Are we nearing the end of the franchise era?

As anyone who watched the streaming wars knows in the last couple years, IP has been the only important thing in entertainment. If a popular series once existed, we saw a reboot or an extension of said possible series, no matter whether it SHOULD have happened or not. We got shrug-worthy reboots like Gossip Girl, terrible (but still kinda fun) sequels like Sex and the City, and money was poured into every fantasy franchise known to man (i.e. Game of Thrones, LOTR, The Witcher, etc.).

BUT, I'm starting to wonder if we're finally rounding a corner, and will start to see more original programming pop up again. First, we've started to see considerable backlash to the volume of franchise-related content — even the most fervent of Marvel fans are starting to step away from some of its poorly produced content. And, what's more, we're starting to see the merge of the streaming services that will reduce the competitive need for existing IP.

Though I'm not looking forward to the likely jacked prices of the streaming consolidation, I am desperate for new, fresh content, so I'm really hoping we're about to see a surge in creativity!

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