In recent years there’s been a trend of sorts of rebooting films in 2020, but with all-female leads. Some of the more recent, high-profile examples of these include Ghostbusters and the Ocean’s 8, along with the announced reboot of Lord of the Flies and we are pretty sure there are more to come in 2020. Some think female-lead reboots are unnecessary, while others think they’re great. The question is: should Hollywood continue making female-lead reboots of films?
Yes – they’re interesting and give women a chance to shine
Some think gender swaps are harmless and actually quite interesting. If a franchise or a single standalone film has all-male leads, why not change things up and swap the genders of the leads? Some people do find it interesting to see roles associated with men swapped out for female roles instead. It’s a way to breathe fresh life into a franchise and to offer a new take on it; it also gets people talking and it gives viewers the chance to see women in roles they might not typically get to play. There’s also the fact that Hollywood is often criticised for not having as diverse a range of roles for women as it does for men – surely having female-lead reboots is remedying that problem?
No – there’s simply no need
On the other hand, there are those who think that there’s simply no need to to gender swaps when rebooting a franchise. Many are against reboots in general; to some, the thought of rebooting a film and reversing the gender of the leads is pointless. Why reboot something just to change it? If a film studio wants a film about women fighting off ghosts, why not create an entirely new film instead of taking an established franchise and shoehorning women into a reboot? Many cinema goers don’t like having established franchises undergo huge changes like this – which is partly why the Ghostbusters reboot underperformed. Why change a winning formula? Why not create something new?
What do you think?
Hollywood is routinely criticised for churning out endless sequels and reboots; it’s also been called lazy for replacing male leads with female ones, instead of coming up with new franchises with more prominent female roles. Is it right for male-lead films to be subject to female-lead reboots? What if the tables were turned – would it be ok for a female-lead film to be given an all-male reboot?
