In a world of reboots and remakes, are endgames really the end? It certainly seems like we may need a new word.
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In the world of reboots, remakes, revivals, sequels, prequels, and the like, are endgames really endgames anymore?
Think about it.
Every television season nowadays, old shows are revamped and reworked to entice both an old audience and a newer one to indulge in a new set of stories set in a familiar world.
From Saved by the Bell to Gossip Girls to Raven’s Home to And Just Like That… to Night Court to That 90’s show and to Frasier — the list of shows that are changing “endgame” couples goes on and on.
Beloved sitcoms and dramas are returning to the screens with a plethora of new stories to tell, and for the most part, it’s exciting. A continuation of something you once loved so dearly can never be a bad thing, right?
The recent news that One Tree Hill could be returning and an A Different World sequel was in the works got me thinking about the one aspect of all these comebacks that often gets overlooked: the changes to the end of the original story.
Everyone watches shows for different reasons, and no one should judge you for it. Some people get invested in a series because of a romantic relationship.
Blazing-hot chemistry and titillating storylines between certain characters have kept viewers engaged for years, and it will be that way for years to come. A good ship, as we commonly call it now, may keep you watching a series long past its expiration date.
But today, when ANYTHING is in danger of getting a fresh update, those beloved endgames we used to celebrate are slowly becoming less “safe” than we once thought they were.
All you have to do is spend a few minutes on any social media platform, and you’ll see so much content surrounding various ships from all kinds of shows. The fans are invested. The actors are invested.
Fans want to see their ships become the last ones standing, meaning when that curtain closes, their ship is together, and they can proudly proclaim that they are officially ENDGAME.
Any fan of a ship will tell you how important it is to know that when a series ends, your ship is together. An ambiguous, open ending may work for some storylines, but a ship should be together or not be together.
And if it’s not definitive, then there should be some serious leaning one way or the other.
Take the ending of Scandal, for example, in which the biggest ship of the series, Olivia and Fitz, didn’t end up living happily ever after making jam in Vermont. But they did end things in a way where you could make up your own ending, leaning more towards a happily after based on their final interactions.
Maybe Olitz wasn’t explicitly shown to be “endgame,” but their riding off together leads one to believe it’s more likely they stayed together than not.
There’s been chatter over the years about a Scandal revival, and what would that do to the diehard Olitz shippers who’d have to deal with whatever may befall their beloved ship?
But there are many straightforward, explicit endgames on series like Sex and the City, which ended with the ladies all in relationships, with many of them no longer in those same relationships after two movies and a sequel.
Now, there are various reasons why those decisions are ultimately made, including actors being fired or simply choosing not to revisit those characters.
But all the same, the result is that it upends the series finale, which is ultimately now just the end of one chapter of the vaunted series instead of a finite conclusion.
Even if sequels aren’t directly based on the characters from the original, as was the case with the Gossip Girl reboot, the series still exists in the same universe, meaning we get information about the old characters.
This happened with the 2000s sequel 90210, though they did have some of the original characters appear in the early seasons until they shifted toward the younger generation and phased out the old cast.
In the original, one of the central storylines always involved Kelly Taylor’s love life, with her on-again/off-again relationship with Dylan seemingly back on when the series finally ended after ten seasons.
Kelly and Dylan were an extremely popular pairing, and it made sense for them to reconnect and, ultimately, become each other’s endgame.
But when 90210 came on the scene, we found out that Dylan and Kelly were no longer together and that they shared a son Dylan didn’t seem to have a relationship with.
That revelation completely undid so much of the relationship that dominated years and years of the original.
Sure, Kelly and Dylan had a complicated history, so finding out they didn’t make it wasn’t the biggest surprise, but the sequel just felt like a slap in the face to fans of the ship and fans of Dylan as well.
Even outside television, subsequent sequels to beloved films have also changed romantic relationships for various reasons.
Look at the latest entry in the Bridget Jones Diary franchise, which revealed that Bridget was now a widower, meaning the ever-popular Bridget and Mark Darcy relationship had run its course.
No matter how you feel about the follow-ups to the original film, there’s something infinitely special about the ending scene, with Bridget in her underwear and sneakers on a picturesque snowy evening in beautiful London.
It feels like the start of something magical and the perfect ending to Bridget’s story.
But Hollywood loves a sequel, and now we’re heading into film four, and we have to mourn one of the best endgames of all time.
All this brings me back to the original question: can you call them endgames anymore?
It’s starting to feel like they should be called ‘maybe games’ or endgames with a question mark on the end because no relationship is safe anymore!
At any given time, your favorite television show could come crawling back, and your favorite ships could be ripped apart for any number of reasons, which can taint the whole series and certain characters, too.
If you’re worried about your favorites becoming unrecognizable, many people will tell you not to watch, but curiosity and general nostalgia will often get the best of you.
As someone who counts A Different World among their favorite shows of all time, excitement for a sequel much outweighs any trepidation, but with the series finale being over 30 years old, you have to accept that there will be changes that may be hard to digest.
Like all things, there’s a give and a take. But there’s no harm sometimes in letting good things rest and investing in new and fresh ideas that don’t completely upend the care put into the originals.
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