AVQ&A: What reboot actually got you excited about the franchise again?

We look at the reboots that reignited our interest in the franchise, from Bond to Halloween to Percy Jackson.

By A.V. Club Staff  |  June 14, 2025 | 8:00am
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AVQ&A: What reboot actually got you excited about the franchise again?
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20 years ago, Batman Begins gave new life to the Caped Crusader, which got The A.V. Club staff thinking: What reboot actually got you excited about the franchise again?

As always, we invite you to contribute your own responses in the comments—and send in some prompts of your own! If you have a pop culture question you’d like us and fellow readers to answer, please email it to [email protected].

Casino Royale

I was never big on Bond (Austin Powers was more my bag, baby), but getting a ground-floor introduction to 007 when he was just a hunky screw-up let me get into a franchise I’d only really ever enjoyed when parodied. Not only was Casino Royale my introduction to Daniel Craig’s crumbling brick wall of an action star, it let me meet the exquisitely creepy, blood-weeping, ball-busting Mads Mikkelsen. Craig’s secret agent getting the absolute hell whipped out of his junk was a natural progression from the janky, imperfect parkour of its action opening. This was a more human action hero, one that had been more and more rare since the Die Hard knock-offs slowed down. Add in a perfect femme fatale and a bummer ending, and you’ve got a franchise reboot that gets more grounded without getting too dour or losing too much of the over-the-top spectacle that made the series fun in the first place. [Jacob Oller]

Battlestar Galactica (2003)

I can’t claim any real affection for the original Battlestar Galactica series, which I caught (and dismissed) via reruns, but Ronald D. Moore’s reimagining of Glen A. Larson’s series was still a blast of pressurized air for me when it debuted in 2003. I had grown up on a steady sci-fi diet of Star Trek, and Moore, a Trek veteran, offered an inspired twist on the optimism that permeates that franchise and the broader genre—not just by dealing great blows to the remnants of humanity right out of the gate in the miniseries that relaunched the franchise, but by casting that same indomitable human spirit in an equally destructive light. The reboot was bleak and unnerving and thrilling, often all at once, and though it can absolutely be seen as an Iraq War allegory, its narrative will always invite new readings (though “sowing the seeds of your own destruction” certainly seems to be holding up). [Danette Chavez]

Star Trek (2009)

In the Wars–Trek debate, I’ve always been on the side of The Force. Still, I loved First Contact and hoped its sequels would maintain those highs. They did not. But J.J. Abrams’ reboot remixed Trek into the Basic speech of Star Wars, keeping the energy up amid the best plate spinning of his career. Over the next decade, he’d burn out on Star Wars remixes, and his sequel, Into Darkness, is a disaster. But that first action-packed 2009 Star Trek? Abrams’ casting is perfection (I’d follow Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldaña, and MVP Karl Urban through a thousand sequels), and the production is gorgeous—the Enterprise uniforms never looked so good. Moreover, Abrams piles on complications to ramp up the excitement and emotion. It’s all in the first scene: Then-unknown Chris Hemsworth pulls a proto-Holdo maneuver to save his crew from the Romulans the moment his wife goes into labor. Star Trek was finally speaking my language. [Matt Schimkowitz]

Resident Evil 7

By the time 2017’s Resident Evil 7: Biohazard arrived, Capcom’s long-running survival horror series had basically burned itself out on high-octane excess, culminating in Resident Evil 6, a game that starts with you shooting the zombified president of the United States, and only gets bigger and dumber from there. I’d been checked out from the series for a while, but 7 dragged me back, replacing convoluted bioweapon narratives with a super-focused, first-person exploration of Southern Gothic horror. The game’s direct sequel would import some RE 4/5/6 action back into the formula in extremely satisfying ways, but 7 was the wake-up call that reminded me these games could actually scare the shit out of me—and all it took was atmosphere, carefully applied darkness, and the endless feeling of a desperate, murderous pursuit. [William Hughes]

Halloween (2018)

John Carpenter didn’t know the horror he was unleashing upon the world with 1978’s Halloween—and, no, I don’t mean the fear of Michael Myers. The movie’s well-deserved success resulted in the franchise eventually spinning out of control (sans Carpenter and even without star Jamie Lee Curtis). So I was understandably nervous about director David Gordon Green’s 2018 sequel to the original, which discarded the nine movies that preceded it. In this one, Laurie Strode has lived in constant fear of Michael and is estranged from her family because of it, but her paranoia has prepared her well for the Big Guy’s return. Halloween sticks to the gory kills that made it an inventive slasher, blending the success with an exploration of trauma (sorry, “trowma”). While not perfect, this movie got my hopes up, only for them to be squashed like a bug with the next two installments. [Saloni Gajjar]

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

I grew up as a huge Star Wars kid and because I was born in the ’90s, that unquestionably included the prequels. Like many in 2012, I was also skeptical about Disney taking over the franchise, but I remember seeing The Force Awakens in the theater and thinking, okay, maybe this could be good. I wasn’t completely blown away by the movie, but I was cautiously optimistic that things were on the right track. The practical effects really did impress me and I thought the new characters, particularly Finn and Poe, showed a lot of promise for the series. My enthusiasm was short-lived, though; while I still admire The Last Jedi, The Rise Of Skywalker left me so cold that I’ve hardly touched Star Wars since. (Try though I did, I could not really get into Andor.) Still, for a moment, I thought the future of Star Wars movies seemed bright. [Drew Gillis]

Percy Jackson And The Olympians

I was a huge fan of the Percy Jackson books as a kid, so naturally, I was thrilled when the new TV show was announced. At the time, I subscribed to the conventional opinion that the original movies starring Logan Lerman and Alexandra Daddario sucked, and I was thrilled to revisit the franchise through fresh eyes, new actors, and author Rick Riordan’s stamp of approval. But while the Disney+ series is book accurate and very sweet, it lacks the distinct, 2010s camp that made those original films if not good, then definitely memorable—things like Percy taking down Medusa (Uma Thurman!) with the mirror on the back of his iPod or Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” playing at the Lotus Casino. After rewatching the originals, I’ve come to the conclusion that they’re not nearly as irredeemable as I remembered. In fact, they’re kind of great. Now, I’m happy to have both versions. [Emma Keates]

 
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