Three Worrying Pop Culture News and their Implications

This week, we saw several huge announcements surrounding some of the most anticipated projects in film, games, and music for the coming years. These, however, are also subject to heavy scrutiny in some cases, sparking massive discussions about casting, pricing and the general direction of development for some of our favorite brands and franchises. Given this heated discourse, I picked out three major announcements and will discuss their meaning.

The Beatles-Biopic:

Starting with the cast of the new Beatles-Movies, which was announced on the first of April and already stirring up controversy, leading some to expect an April Fools' Joke. In total, we will get four movies, all of which will center around one of the four band members with paths crossing throughout their stories, making a viewing of all features essential. But what is the problem exactly? Well, it's the casting, because it runs into a problem that's already a topic of heavy discussions in other contexts, for it consists entirely of already famous heartthrobs. We'll see Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr and Joseph Quinn as George Harrison. Now, I don't even want to talk about whether they look like the people they are supposed to impersonate, for I'd rather have good acting than a doppelganger. For me, it's more the fact that these are just four conventionally attractive, hot dudes purely cast for their fame. My first issue with this is that the Beatles just aren't hot. I don't mean that as an insult, but as a simple fact. Even in their youth, the band kind of looked like four British losers. An accurate biopic needs to reflect that. Even Bohemian Rhapsody opted out of casting a conventionally hot person as Freddie Mercury, even though it had any right to do so. Instead, they went for Rami Malek, who, while having some fame through Mr. Robot and movies like Night at the Museum, was not too well known.

Maya Hawke, a Stranger Things co-star of Quinn, recently came out and talked about how she can't quit Instagram, purely for the simple fact, that an enormous following will help her get acting gigs. This very interesting observation might help explain these bizarre casting choices. Barry, Paul and Joseph are all the talk of the town at the moment. Two of them are parts of two massive superhero franchises, and one recently starred alongside Pedro Pascal and Denzel Washington in a massive sequel to a beloved action-movie. One of them even dated Sabrina Carpenter. The amount of thirst-edits you'll find of them online is enough to fill the Pacific, and that's precisely the problem.

This casting seems like an egregious choice done out of the interest for profit, not out of love for the band it wants to celebrate. Now, seeking profit is of course important, for movies have to make back the money they spent. Yet when it hinders the artistic process, that's where things become murky. Nothing about this comes across like a thoughtful casting process, but rather a quick Google search of “famous young white Hollywood actors” before calling it a day. If anything, this announcement killed some of the anticipation, for it clearly reflects the major motivation of money-hunger. For now, I'll remain skeptical. Maybe the four films will turn out well, but maybe they'll just be another unremarkable biopic about a famous singer, that will be swiftly forgotten in time (I mean, who even talks about Elvis starring Austin Butler anymore?).

The Avengers-Doomsday-Casting:

Another huge casting announcement came out of the MCU, with a video panning across multiple chairs showing the actors who will star in the next Avengers movie. This installment titled Doomsday already caused controversy when the comeback of Iron Man actor Robert Downey Jr. as the major villain Doctor Doom was announced at the San Diego Comic Con last year. It smelled of desperation for a franchise that has slowly but surely killed a lot of the goodwill fans had towards it.

The new castings, however, bring this discussion to a whole new level, for it told us, that huge chunks of the original X-Men cast from the 2000s are to return. This includes Ian McKellen as Magneto, Patrick Stewart as Professor X and James Marsden as Cyclops. This irks me, for it shows one major problem of the MCU and the Disney-Company as a whole: the inability to let go. Other franchises show this, with many Star Wars projects (f.e. The Mandalorian or Ahsoka) becoming a cameo fest or the countless remakes of old classics that bring nothing to the table beyond the jump to live action (even though most of them are so filled with CGI-monstrosities, that live action is a generous term).

