Reboot, Requel, Legacyquel: Jurassic World and the Nostalgia Franchise

Abstract

This chapter examines the ‘nostalgia’ reboot, a serial form that restarts a franchise at the same time that it preserves and celebrates its past. It identifies films like The Force Awakens and Creed as new films in these nostalgia franchises, but specifically investigates the case of Jurassic World, a film that summons its (pre-historic) past and employs nostalgia as its method of renewal. Describing the nostalgia reboot as evidence of a type of Hollywood remake practice that invests in sequelisation strategies that preserve long-term continuity, the chapter outlines nostalgia-driven pleasures and multi-generational appeal of those reboots that maintain continuity and facilitate immersion in an ongoing, already familiar story world.

Cobra Kai Never Dies! Generational seriality and revived legacies of The Karate Kid

“…As the viewers follow Johnny in making sense of, and ultimately re‐configuring his imagined past, they are also encouraged to reconsider their own fascination with The Karate Kid , and, by extension, with white boyhood. This corresponds to the narrative logic of sequels, according to which original consumers are encouraged “to recall their own viewing experiences as well as personal memories associated with the franchise and that particular moment in time (Loock, 2021: p. 184; see also Henderson, 2014: p. 166).” What lies at the core of the series is a portent question of perspective and ambiguity: how malleable are cultural categories that deem one character a hero, and another a villain? As such, the series inspires a nuanced and more affective relationship between its protagonists and The Karate Kid fan base.…”

“…Such logic applies to the plots developed in the narrative strands pertaining both to older, familiar characters, as well as the younger generation of highschoolers. If reboots often insert racially diverse characters into their extended diegesis, they tend to be less progressive when it comes to gender scripts, promoting “traditional notions of family, heterosexuality and biological reproduction” (Loock, 2021: p. 185; see also Loock, 2018b: pp. 361–378).…”