What's The Next Big Pop Cultural Push?

[Reynard]

It is beginning to look like the age of the MCU is over, and Star Wars is equally unsteady. Zombies died out (ha!) years ago and I don't think pirates of any sort are especially likely to regain popularity. So, what do you think is going to be the next pop culture trend to take over our televisions and movie theaters?

I think we are about due for a few years of jingoistic military entertainment. it has been a while, and it usually happens when things feel uncertain and upended. i think we are due for movies about mercenaries, SEAL teams, and CIA spec ops. I recently finished the second season of The Lioness and it definitely had the vibe.

What do you think?

 

[payn]

Im a big fan of spy intrigue genre, more The Agency not so much Lioness, but I think its a genre thats limited in its appeal. Broadly speaking for adults, not much market to gain with teens. With militaristic appeal, you tend to get adult driven vehicles like The Last ship, or teen and adult nostalgia appeal of G.I. Joe. There isnt a whole lot of middle there, which is why I dont think these genres will be the top of the crop. They are more like westerns which will stick around forever, but likely had their days as pop culture darlings.

There were mad dashes by the young adult genre, and post apocalypse stuff has had a moment. I think its really hard to predict the next thing with media consumption being in such flux. Streaming stuff seems to be working against itself, in that you dont have time to really hook people before they are on the next thing. Also, streamers really havent figured out how to do movies yet. I think all these factors are going to make it hard for anything to rise to the forefront. Whatever does though, is likley going to have mass appeal.

 

[Scribe]

I think we are about due for a few years of jingoistic military entertainment. it has been a while, and it usually happens when things feel uncertain and upended. i think we are due for movies about mercenaries, SEAL teams, and CIA spec ops. I recently finished the second season of The Lioness and it definitely had the vibe.

What do you think?

This and fears over AI.

 

[MGibster]

It is beginning to look like the age of the MCU is over, and Star Wars is equally unsteady. Zombies died out (ha!) years ago and I don't think pirates of any sort are especially likely to regain popularity. So, what do you think is going to be the next pop culture trend to take over our televisions and movie theaters?

Other than the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise and Black Sails, were pirates ever really in?

If I knew what the next thing was going to be, I'd be doing my darndest to get in on the ground floor. I wonder if we're going to see a bunch of escapist movies coming down the pipeline in a year or two.

 

[Bedrockgames]

This is coming out this month in the US. And the books have been translated into English so they are available once it does. Perhaps we could have an unexpected Wuxia explosion:

 

[Ruin Explorer]

i think we are due for movies about mercenaries, SEAL teams, and CIA spec ops.

I don't think so. We've already had years and years of spy stuff and CIA spec ops and so on.

That's already a thing. I can list the shows if you want - they've been steady/constant. I don't think we'll see either more or less of it. Also we don't have the jingoism of the early '00s which fuelled a lot of the shows back then. Xenophobia, ultra-nationalism and isolationism aren't the same thing.

In particular, I don't think young people are terribly interested in that stuff, and I don't think they'll become more interested. And without young people - you can't be "big in pop culture".

I think mystery box shows might make something of a comeback, but I dunno if in a big way.

Pop culture is always hard to predict. I think it's easier to rule stuff out than positively rule things in. Only reason I rule spies and spec ops out is because it's not new and it's not engaging with young people. All the shows are Millennial and GenX-oriented.

I think the big thing that has been missing for a while is sci-fi, so I wouldn't be surprised if that made a comeback generally.

 

[Alzrius]

This is coming out this month in the US. And the books have been translated into English so they are available once it does. Perhaps we could have an unexpected Wuxia explosion:

Very true. Not to mention that Ne Zha 2 has already made over a billion worth of USD (the first non-Hollywood film to do so, I believe), and is just now coming to the U.S.

 

[Reynard]

I don't think so. We've already had years and years of spy stuff and CIA spec ops and so on.

That's already a thing. I can list the shows if you want - they've been steady/constant. I don't think we'll see either more or less of it.

In particular, I don't think young people are terribly interested in that stuff, and I don't think they'll become more interested. And without young people - you can't be "big in pop culture".

I think mystery box shows might make something of a comeback, but I dunno if in a big way.

Pop culture is always hard to predict. I think it's easier to rule stuff out than positively rule things in. Only reason I rule spies and spec ops out is because it's not new and it's not engaging with young people. All the shows are Millennial and GenX-oriented.

I think the big thing that has been missing for a while is sci-fi, so I wouldn't be surprised if that made a comeback generally.

Well, sure, the point wasn't to tell me how I'm wrong (I almost always am) but for YOU to suggest what you think may be next.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Very true. Not to mention that Ne Zha 2 has already made over a billion USD (the first non-Hollywood film to do so, I believe), and is just now coming to the U.S.

I've been seeing a lot of chatter on that one. And there are a lot of adjacent movies like which came out in the past ten years or so that people don't know about they will discover if movies like this set off a kick. So there is plenty of fuel

 

[RangerWickett]

Screw it: let's have BattleTech on the big screen. Have five different movies involving different factions, then have your 'Avengers' crossover with the Fourth Succession War.