Reboots vs spiritual succesors

[Macarenaoftime]

I personally believe spiritual successors can build upon the ideas of the original work better than reboots.
I also think they're also better for experimenting with other themes and bringing new fresh things to the table.
What's your opinion? Which one is better?

[Phantomlight]

With so many reboots of shows, games, and other things, I think I am leaning more towards spiritual successors because I haven't seen a majority of reboots of stuff being all that successful. I like it when creators experiment with ideas, themes, and other features of past creations rather than completely taking basically all elements of something and just put a fresh coat of paint on it, but there are some reboots that I have enjoyed. Reboots aren't all bad, they can be for a different audience, but I just think a lot of reboots have been executed unsuccessfully and also perhaps halfheartedly because there was still money to be gained but they do not flesh out everything to it's full potential? I don't know how to explain it. They're also things that have been rebooted so many times that I've lost count, such as Scooby-Doo. And some iterations seem to stop after a season or two, which I feel could have been time, energy, and money spent on something completely new or perhaps a spiritual successor.

However, I liked the reboot Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated (2010) though! And I like creators that referenced the Scooby-Doo franchise, it's fun, such as the Mystery Skulls Animated Fan Series:

I love this kind of stuff. They take a creative spin on an idea that people are familiar with but make it in their own style, make a new narrative and make it their own.

[DokiDokiTsuna]

As fun as it is to reboot things, I actually like the idea of spiritual successors more. It's like, you get an all new story, but intentionally made in the spirit of the one that came before.

You're not likely to simply get the reanimated corpse of the old story (as sometimes happens with reboots, unfortunately) because if you're not putting your soul and creative energy into a spiritual successor you're missing the whole point. Maybe the next story won't be as good as the first...but you can't just not try.

Of course, I have seen some badly-made spiritual successors, too...that usually happens when you throw new writers into the mix who don't really understand what made the original work (which can ruin any derivative work, tbh). But at the very least, you could tell they had a soul of their own and unique aspirations.

[cherrystark]

I like reboots but it's a fine line. @Phantomlight's example of Scooby-Doo is a good example of reboots done right. They've taken the core things that made the franchise great and brought that to the modern-day. In the movies, they're even going back and referencing movies/tv series they did back in the early seventies. There are more Justice League/DC crossovers, references to Vincent Van Ghoul, and even visual references to "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo".

Other reboots aren't necessarily bad, like MacGyver or the Charmed reboot, rip away and change the parts of the original show that people loved to make the series completely different than the original. In cases like that, I'd rather see a spiritual successor that's its own, unique world with nods to the original (ex. the girl version of Ghostbusters). I often feel this way when they take a cool character "Bob" and turn Bob into Becky for the sake of "strong female characters", instead of making Becky her own character.

[jmassat]

I was about to say "spiritual successors all the way," but you all brought up Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated and I went "okay, maybe not ALL the way..." That is a darn good reboot.

A good reboot can't just be "more of the same" or "the bare minimum, plus something trendy like twerking" (AKA the Powerpuff Girls reboot). It REALLY has to say something new to be worthwhile. I've heard good things about the She-Ra reboot, and also that it's COMPLETELY different. Oh, yeah, and I almost missed a chance to plug the Flintstones comic, which is so different in tone. So wrong, yet so right.

Consider the sequel series, too -- neither a reboot nor a spiritual successor, but similar in ways. I guess the classic example of this is Star Trek: The Next Generation, which everyone seems to love.

[domisotto]

I feel that Battle Star Galacrica reboot was great and Star Trek movies was awesome as well. On the other hand, the Total Recall was unsuccessful.

I actually cannot think about any examples of spiritual successors except for one game that I didn’t like, so... not sure if I have opinion on that.

[cherrystark]

Consider the sequel series, too -- neither a reboot nor a spiritual successor, but similar in ways. I guess the classic example of this is Star Trek: The Next Generation, which everyone seems to love.

I agree. I would much rather get a sequel series with new characters to love than a bad reboot. If you're going to do a reboot of a live-action series, either recast everyone like Star Trek or bring back as much of the original cast as possible.

[HGohwell]

Reboots are so often totally unnecessary and so many bad ones have been done these days, especially when there's nothing actually wrong or to really be improved upon by rebooting, that they just come off as cash grabs to me. I think the only real exception is video games, so you can have better graphics and potentially new game play dynamics but I'd rather call that remastered than rebooted unless it's a proper reboot and proper full reboots don't tend to be great (looking at you DMC).

