Film Franchises: Reboots, Shared Universes and Fan Expectations

Abstract

In our rapidly changing present moment—characterized by intensified conglomeration among film studies— invites a rethinking of these franchises' transmedia practices (define this). While it is tempting, to think that franchises operate only as top-down phenomena (that is, just a "cash-cow" for studios), in fact the cinematic world-building that these franchises engage in entail a complex of negotiations between talent, film studios, and fans. This project looks at how negotiations emerge in recent developments—the impending conclusion of the first cycle of Marvel's Iron Man, and the rebooting of Transformers for a second cycle. In addition to mapping how talent, studios, and fans have engaged in different transmedia practices surrounding these franchise developments, this project also argues that recent films in these franchises engage in aesthetic experiments that offer different spectatorial engagements with franchise world building. Specifically, it argues that to understand the appeal and success of these films, scholars must examine the new modes of embodied spectatorship and nostalgia-oriented spectatorship that cinematic world-building entails.