Harry Potter was a smash hit about a boy discovering he’s a wizard and going to school in a magical world full of wonder and adventure. Twilight didn’t hit quite that high a note, but the story of a teenage girl who learns her classmate is a vampire and falls in love with him did quite well. The Hunger Games popularized the dystopian genre with a bow wielding teenager stepping up to survive death games, have angsty romances, and fight the power.
As far as I can tell, nothing has quite hit that same kind of high since and it may be awhile until the next truly big wave. But if it were up to you, what would the next big thing be about?
I mean this is kind of an unfortunate mindset that I think has developed over the last century. Basically, these hyper popular works of fiction arose, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Harry Potter, and ect. The have become so universally known and shared downward to next generations that they have almost become these untouchable genres, and everything gets compared to them and always falls short. Like if I try to make some kind of Sci-Fi world that includes magic, I will get compared to star wars. It’s forcing us into this remake culture, where we can only remake star wars, or make sequels to it. Instead of just leaving it where it is and making other stories in totally different universes with similar tropes. I could also go on a rant about Canon and how that has destroyed a lot of modern franchises.
LOTR/Star Wars/Harry Potter nothing, we’re still comparing to and falling short of the Bible. This phenomenon is exactly as old as art
Warhammer 40k is inspired by multiple franchises, with Star Wars also being a big inspiration and while it does get compared to it, a LOT of people will encourage you to look past it and it’s massive fandom would give you huge explanations about how it’s not magic yadda yadda yadda. I’d say this argument doesn’t work as well for Star Wars as well as it does for Harry Potter.
And there are plenty of sci-fi concepts and technologies in sci fi media that aren’t explained at all, kind of like the Force which could be likened to magic. But nobody compares that to Star Wars. No one compares The Expanse to Star Wars even if both have elements that break physics completely repeatedly without any explanation(ie protomolecule) and many consider The Expanse antithetical to Star Wars.
A lot of that is a direct result of copyright extensions. Disney and other copyrights holders have distorted copyright from an intentionally limited duration monopoly intended to promote the creation of works into effectively infinite duration “intellectual property” that stifles the creation of works.
What should have happened/should happen to these genre defining works is that they should have lost their copyrights and become public domain after at most 28 years. At which point anyone would have been able to make their own “Star Wars”, “Lord of the Rings”, etc. works which would allow the works to become genres of their own. Instead we get perpetual “intellectual property” franchises.
I forget what its called exactly, but there’s a few version floating around about how there are only 7 story structures or what have you, and at their most stripped down it could be argued as true. There’s little novelty to things at their most basic. For example, if you reduce them down to their frame both Star Wars and Harry Potter are telling basically the same story. The heroes journey. In fact, take it further than that, both of those are mostly the same as The Belgariad.
All are a boy/young man, orphaned, with a secret origin. Guided by their magical father/grandfather figure, they learn about their past and forge new friendships. There is a prophecy about them specifically, and they are destined to battle a “great evil” with their wits and magic. They’re surrounded by: the big burly one, the comedic relief, the sarcastic hardcase with the heart of gold, etc.
Just like with people, its not the bones that bring the novelty, but the dressing on them.