Are We living in the Age of the Reboot? Why Nothing Feels New Anymore.
Since the beginning of the year, lots of the most awaited movie releases have been either adaptations or reboots. 2026 started off strong in February with Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of Emily Bronte’s novel Wuthering Heights, which has been central to the debate on remakes even before its trailer release; then, the Frankenstein sequel/spinoff The Bride! (starring Ireland’s very own Oscar winner Jessie Buckley) has just been screened in theatres in March. Now, late spring and summer await us with the much anticipated release of The Devil Wears Prada 2 on May 1st and Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey on July 17th; in the meantime, a Netflix reboot of the 2004 romcom 13 Going On 30 has just been announced, starring Emily Bader (who we have already seen in My Lady Jane and People We Meet On Vacation) and Logan Lerman (most famously known as Charlie in The Perks of Being A Wallflower).
This year, Wuthering Heights first sparked the discourse on reboots and sequels: the plot itself was changed quite significantly: a few topical lines were kept, the story started and ended as Emily Bronte first wrote it. But many scenes, mainly very steamy frames, were added, which clearly changed the mood one would expect from a Victorian story, rather, a Victorian child would have been traumatised by it. Many did not appreciate Fennell’s take on this story, claiming that a milestone of literature such as Wuthering Heights should be left untouched or, if chosen for a movie transposition, at least it should be true to the book. At the same time, many found an explanation to Fennell’s deviations from the book in the stylisation of the movie title, it being “Wuthering Heights” (with double quotation marks), stating that a reboot (or an adaptation) is exactly that, a reboot, and it does not have to be a word-for-word copy of the original story.
Another talk-of-the-town reboot bound to be released this year is the HBO-produced Harry Potter series. When the news of the reboot first came out, most lifelong fans were unsettled by it: the Harry Potter movies’ scenes are so engrained in the collective conscience that it seems impossible to imagine any other face for Harry than young Daniel Radcliffe’s, or have anyone else pronounce “or worse, expelled” like Emma Watson did in the 2001 movie. But then the pictures of the new little 11-year-old Harry (Dominic McLaughlin) came out, and softened many previous hesitations. Surely, the ethical problem of whether it would be correct or not to finance a Harry Potter project after J. K. Rowling’s affirmations on the trans community; but it does remain that doubts on the quality of the reboot itself are starting to fade away as more details on it are being shared; perhaps, a touch of millennial nostalgia plays its part in this. On the same early 2000s line, it is no surprise hearing about the remake of 13 Going On 30, nor of The Devil Wears Prada. Y2K style is making a grand comeback, between low-rise jeans and baby tees as crop tops: it is only natural that other industries – like the movies – follow suit to satisfy the latest trends.
Surely, every generation wishes they could go back to the previous one: the 1980s longed for a 1960s revival, the early 2010s, influenced by TV series like Stranger Things, saw a comeback of the 1980s in their turn. But what can be surmised is that, lately in particular, the cinema industry likes to mull on its past successes. One result might be that nothing feels new anymore, that we are watching things we have seen before. But maybe it is because, actually, we do not want new things. Art in all its forms reflects the period it is created in, and it can happen in multiple ways: one being, giving to the audience what they long for. In times as unstable as the ones we are living through, it only makes sense that we want to go back on the couch and watch Harry Potter: it gives us a sense of comfort created by a mix of nostalgia and reassurance. It’s like taking out childhood pictures during a rough time in life: in order to fend through unstable times, we need to remind ourselves how we used to be, and where we came from. And the cinematic industry surely took the hint, and is acting on it.
Written by: Jules Nati (@giuls.nati)
Edited by: Alex Kelleher @alex_kelleher_
