A plea to TV and film bosses for 2021 – lay off the reboots

The success of Netflix’s ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ should be a lesson for the entertainment industry, writes Roisin O'Connor

Anya Taylor-Joy stars as chess whizz Beth Harmon (Ken Woroner/Netflix)

Along with a hopeful return to some kind of normalcy (for me that means gigs, dinners and all the pre-drinks that come with that) in 2021, I have one other wish. More like a plea, actually. 

TV and film bosses, please, I beg of you, stop making reboots. Just stop. We liked them at first, those successful Disney adaptations of the classics, such as The Jungle Book and Cinderella (many of which no doubt you will have seen on TV over Christmas). But a sense of weariness has descended over The Independent’s culture desk, and only grows with each new announcement.  

The latest is by far the most ridiculous. Network HBO Max is planning to reboot not only its hit Nineties series Sex and the City, but also Gossip Girl (to be fair we already knew that one), and Pretty Little Liars. While Gossip Girl, with the original series having ended in 2012, sounds like an interesting prospect (over-privileged Gen-Z kids with TikTok and Instagram at their disposal), Pretty Little Liars only ended in 2017.