8 Signs We're Reaching Saturation Point With Superhero Movies

3. Reboot. Move On. Recast...

In the last decade we've seen two incarnations of Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, Superman, Rhodey (War Machine) and we're about to see a new take of Batman and the Fantastic Four. Not only are we getting inundated with a deluge of new superhero movies, we're also getting inundated with new versions of our favourite heroes. Admittedly in most cases, the change works. Andrew Garfield is a better Peter Parker / Spider-Man that Tobey Maguire. Despite a solid performance by Edward Norton in The Incredible Hulk, Mark Ruffalo won us all over in The Avengers. But there are many more cases where we want the stories to continue with our favourite actors in the role. Ben Affleck might surprise all the haters and put in a fantastic turn as Batman, but wouldn't it have been awesome if an already-established Christian Bale teamed up with 'new boy on the block' Henry Cavill in the Man Of Steel sequel? The Fantastic Four franchise may have been in serious need of the reboot but Batman and Spider-Man wasn't. Forget Christian Bale being ready to move on or the electric chemistry of Peter Parker and Gwen Stacey in the reboot; audiences weren't ready to give up on the characters they had spent a decade watching. It's one of the reasons why there were some unfair criticisms of The Amazing Spider-Man or why Batfleck is an internet crisis of overblown proportions. Why will audiences commit to a franchise if their favourite actors will be recast a decade later? With so many films of this genre to choose on, even the safest bets like Superman might not attract the audiences they might have a few years ago.