I used to complain about reboots all the time. When I was younger, I immediately jumped on the assumption that sequels were never as good as the originals and began to apply the same mentality to reboots and remakes. I believed that this form of concept recycling was blasphemous to the sheer idea of creativity.
Unfortunately for my pride, the only thing that could accompany such a self-righteous worldview was its inevitable downfall. Over quarantine, I discovered my favorite TV show of all time, “Voltron: Legendary Defender.” Unbeknownst to me, “Voltron: Legendary Defender” was actually a reboot of “Voltron Force,” which was a reboot of “Voltron: The Third Dimension,” and so on. My favorite media in the entire world was a reboot of a reboot of a reboot, and it made me realize that perhaps the greatest ideas come from repurposing the old ones.
When television writers come up with original concepts for shows or movies, they take a massive risk. There’s no guarantee that the concept will pick up sponsors or a dedicated fan base, and new ideas could fall flat just as easily as they could take off. The safer option is to make a reboot or remake, which takes the concept of a show that already exists and adds to it, usually giving it new characters or a new subplot. The original material already has a fanbase who are acquainted with the content and more often than not, curious to see a new take on the concept.
This strategy, however uncreative 10-year-old me perceived it to be, is actually incredibly successful. Many movies and shows gain reboots because of how popular the original was, with writers eager to expand upon the initial ideas for newer audiences.
The Hollywood Reporter remarks that the popular television series “Doctor Who,” which originally ran from 1963 to 1989, made its return in 2005 with Christopher Eccleston as the ninth Doctor and has persisted to the current day with the newest doctor, Ncuti Gatwa. The rebooted “Doctor Who” has been a hit, featuring iconic performances from actors like David Tennant and Matt Smith.
This goes to show that TV reboots, whether a cash grab or not, can still be a success. When a reboot builds on its source material, it can attract fans from any generation to the new concepts that can only be found after digging through the old ones.
The Doctor isn’t the only being that can evolve over time, and TV isn’t the only thing that can be rebooted. Much like the visual evolution of TV reboots, the verbal evolution of slang is only possible because of how it compounds upon itself. Slang describes the ever-changing list of words that humankind uses on a daily basis to describe frequent cultural phenomena.
The Oxford English Dictionary outlines one clear example of this in the literal definition of the word “slang.” “Slang” first evolved as law lingo in the 1740s to refer to property that had been stolen or obtained through dishonest means. Now, in the 2020s, “slang” is used to refer to words that are considered informal. Modern slang terms, such as “alpha” or “rizz” are quite directly connected to the connotations that the word has on its own, which aid in its newfound definition. In that same way, slang is effective as slang because it steals words from formal language, giving them informal but broadly understood definitions. By stealing the definitions of old words, slang makes new words more clearly understood for their colloquial meanings.
This principle applies not just to words but to entire stories. One of the most fascinating examples is how we retell Greek legends like Homer’s “Odyssey” and “Iliad” over and over in different contexts. Despite the fact that this literature is hundreds of years old, it still captivates modern audiences enough for countless retellings, such as Pat Barker’s “The Silence of the Girls” or Madeline Miller’s “Circe.”
Maggie Yuan from the University of Pennsylvania says that “classical mythology…possesses a kind of universality that speaks to every person. The fact that Greco-Roman gods are flawed beings allows us to simultaneously relate to them while still leaving a measure of distance.”
Because the messages in classical literature are so easily translated into new contexts, retellings of the epic poems and prose of the past allow authors and audiences to consider new perspectives. The recycling of concepts from ancient literature can create retellings just as powerful as the original material.
Even religion has its version of reboots. My grandparents are devout Hindus, and my parents have always tried to include Hinduism in the education they gave me and my sister about the culture we hailed from. Unfortunately, being the anxious overthinker I was at the ripe old age of 11, some of their teachings backfired.
In Hinduism, there is the idea that souls are reincarnated over and over again until they eventually find enlightenment and escape the cycle of rebirth. As an 11-year-old, the concept of reincarnation absolutely terrified me. I hated the idea that I would one day be reincarnated in a body that was not this one, with a life that was not this one, with no memories of my friends and family.
In retrospect, it was sweet that I loved this life too much to forget any part of it, but as a pre-teen, my overthinking had not yet expanded into introspection. After weeks and weeks of existential terror, my grandfather finally sat me down and explained it in a way that comforted me; we were all made from the same matter, and we would all return to the same matter. He told me that, according to Hinduism, each soul is reincarnated close to the souls of those close to them, mother to brother, sister to son. Every life compounds upon itself, each lesson reflected in the next life until eventually all the compounded knowledge of your previous lives would add up to a new existence.
Even in religion, the same lesson that can be seen in television remakes is clear. It’s difficult to believe that there is nothing special in turning the old into new. Old concepts, words, stories, ideologies, and lessons can be recycled into new ones that are even more complex. They say that hindsight is 20/20, and in many facets of life, I can see that it’s true. To come up with something truly brilliant, you really must review the old before you consider the new.
