Cheesman Chronicles

This article contains spoilers for Deadpool and Wolverine (2024), The Acolyte (2024), Ahsoka (2023) and Andor (2022)

Like a lot of people, I really enjoyed the new Deadpool and Wolverine movie. I watched it in a theatre I’d never been to as part of my book club and loved every second of it. I had a great time watching it. Each part of it felt like a love letter to all things Marvel outside of the main MCU. If you ever grew up with X-Men or other Fox movies, you should really check it out.
I should also say that I rate it a 7 out of 10 at best.
The movie is a love letter and pays off on a lot of things in stride. But when you take that away – the moments when Gambit and Blade and Electra appear, Chris Evans as Johnny Storm, iconic imagery from the old movie’s – what are you really left with? A fun buddy movie with cool fights and not much added to the MCU as a whole.
Most of the enjoyment I see out of it are the cameos. And while they are fun to recognise, are they really all we are getting? They only really added them for a genuine love letter to marvel movie’s, but it doesn’t really add anything to the story itself. How does Gambit evolve over the movie? How does Blade? How does Johnny Storm?
Granted, these are side characters and should not be fully expected to have a three act arc. But they should of had something, right?
So why were they added? My best guess is because of fan nostalgia. More specifically – millennial nostalgia. So where does that leave the rest of us?

I should preface that I have been a Marvel fan for as long as I can remember. And can you really blame me? The first Iron Man movie came out when I just started school and Endgame came out when I was close to graduating. Marvel took up a serious portion of my adolescent years. I love it. I can spend hours talking to people about how the Avengers are portrayed, how the MCU’s Spider-Man isn’t actually that bad (fight me), how Vision is the best boy.
Yet more and more recently, it feels like the MCU is struggling to maintain shape. And no, it’s not because of ‘wokeness’ or whatever. That is actually a good change. I don’t know about you, but I’m glad to see more people on screen. No, the problem is that they’re just fan service at this point. And anything that is new is not received well.
I think a better example for this is Star Wars. I’ve loved basically everything that has come out of Star Wars recently. At first. But the more I think about it, the more I wish that it was something different. For one, they don’t need to be TV shows, almost all the Disney Plus shows can be movies and would work better. The Acolyte, while I did enjoy it, should have been a two and a half hour movie. It had no reason to be a TV Show.
That being said, one of the reasons I did enjoy The Acolyte is because it was new. Obviously still within the Star Wars brand, but it tried something with itself. Every single other Star Wars show that has been produced is set in and around the time of the empire. Whenever they can, they put in a character that you will point at the TV and go “Hey I know that guy!”. Ahsoka was probably the biggest offender of this. Again, while I did enjoy the show, did we really need C-3PO showing up at a court scene? Did we need Captain Rex to deliver a one line cameo? Did we need to see Huyang? Did it even need to be about Ahsoka? She didn’t exactly have much character. Sabine was a way more interesting protagonist. A non-force user learning to use it? That’s a brilliant idea! They should do more with that! Anyone can learn the force. They just have to be open to it.
But no. They focused on Ahsoka. Because that was what sells.
Obviously this isn’t exclusive to Ahsoka. Andor had this issue too. Yes, it did try different things, and introduced new characters, and had great set design. And yes, the story was good. But it still had old characters appear for no real reason. Why did Saw Gererra have to show up? From memory he had no real impact on the plot overall. Did K-2SO need to appear? Did the show even have to be about Andor? We already knew most of his character by the time Rogue One ended. Again, these are smaller and less obtuse than in Ahsoka or Obi-Wan Kenobi, but I think it’s important to bring up either way.

And this brings me to my main point. All of these shows, while good, are just serving us stuff we grew up on. Or should I say, what millennials grew up on. While I did watch Clone Wars as it aired, and loved Star Wars as a whole, and of course the MCU, millennials were the ones who made it their whole identity. They are the ones who go to the cinemas to watch live-action remakes with their kids, even though we all know the original is superior. They’re even remaking Harry Potter. Why are they doing that? We don’t need any more of that franchise.
Gen Z are at an interesting space when it comes to entertainment. Most of what we watch and consume now comes from the internet. A change I think is good, but when a lot of what we get on the internet is discussions about movies and shows and popular stories, legacy media still plays a role in what we talk about. Obviously. I’m doing it right now. And right now, we don’t have our own stories to explore. Just remakes of existing ones that don’t work in the modern day.

So what can we do to fix it? The first answer is obvious – support Gen Z creators who make new pieces of art. Specifically things such as Movies and TV Shows. Something that can be easily accessed by millions of people and show that we are interested in new stories. There are still new movies and shows coming out that deserve our attention just as much as others.
We can also simply stop supporting bigger franchises. This is a harder option, simply due to the lack of other media available. But trust me, it is easier than you would believe. Start with easy things like live action remakes. Watch the original. It will be a better movie. Move on to skipping the occasional Marvel movie as well. You can get enough details about it through cultural osmosis. Then maybe move on from it entirely. You will be okay. The tide is turning.
I should clarify that you can still watch it if you enjoy it. I don’t want to stop you from liking a piece of media. I just want you to think first about what you are viewing before you go ahead with it.
Finally, and this is most important, talk about the art you enjoy. Word of mouth is still the best option for advertising a piece of work. Write down things you watched that you liked and talk to people about them. If you can, provide links so they can access them or places they can find the works. Do everything you can to make sure people are talking about something you are interested in. Then maybe we can get new media instead of things for a single generation.

Image thumbnail from PxHere