Now, of course, this is also a profit-inspired endeavor, but beyond that, it also displays an obvious creative bankruptcy. Where the movie Deadpool & Wolverine ironically said, that Hugh Jackman will do the role until he’s 90, both Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen will both be 90 in a couple of years. Yet here they are playing two characters from a movie franchise, that while somewhat successful, only rarely ever reached great heights. Stewart already died on three separate instances in his role as Professor X, are we really about to witness his death a fourth time?

What's worse is, that the MCU did not earn this. Where Infinity War and Endgame based their massive crossover on years of buildup, the X-Men haven't even been introduced in the MCU beyond X in a small role in the second Doctor Strange (which was one of the times he got killed off) and a small post credit scene in The Marvels (where it also was just a cameo fest featuring an old character). Imagine, for one second, if Ant-Man wasn't introduced in a standalone movie before he shows up in Endgame with his plan to save the day. And no, old movies from twenty years ago do not count, for they were never made as part of the MCU. If all you have going for your movie is the work someone unintentionally laid down for you two decades ago, then maybe it is time to rethink your movie.

In my opinion, the old cast should have been laid to rest long ago. It is time for new actors who will bring forth a new interpretation of these beloved characters. That's the sensible thing to do, as seen by the recent Captain America movie, which, for some reason, is a direct sequel to the plot of the mediocre The Incredible Hulk from 2008 and thus falls flat of any real story potential. These rehashes of older works are creative poison. Copping out of new stories just because you can use the word "multiverse" every time you want to nostalgia-bait can only take you so far. The MCU needs to earn its place as a pop-cultural behemoth again, not ride itself into oblivion on the love for old, largely unrelated franchises.

The Nintendo-Switch 2

But not all is bleak in the realm of pop culture, at least somewhat. The next generation of the Nintendo Switch, the Switch 2 has finally been properly introduced in the newest Nintendo Direct and gives us a good look at what to expect. The new hardware makes for a smooth and great-looking gaming experience, and the titles announced thus far are promising. The new Mario Kart World makes me excited in ways I didn't know were possible. Not only does it look great, it also introduces plenty of new characters to drive with (MooMoo Cow and a Goomba???), but the new tracks as well as the retro selection shown tell us that the developers took great care while designing this game. Pair that up with the new Knockout-Mode and an open-world feature, and this might shape up to be the most bombastic Mario Kart title yet. Alongside, we were also shown a new Donkey Kong title by the studio that brought us the acclaimed Super Mario Odyssey. While I'm not big on Donkey Kong as a franchise, I do look forward to playing it.

The new versions of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild as well as it’s sequel, Tears of the Kingdom however, make me skeptic. I don't appreciate the use of an app for extra content, and while some technical tweaks are great, I don't think it warrants a higher price, especially if it doesn't bring us new content in the form of DLC`s. But at least you can bring the old save-data from your old console onto the new version, as well as use your old games, if you pay a bit of money to upgrade your versions.

The elephant in the room remains the pricing, which seems to be the biggest issue online and what many consider to be the hype killer. The new Switch will cost around $450 and the digital version of Mario Kart World $80 (if you don’t buy it in a bundle, and even then that's just the digital version). Now of course, Nintendo-games were always pricey and rarely got cheaper over time. Switch Games that came out five years ago still cost the same amount today, but this new development seems rather absurd. Not only does it prevent people in more precarious financial circumstances from enjoying these games, they’ll also make people think twice about acquiring a Switch 2 and the games if these prices are an indicator for future titles. I personally always refrain from buying Switch-titles unless I`m really sure I want them, as even a $70 price tag is a lot of money to ask fo. For some games I get it, making art and creating an experience people will enjoy takes time and a lot of investment (and the spike was foreseeable), yet the taste it leaves is not a particularly good one. And this seems to be a trend spread wide across the industry. GTA 6 is reported to cost between $70 and $100. And this doesn't include in-game purchases and DLC`s. Hopefully Nintendo will adjust to this complaint after the console comes out, but given their track record, I doubt it. I'll wait a couple of months after the release until I'll buy the Switch 2, just to see in which direction the wind blows.

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