Sequels are much better at exploring the world and aspects you liked but didn't get to cover and spiritual successors tend to be a much better way of "I like the concept but executed it badly" without tainted the original story.

[DiegoPalacios]

The advantage of reboots is that there is already a proven audience interested in the story (as long as the team working on it doesnt mess it up). The drawback is that the guidelines may limit the creative freedom one would have by creating a new franchise.

There are some great reboots out there, but also some ones that don't live up to the legacy of the first itteration. It takes a strong passion and understanding of the franchise to successfully pull it off.

Spiritual succesors are way more free. They don't have the expectations of reboots and established cannon, so it is a new story with some indirect influences. As long as they are able to give the new franchise their own identity and doesnt become a clone.

Both can have a huge potential, so i don't know which one i would prefer, but when it comes to writing, i prefer making a spiritual successor due to the greater range of freedom. (now that i think about it, maybe that is why i didnt do many fanfics)

[HGohwell]

i prefer making a spiritual successor due to the greater range of freedom. (now that i think about it, maybe that is why i didnt do many fanfics)

This line just amuses me since there are a lot of places that describe spiritual successors as essentially "professional fanfic".

[DiegoPalacios]

True, when the influence is way too strong and when an author don't give their own touch to their stories, they may become "professional fanfics", which is paradoxical

Of course, both cases can lead to that, so in the end is up to excecution

[HGohwell]

"professional fanfics", which is paradoxical

I'm not sure it's as paradoxical as it seems. There are a few examples of mangaka's assistants/apprentices essentailly creating fanfiction that later gets turned into their own original works. And consider the amount of remakes, like say Sherlock Holmes content. All could be considered fanfiction of a kind, especially more modern versions that stray further from the original content. Which could possible make reboots/retellings as much "professional fanfic" as anything else, given it's a work based on another work and not created by the original author. Depends entirely on your definition of fanfiction, I suppose.

[DiegoPalacios]

Good point. What i meant was that it was paradoxical when people making their own stories end up considered "professional fanfic", like those places you mentioned that describe spiritual successors as "professional fanfic"

This line just amuses me since there are a lot of places that describe spiritual successors as essentially "professional fanfic".

[But_a_Jape]

My general attitude is that I'm all for reboots of a property that has really cool or fun ideas but the original version never really lives up to the full potential of what it created or, even worse, completely wasted what it had and turned out pretty bad as a whole. I was never a huge fan of the Scooby-Doo franchise, but it does have some fun characters and themes, so I have no problem with it constantly being rebooted, especially since I'm getting through Mystery Incorporated right now and I'm liking what I'm watching. It might even succeed Zombie Island as my favorite Scooby-Doo thing, and Zombie Island was also the beginning of an attempt to reboot the franchise.

I also enjoyed the She-Ra reboot as its own thing even though I care very little for the original She-Ra series. I had no fears of them "ruining the original" because I don't really think the original was all that great (or even good) to begin with.

I'm even welcome to reboots of things that were generally good, but may have completely dropped the ball with its ending. I'm actually not too upset with how the original Full Metal Alchemist anime ended (though I would have to rewatch it to say for sure, because I really don't remember how well everything tied together) but it does seem generally accepted that the reboot Brotherhood turned out better. I, as well as a number of other fans, would also enjoy a TV reboot of A Song of Ice and Fire once the books are completed since Game of Thrones has infamously botched the ending (arguably the last few seasons as a whole).

Regarding spiritual successors, at the end of it, I don't think they really offer the same thing a reboot does, so it's hard for me to compare them. I don't have any specific examples in mind, but I feel like the best spiritual successors aren't intentionally being so, but their creators were so strongly inspired by their predecessor(s) that it's clear what they were but we still receive an original idea that can stand on its own. On the other hand, some spiritual successors may try to intentionally draw parallels to their inspiration and get so caught up in reminding its audience of something that they already enjoy that the work just comes off as a shallow imitation of a better idea. In those cases, like with an inferior reboot of an already good existing product, why not just watch/read the original?

[cherrystark]

I was never a huge fan of the Scooby-Doo franchise, but it does have some fun characters and themes, so I have no problem with it constantly being rebooted, especially since I'm getting through Mystery Incorporated right now and I'm liking what I'm watching. It might even succeed Zombie Island as my favorite Scooby-Doo thing, and Zombie Island was also the beginning of an attempt to reboot the franchise.

They did a "Return to Zombie Island" last year and now are building on story arcs and villains covering multiple movies. They are also tying back in other character development threads that the other movies/series established. The newest movie blew me away