Let the Classics Be—Hollywood Needs to Get Out of Its Own Way

At this point, it feels like Hollywood has pressed the replay button and smashed it for good measure. Sequels, reboots, remakes, reimaginings, pick your poison. It’s no longer surprising when a beloved film from the ’80s, ’90s, or early 2000s is suddenly being reintroduced as a “modern retelling.” But here’s the real question: has Hollywood genuinely run out of original ideas, or have the people in charge simply stopped listening to the creators who have them?

Before we dive into the list of remakes scheduled for 2025, let’s first take a moment to acknowledge that not everything is off-limits. There are some genres that lend themselves to reinterpretation. Some, not all.

Superhero and Comic Book Films: The Exception?

Comic book adaptations are, by design, cyclical. New actors, fresh takes, alternate universes it’s all part of the lore. Fans even expect change and debate whether the new iteration will outshine or dishonor what came before. Will it stick to canon? Will it deliver on visuals, or fall flat? These are questions that build anticipation.

But even these adaptations come with limits. Reboots should have breathing room. The audience needs time to miss a character or storyline before it’s served back lukewarm. Sequels are a better choice in most cases continuations that build on what worked. Otherwise, it starts to feel like reheated leftovers. The kind that no one wants.

Live-Action Fatigue: Has Disney Gone Too Far?

Disney may be at the forefront of this fatigue. And while some critics cite "live-action fatigue," it's worth asking if the real issue is how drastically the originals are changed. Snow White was doomed before its debut not because of poor production, but because some viewers couldn’t accept Rachel Zegler in the lead. Her not being “white as snow” was enough to spark outrage.

The Little Mermaid suffered similar backlash. Despite a strong box office showing, boycotts were organized over Ariel’s light brown skin and red locs. “It’s not my Ariel,” they said. But is that fatigue or bias?

It’s not all doom and gloom. Disney had major wins with Maleficent, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and more recently Mufasa. If Lilo & Stitch performs well this year, it may prove audiences aren’t tired of live-action, it just needs to be done well, with care, cultural respect and as for the viewers; maybe keep your biases at home and watch the movie. It could surprise you.

Still, many live-action remakes of animated classics have flopped and deservedly so. Dragon Ball Evolution and The Last Airbender were not just bad; they were disrespectful to their source material. They were whitewashed and The Last Airbender even framed the darker toned characters as the bad guys. But it’s not all failure. The Flintstones, Scooby-Doo, Transformers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and The Jungle Book each found varying levels of success. The difference?  A lot of these were done in the early 2000s with the exception of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Jungle Book and The Flintstones which all had 90s adaptations. They were not as prevalent then.

What’s Coming in 2025: More of the Same

This year alone, we’re getting remakes and reimaginings of:

• I Know What You Did Last Summer (a "sequel" that seems more like a full retelling—thirty years later, the hook returns?)

• Frankenstein and The Bride (both being modernized for today’s audiences)

• The Running Man (directed by Edgar Wright)

• Anaconda (a new spin with a horror-comedy slant)

• Lilo & Stitch (Disney's latest live-action adaptation)

• Snow White (with Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot)

• Clueless (now reimagined as a series, with Alicia Silverstone returning)

How many more reboots before we stop pretending it’s just coincidence?

Why Can’t a Classic Remain a Classic?

There’s something about a classic that defies time. It’s lightning in a bottle, the perfect cast, the right moment in culture, and a story that just worked. These films weren’t trying to be classics. They just were. And they deserve to be passed down, not replaced.

Take Gremlins. I remember seeing it as a child when it was re-released in theaters. It’s a core memory. E.T. was another. And for our kids? They had Wall-E. That’s how it should be every generation discovering their own classics, not recycled versions of ours.

But instead of letting the originals breathe, Hollywood insists on dragging them out, dressing them up with CGI and calling it nostalgia. Nostalgia isn’t a plot. And sometimes, the remake tarnishes what made the original so beloved in the first place.

Want to revive something? Why not remaster cult classics that never got their due? Give those stories a second shot rather than rewriting legends that already earned their place. Even classics of the 80s and 90s can be remastered and released. This used to happen quite often in the 90s. The Rocky Horror Picture Show used to be released every year at Halloween some time ago. That is something to consider. A short theater release then re-release to streaming. 

Risk Aversion Is Killing Creativity

To be clear, remakes are nothing new. Hollywood has always recycled stories. But the frequency and scale are different now. Original ideas are buried beneath market research, algorithms, and endless nostalgia mining. Studios treat the familiar as a safety net. But in playing it safe they’re ignoring voices with original stories to tell.

Every remake implies that the original isn’t “good enough” for today’s audience. But that’s not true. The Princess Bride, The Bodyguard, Back to the Future, they don’t need updates. They just need to be shared. Who can really touch Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing”. Very few, if any. It is the standard.

It’s not that Hollywood lacks imagination. There are plenty of creatives out there with it. Some of them are just waiting to be discovered. So, it isn't a lack of imagination. It’s that the industry has become afraid to bet on it. And in doing so, they forget that the biggest hits in history were risks once too. (Star Wars, The Matrix, Get Out: all originals.)

Final Thought

Not even Gen Z or Gen Alpha are asking for most of these remakes. A few, sure, but not this flood of remakes. At the rate we’re going, the concept of a “classic” might vanish not because we forgot them, but because we never had the chance to remember. Not to mention when a remake fails it tarnishes the original allowing it to become buried in time, no longer to be remembered.