The unstoppable rise of film and TV reboots

So why are so many beloved 1990s and 2000s classics getting a revamp, now? Are producers just clean out of new ideas? Not quite. While a few reboots are sticking to tried and tested scripts, others are branching out and revamping their storylines entirely. Take the Dexter revival: when the original series wrapped in 2013 after eight seasons, the ending (which saw the titular killer go into self-imposed exile) was widely given the thumbs-down by viewers. Tacking on a few extra episodes gives producers a second bite at the apple: “We want this to not be Dexter season nine,” showrunner Clyde Phillips has told The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s a great opportunity to write a second finale for our show.”

When a TV series, film, even a book is a hit with the public, it’s understandable that bosses want to replicate that success. Remember when Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn’s juggernaut bestseller, hit bookshop shelves in 2014? It sparked a wave of similar novels, from Paula Hawkins’ The Girl On The Train to The Woman in The Window by A.J. Finn. The plot lines, titles, even covers of these releases started to look disarmingly similar as publishers scrambled to fill the new demand for ‘suburban noir’. In the world of TV, Netflix eyed-up the BBC and Channel 4’s talent for a good, gritty British thriller and tried their own hand at it with The Stranger earlier this year – of course, it was a hit mere hours after its release. It’s perhaps to be expected, then, that the number of reboots and revivals has been steadily increasing – after all, if it ain’t broke…