Hollywood has been recycling stories that work since forever, so it should hardly come off as a surprise anymore when you suddenly realize two very different flicks at first glance could pass off as one another in an alternate reality. But it seems as though even knowing this principle doesn’t usually prepare cinephiles for some of the weirdest genre-defying parallels in the industry.
As we leave them to pick their jaws off the floor, two other internet fandoms gear up to fight back against what they perceive to be lackluster storytelling; Star Wars fans for the way The Mandalorian rushed the reunion between Din Djarin and Baby Grogu, and Doctor Who stans for how Chris Chibnall completely sidelined Jo Martin’s Fugitive Doctor even though she was the first person of color to portray the titular protagonist in BBC’s long-running sci-fi series.
This sci-fi classic is basically a remake of a classic Clint Eastwood Western
It’s fairly common for action movies to imitate action movies, or spy thrillers to rehash everything that was done in the ’80s with a new coat of paint. The general rule of thumb is to take everything that works, conceptually and narratively, and remake it with mild tweaks. But who knew that Hollywood’s subtle ingenious in recycling ideas would work across genres? Well, that indeed seems to be what you can expect if you watch Clint Eastwood’s High Plains Drifter and Paul Verhoeven’s classic RoboCop back to back.
Whovians expected more from the first person of color to portray the Doctor
The introduction of a secret incarnation of the Doctor during Jodie Whittaker’s second run on Doctor Who sent shockwaves across the fandom. But a few years and many hours of television later, we still don’t know anything about Jo Martin’s Fugitive Doctor or her origins other than that first showcase in season 12. Returning showrunner Russell T. Davies might want to resurrect the character for his future stories, but as things stand, appearing as a holographic AI for a brief few seconds in “The Power of the Doctor” may well turn out to be Martin’s last time on the show.
Some ‘Star Wars’ fans can’t believe Mando and Grogu have been reunited this early
The goodbye at the end of The Mandalorian season 2 appeared to be pretty definitive, but Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni weren’t willing to double down on this development with the show’s upcoming third season. Most Star Wars fans had assumed that Din Djarin and Grogu would go their separate ways for at least a season or two, but the creatives must have realized their predicament in losing the dynamic between these two characters early into season three, and so it was that The Book of Boba Fett course-corrected the MandoVerse before any real quality dip. Not that fans appreciate it, though. Well, at least a portion of them don’t.
