The Prequel Hurdle

[Captain Crimson]

A big issue is what you're slave to, and what you're not, and what you're willing to do to get there.

For instance, anyone remember Smallville? Anyone remember how Lex Luthor's fall to the dark side went? It was a convoluted mess, more than half of which was beyond his control, because Jonathan Kent was a huge asshole who couldn't look past the last name, or Clark and company kept secrets from him for no reason at all, or because of time travel, or other silliness. All of this was largely because this was a prequel show that had contracted actors, had some places they couldn't change, and some things they wouldn't change, but plenty of things they would, for odd reasons.

The show wasn't allowed to have characters move organically, or allow characters to become something rapidly different from what they're supposed to become.

It's a balancing act. As if you approach the source material from too great a distance, they'll snap way too fast into what box they're supposed to become, making them seem less like real characters and more like plot driven devices wearing clothes. See the evolution of a lot of characters in Gotham, as Gordon seemed like he was crooked as sin some days, while a choir boy on others.

Yeah, there was no good reason not to tell Lux Luthor about who Clark was, but at the same time, he also could not tell many others. He just wanted to be normal.

[phantom000]

The issue with a prequel, or any kind, is that the audience already knows the ending. They how this ends, they know it cannot end any other way, so the obvious question is 'why would they even care?'

I do not mean to say that all prequels are bad, one of my favorite books of all time The Hobbit is a prequel, but it is an issue any prequel has to deal with, it is a 'hurdle' they have to clear and their success or failure depends on how well they do it.

The catch is that the hurdle varies from story to story. The Hobbit, for instance, the hurdle is not a big deal since all we know is that Bilbo and Gandalf survive, everything else is entirely open. In theory, all 13 dwarves could die and Erebor could be destroyed and it would not matter as The Lord of The Rings has little to nothing to do with them. Also since we only see Bilbo in his old age you could quite a lot with his younger self it could fit.

For Captain America: The First Avenger the hurdle is almost non-existent since all the audience knows is what most would expect from a super hero film anyway, the Red Skull is defeated, HYDRA is crushed and Rogers survives. We can guess that Howard Stark survives but he is a supporting character anyway.

With Star Wars the hurdle is much bigger because we already know a lot about how this story ends, how it has to end. Not just with Anakin but with Palpatine, the Republic and of course the Jedi Order. We already know the destination so they have to focus on the journey, but so much of it is mapped out already that there is little room for a story.

I think this is also why people have mixed feelings about Abram's Trek films. While he had a small hurdle to deal with, he decided to just knock it down instead of jumping it. Although, if he hadn't the hurdle would have just kept getting bigger with each new film.

That's not a Hurdle, it's a strength. I'm tired of so much value being place don Surprise. No one goes into a Passion Play not knowing the ending.

Tension is a big part of effective story telling and it is hard to have tension if you already told the audience how it ends. The classic example is a bomb under a table where two people are eating. You show the bomb, then you show them eating and so the audience is left to wonder, will they leave before the bomb goes off? Lots of tension in the scene, but if you show them leaving the building, which then explodes behind them, and jump back with one of them narrating the scene of them eating you have destroyed any tension the scene could of had because you clearly established that they both survived. To me that would be about as dramatic or exciting as watching a pot boil.

Now as you said, it can be a strength. A good writer can twist things around, like say we see them sitting at the table, we know a bomb is going to go off...but it never does. They finish their meal, get up and leave as if nothing happened. Just as the audience is going 'wait, what about the bomb?' it shows that this is a different day, or that this is after the building has been repaired so it looks just like before.

This is something i really liked about Solo: A Star Wars Story because it does exactly that.

Slight Spoiler Warning.

We know Han wins the Millenium Falcon from Lando in a card game. The film shows them playing cards, Lando bets the Falcon, so the audience is expecting him to loose, except he wins. Like Han the audience's reaction is 'wait, what?' and then it is revealed that Lando cheated. Also, we know Han won the ship from Lando, but we don't know when exactly he did so. Sure enough, at the end of the film him and Lando play another round and Lando tries to cheat but Han swiped the card and so wins the Falcon 'fair and square.'

I thought it was very clever because it plays with audiences expectations while also tying it in with the events, or in this case one line of dialog, of the original trilogy.

So a good writer can turn continuity into a strength but for some stories it is harder then others. When you write a prequel there are details that are fixed which gives a writer less creative room. One reason i never really liked the clone wars series is because it seemed like so much of the story was already mapped out, it's a prequel of a prequel. This is also why the Terminator franchise has gone no where because, by the films' very nature, any movie you make is a prequel to the first one so the ending will already be fixed. There is just no creative room left, every film just keeps telling the same story over and over again and the one that actually tried to be creative, Salvation, everyone hated.

I'm do not mean any prequel is bad, i'm just saying that making any kind of prequel is harder because you have less creative room.

[MithrandirOlorin]

I felt Smallville hadn't Lex perfectly, since I reject Existentialism.

[Mecha82]

I found aspect of Clark and Lex having been friends as well as them becoming enemies during story one of more interesting parts of Smallville. It's also one of things about Smallville that still hold during this era when we have Arrowverse.

[Captain Crimson]

I found aspect of Clark and Lex having been friends as well as them becoming enemies during story one of more interesting parts of Smallville. It's also one of things about Smallville that still hold during this era when we have Arrowverse.

Indeed. Though the criticism it is convoluted is absolutely true. I think it should have had a writing style similar to what JMS did for B5 if they wanted to have a longer-running story arc.

[Hero_Of_Shadows]

2.It's someone else story: one thing most writers hate is that they are Forced to write things someone else made up. They don't want to do that...they want to make a new character, something that is just there's....but they don't mind stealing the name for name recognition.

Yes this annoys me so much, I'm a creative person I understand the need to make something your own so very much and when dealing with prequels or long running fictional universes I will defend "new" things a lot because they can be explained.

But you're a professional you were hired to write in a fictional universe that already has a huge audience that would not be interested in your work if it wasn't in a universe they already love so take some care and don't break the universe while trying to do your own thing.

It's debatable if we even can do our own thing, we consume the art that already exists our lives are shaped not only by us but by the world around us this influences what we create.

About prequels in general I see them getting hate most often not because they break the canon of the original work but because they break the "fan canon". It's a bitter pill to swallow as a fan that the assumptions you made about how your favorite fiction worked get undone.