Okay, hear me out. There have been dozens of movies that tell the story how a character or event came to pass. There are super hero origin stories, prequel trilogies, modern reimaginings. They've even made movies and shows that star a popular character playing their younger self, which is always strange to me because as an audience you know the actor is older, not younger.
Pretty much every one of these I can think of exists to enhance what you already know. They fill in the blanks and tell you how the thing arrived at the place where you best know it. The journey normally moves from a place of relative normalcy to a conflict that forces the story to move where you know it's going. The fun comes in how they bridge the gap between the past and present. If it's a good prequel, audiences are more likely to fall in love with the franchise all over again and pay for subsequent iterations until the whole enterprise gets stale again.
What if that wasn't the goal though? You may argue that a bad prequel tarnishes its characters' reputations, but what if this happened by design? Imagine if the movie existed to show that the character or the whole pack of good guys arrived at their known status through deceit and evil deeds? Imagine if the villain was actually the good guy in the movie, and the hero you thought was noble was actually a giant asshole.
So the thread that ties back to the past is tied together with events that change your entire perspective on the story. The entire universe is more interesting because everything you thought was true is wrong.
Would such a movie/show work?
Pretty much every one of these I can think of exists to enhance what you already know. They fill in the blanks and tell you how the thing arrived at the place where you best know it. The journey normally moves from a place of relative normalcy to a conflict that forces the story to move where you know it's going. The fun comes in how they bridge the gap between the past and present. If it's a good prequel, audiences are more likely to fall in love with the franchise all over again and pay for subsequent iterations until the whole enterprise gets stale again.
What if that wasn't the goal though? You may argue that a bad prequel tarnishes its characters' reputations, but what if this happened by design? Imagine if the movie existed to show that the character or the whole pack of good guys arrived at their known status through deceit and evil deeds? Imagine if the villain was actually the good guy in the movie, and the hero you thought was noble was actually a giant asshole.
So the thread that ties back to the past is tied together with events that change your entire perspective on the story. The entire universe is more interesting because everything you thought was true is wrong.
Would such a movie/show work?
