Do fans want more of the same or something genuinely different? It’s a simple question without an easy answer and one that studios and filmmakers have struggled with.
With a sequel for example, do you offer the same thing with minimal adjustments to the tried and true formula? Or do you shake things up in order to grow, change and keep relevant?
At a wide-ranging talk at DICE 2022 (via IGN), “Avengers Endgame” co-director Joe Russo spoke about walking the tightrope between, warning that corporate agendas very much like the ‘minimal adjustments’ formula and it is up to creative talents to defy expectations to avoid stagnation:
“The corporate agenda is: Do you like chocolate ice cream? Well here chocolate ice cream with sprinkles, here’s chocolate ice cream with fudge…It’s their job to turn the money printer on. It’s the creative’s job to say, ‘Well s–t, I don’t know if I want to watch that’…. too much of one thing is a bad thing, but I think there are enough creators and innovators in the space where you can expect to be surprised. Just don’t expect corporations to surprise you”
Russo’s talk comes as many studios are heavily banking on nostalgia and fan service in their films and series of late in an effort to attract and keep audiences – even if it has resulted in creative issues such as with the recent “The Book of Boba Fett”.
Source: IGN
