10 Reasons Prequels Ruin Movie Franchises

3. Recasting Almost Never Works

It's asking a lot for your audience to believe in a movie that removes the character(s) they fell in love with to start with. And the actors involved are a huge part of that. Lifting my ban on "Star Trek" again, it can't be stated how important Leonard Nimoy's Spock was to "Star Trek." He arguably was the most popular thing about the show in its original run (His fan mail figures support this pretty handily), his choice not to rejoin the original cast in an aborted late '70s series pretty much put it in suspect territory immediately, and later, when that series became a film project, getting him on the film was close to priority one. (Several of the production crew simply thought it would fail without him.) And when JJ Abrams chose to relaunch the movie franchise in an alternate reality-past, his ace in the hole to get away with it was having Leonard Nimoy on hand as Spock. (And truly, having that character recognize Zachary Quinto as his younger self should've only helped the latter. In theory...) It's rumoured that Nimoy may be back in the sequel (Probably not in the same capacity though). It's not surprising, as critics of the film both here and on other sites seem particularly indifferent at best towards Quinto's Spock. It'd be interesting to know if, in an alternate reality to this one, there's a 2009 Star Trek that had no Nimoy on board and just rebooted the characters. I'll contend that such a film may have been successful, but i doubt it would've courted the old fanbase as easily...in fact, to be a runaway success it pretty much would've likely been a complete departure and worked to lure in casual movie fans on Abrams' rep. And to get away with that? Well, it never may have been greenlit.... Because it was tried before. After the cinematic turd that was "Star Trek V," one proposed plan WAS to reboot things with a Starfleet Academy film set in the lives of the original cast. That's right - almost exactly the setting of Abrams' film. It would've entirely abandoned the established actors, Nimoy included. Now at the time, there was the added argument of one more film with the original cast during an anniversary year - the 25th. And the fanbase, still with "Star Trek V" clear in their minds, STILL waged a campaign (aided by George Takei himself - clearly this man was just waiting for the internet and social networking) in favour of the original cast and against any sort of reboot. Even a terrible film from one of that cast's own wouldn't let them fall out of love with their characters, and the actors who made them real onscreen. And their voices pretty much won that argument in a time of snail mail, conventions, and zines. If you mess with a beloved character, you better be doing so in a way that the fans will entirely understand. Recasting that role will put you under great suspicion, and that uphill battle only forces you to fight a battle that may be better taken with, oh, you know - A Good script. Solid direction and promotion...things that get less attention when you have to convince people, "No, I promise you, he ABSOLUTELY is going to be Spock...." Guilty Parties: Star Trek. Sorry, Zachary. Fan reaction and critics seem to agree - You simply are only-slightly-Mr-Spock, because Leonard Nimoy tells us so (And it's hard for us to argue with Mr Spock. Oh, crap...). It's telling that none of the rest of Star Trek's cast got such a rough ride. Even when they were pretty much expected to fail (Sorry we doubted you, Simon Pegg). Exception: I mentioned "X-Men: First Class" earlier on this count. And really, it's loose yet reverent attitude towards beloved characters who existed before their thus far definitive screen realizations seems to pay off. Nothing in those films contradicts Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellan, or even Rebecca Romijn's later performances. But nor are there slavish attempts to replicate younger versions of those actors - It just happens through the strength of the performances and the script's commitment to its sources. An exception in every way, and a good one.