Yeah, but that said: those lessons need to be learned by the next generations, lest they forget and we begin this cycle all over again.
Maybe someday the franchises can be revisited after being asleep for so long, and the taint of what those whose desire to enjoy the power of adults and the carefree whims of children has died with that sad and ill-begotten generation.
I dunno. I think they’re gonna go the way of Flash Gordon and the Lone Ranger: Cult franchises with a devoted fanbase that get a reboot attempt every few decades.
In addition to “STAR TREK is for old people!”, I’ve also heard young people describe the original STAR WARS (one of the most beloved and influential films of all time) as “boring” and “goofy”. Superman is also often described as “old” and “boring”.
In order to keep these things going, the classic, proper versions need to be reaffirmed for each generation with a fresh coat of paint, but NOT by tearing down and then rebuilding the foundation. The proper Superman hasn’t been seen in quite some time, instead being replaced by dark versions with Glowy Red Eyes of Rage and “It’s hard to be me” angst. To say nothing of all the dark, subversive riffs on the character (THE BOYS, BRIGHTBURN, etc.). And none of these have taken with the past few decades’ worth of kids, at least not in a way which goes beyond the short-term.
Spider-Man is another good example. Marvel’s most beloved character and corporate mascot, and a genre-redefining character. Now, however, decades of terrible comics and retcons have torn him down, and Iron Man has arguably become the corporate mascot, thanks to the huge success of the movies. Meanwhile, the “more diverse” Miles Morales has slowly been positioned as a replacement for Peter Parker, and there are also a bunch of of other derivative characters with spider-powers running around in various media. There’s even a Disney Junior cartoon with a team of Spider-Friends (Parker, Morales, Spider-Gwen) running around…as well as a gender-swapped Doctor Octopus with half-shaved, SJW hair.
The whole thing with Spider-Man (and most of Marvel’s classic characters) is that he’s one-of-a-kind. As opposed to DC having multiple versions of the same characters, the classic Marvel characters tended to be unique. One Spider- Man, one Hulk, one Captain America. That concept has been completely trashed, now, with multiple competing versions of the same character running around, and the idea that “anyone can wear the mask and be Spider-Man”, which is simply not true, and completely denigrates and waters down Peter Parker and everything that made him a great character.
If you lose a generation or two, then the chain is broken. If you reinvent the wheel and make everything divisive, with competing, radically different versions of the same property/characters (as with STAR TREK), then the fandom (and the culture, for that matter) is no longer united by common ground and common values. The STAR WARS prequels, controversial as they are, still made tons of money, still created a new generation of fans, and still inspired those fans to look back to the old films and embrace them. Lucas took pains to interlock the two trilogies so that they told one big story (albeit one filled with retcons galore).
The Disney Trilogy, on the other hand, is a terrible, woke remake of the original trilogy, does not work in any way as a proper sequel to the story Lucas told, and deliberately tore down the characters, plot points, and themes of the six Lucas films. It literally said “kill the past”. The inherent problem is that the Disney Trilogy does not stand on its own as a compelling and satisfying story which can survive without the original films’ legacy backing it up. It killed the past, but it also can’t justify its own existence enough to still keep people interested for decades to come. The bridges have all been burned.
Same with STAR TREK. These new shows do the same thing by tearing down the past (as with PICARD) or actively rewriting the past (STD/SNW). And the rewriting is in no way an improvement, which means that people won’t care, going forward. A few years of short-term notoriety at the cost of the future. The fanbase is shrinking instead of growing, because the inferior replacement for what people loved for decades cannot sustain the franchise in the long-term. The old fans get mad and leave, and the new fans don’t care enough to stick around for the long-term, and also don’t find the old stuff appealing, because “it’s not made for them”.
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