Hollywood franchises that are dead but for the burying--and others that still have some life in them

None of these franchises will die.

Ever.

Especially in the age of artificial intelligence, in which Hollywood doesn’t need to think of a new idea ever again.

Oh, I don;t mean financially dead. I mean creatively dead.

I'm afraid I have to disagree. The problem isn't a lack of source material: "Star Wars" in particular have an enormous reservoir of stories to tell, particularly given that we know the Jedi date back thousands of years.

The problem, rather, is the makers insisting on having an *exact* tie into preexisting Star Wars IP – that plus a ridiculous level of caution. TPTB at Lucasfilm simply do *not* get what the audience does & doesn't want, and I'm undecided whether "Obi-Wan" or "The Book of Boba Fett" was the single worst TV show idea of the past five years. Bizarrely, Star Wars seems obsessed with filling in uber-nerdy plot holes.

"Rogue One" was mainly intended to explain how the Rebel Alliance managed to take out the moon-sized Death Star with a single light torpedo.

"Solo": It's there almost entirely to explain George Lucas's error in the first movie. "Twelve parsecs" is a measure of distance, not time, and the movie spends its final 45 minutes with an absurdly convoluted explanation for how the Millennium Falcon made the Kessel run in that *distance*. Dave Filoni did a great job on the various Star Wars animated series over the years, but handing him the keys to "The Mandalorian" and ALL of its related series was more than a bit much.

Finally, Star Wars produced an actual *original* series – but it STILL sucked! "The Acolyte" was either confusing or flat-out bizarre unless you're THE most extremist type of fan who's read every single book written about it over the past 40 years. It had a ton of promise, but in this case the showrunner made the mistake of assuming viewers were *smarter* than they were (in most cases they dumb it down for TV).

As for "Star Trek," I don't think I could disagree more fervently. "Discovery" was one of THE most wildly imaginative shows on TV, period, and it was only cancelled because Trekker incels couldn't handle the idea of a young Black woman as captain. While "Strange New Worlds" at least adheres to the same self-contained episodes ethos as TOS, I've been truly amazed at how astoundingly well they've done even given their inherent guardrails. Juggling a musical show with one of the most shocking moments in Trek history – the ship's doctor murdering his former tormentor in cold blood, after the war was over and said tormentor was assisting the Federation – somehow worked, and it should NOT have done so!

"Picard" was about as old-school as it gets, and its final season may be the single most obvious display of fan service in modern history, but if you're going that way, you need to go all in, and Picard was more like all in ten times over. While it is utterly absurd that they flew the Enterprise-D (!!!!) in their climactic battle – because Worf "broke the Enterprise E" (!!!!!!!!) – it all worked. We've had some seriously shitty series endings, but "Picard" had a great one. (Its first two seasons are another story, however.)

Agreed that "Alien" is more than a bit tired at this point. I've seen "Romulus," and it's basically "Alien but way lower budget and no Sigourney Weaver or Ridley Scott." Nothing new, and I think they should've stopped the franchise after "Aliens." Ditto "The Terminator." Most of the long-running terror series are absurdly tired, and while I know the three-part "Halloween" finale with Jamie Lee was supposed to be the end, I also know what assholes Hollywood can be in terms of IP. (Ditto "Friday the 13th," Freddy Krueger, "The Conjuring," etc.)

Finally, a franchise that *should've* gone out on top but did not: "Top Gun." "Maverick" is one of the most perfect summer movies ever made – and yes, cunts, I know all about Cruise & CO$ – and they're absurdly trying to recapture the magic again. (At least John Wick is dead, aside from flashbacks in the upcoming "Ballerina" spinoff.)

They have been creatively dead for years.

Think of the Alien as Frankenstein’s monster. Frankenstein’s monster did not look like this - green skin, flat skull, bolts, etc. - until Universal made the movie, which is approaching its hundredth anniversary. Most people have not seen James Whale’s Frankenstein. But EVERYONE knows who this monster is. He will live forever.

Which is why the Universal - 94 years after Boris Karloff’s film opened - is giving him his own damn theme park land. The iconography is universally (no pun) understood. Just like the Alien. These are the new myths.

All Alien movies are essentially remakes of the original Alien. It can go on forever. Why stop now??

Star Wars doesn't have "an enormous reservoir of stories to tell". These stories don't exist and the idea that there is an intelligent writer out there who can wrangle its very basic space opera concept into something actually interesting is laughable. You'd have more chance with Flash Gordon.

Somehow people enjoy watching people being horrifically tortured in the guise of moral outrage in the Saw franchise. I believe #11 is in production right now.

The Conjuring Universe (Conjuring, Annabelle, The Nun) is the same old same old (Conjuring 4 is the last movie, but there will be a tv series, and it is likely there will be a Nun 3.

Fast & Furious is ridiculous going to 11.

The pleasure of Star Wars in many ways had to do with the thinness of the concept: there was good (the old republic, the Jedi Knights), and there was evil (the Empire, the Sith). You could get three movies out of that--barely. But there was not the kind of encyclopedic density there have been with other sci-fi franchises like Star Trek to warrant movie after movie and series after series, nor was there any kind of moral complexity. Anakin Skywalker was conflicted; then he became pure evil; then he redeemed himself. Everyone else is either all-good or all-bad.

Andy Hardy Series.

Blondie and Dagwood.

The Thin Man.

I had said this is another thread but the new Alien movie should have been the prequel to “Aliens” and been about what happened to the colony on that planet through the eyes of Newt’s parents.

Can we add franchises that never saw a sequel?

Jupiter Ascending

I don't understand Romulus. It retreads all of the source material, nothing new.

The shock ending was a joke.

What purpo$e is it to tell the same story over again in the same ways?

Jaws. The original was perfect, there was no need for more.