10 Movie Franchises That Need To Ditch ONE Thing

Building a movie franchise that remains popular over years or even decades is incredibly challenging, requiring filmmakers, ensemble casts, and studios to get on the same page about a series' given goals.

We've seen so many franchises evaporate into nothing due to their failure to move with the times, refresh dated aspects of the series, and address issues that fans have been complaining about for years.

And while these 10 movie franchises are mostly still going strong, that doesn't mean they're perfect - far from it, in fact.

These franchises would all do well to finally toss out one nagging thing that's been lingering around for years despite so many fans calling for change.

If not franchise-hobbling in of themselves, these issues desperately need to be dealt with, from the overt recycling of tired tropes, to fan service that just doesn't work, refusing to retire legacy cast members, and basically being totally allergic to the idea of trying anything new.

While no franchise has just a single feature in need of improvement, if these moldy holdovers get ditched, things'll certainly be looking sunnier for the future...

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has its fair share of issues, for sure, but there's one convention in particular that's massively outstayed its welcome - the fact that the MCU is so utterly embarrassed of its own characters' names.

It's been a trope since basically the beginning of the franchise that the silly-sounding monikers of heroes and villains alike get mocked by at least one character, as if to nudge the audience and assure them the writers know how ridiculous it all sounds.

The two most infamous examples are surely Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) asking Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) if it's "too late to change the name," and Spider-Man (Tom Holland) discussing "made-up names" with Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) in Avengers: Infinity War.

The gag has been lazily regurgitated ad nauseum throughout the MCU, and even as recently as Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the franchise seems abjectly incapable of just... letting characters have their comic book names without passing low-effort comment on it.

At this point it feels like more of a snarky s**tpost than a one-liner that belongs in an MCU movie, so groan-worthy is this corny need to mock the very thing that's putting butts in seats in the first place. It's not cute anymore - it's lame and irritating.