen to conform to what is already existing due to a fear of change.
Popular franchises such as Ghostbusters, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Fast & Furious, Terminator and Star Wars are reluctant to separate itself from past material and will not adopt the Prometheus route as it may have a negative effect on brand recognition and target audience. Franchises continue to remain repetitive continuously and eventually bore the audience with the same predictable content being played over and over again.
Filmmakers should learn to break away from traditional franchise conventions and come up with newly released franchise films that are indeed more challenging and intellectually demanding for the consumer. Why not approach a specific franchise from an abstract perspective rather than being too literal/obvious. Maybe in the meantime filmmakers could take a particular franchise away from the mainstream and instead help develop arthouse themes that cater for and targets a niche audience.
So this idea that the release of Prometheus three years ago would have influenced other franchises, has not happened. In exception, franchises continue to provide us the audience with constant material that stays the same forever and never alters. The biggest loser after all of this is the consumer as they never get the opportunity to absorb fresh content but are left watching franchise films that lack creativity, imagination and most important of all, lack the ability to evolve into something new.
#Peace.Love.Prometheus
