January 11, 2018 1:37 AM EST
I'm of two minds. Recycling known ip because you already have the dedicated fanbase, and using them for a lazy cash grab is going to reflect poorly on your creation.
Tysoyaha said: Doing it just for a paycheck is a quick way to ruin art,
^^This basically.
However, the idea of intellectual property is a modern invention. All of our recognisable fairy tales were retold a million times over, changing over time as each teller added their own flair. We kind of have this in modern storytelling, through fanfiction, but we are beholden to this idea of 'canon' that the ancient storytellers... played loosely with. King Arthur, Robin Hood, Mulan, the Illiad (Trojan War), are not the creations of any one person, but the result of (centuries) collaborative storytelling. There was no 'lead writer', and anyone who wanted to extend the story in a given setting could, or add new characters to tell a different story (The various stories of the Knights of the Round Table are the best example of this). It wasn't considered fanfiction, if it got popular enough it was as 'true' as the 'original', and these additions are a part of what we consider the 'canon' version of the myth today. While I doubt this ownership-free version of storytelling will ever make a big comeback (D&D anyone?), it does give a different perspective on 'Can a new Star Wars movie by a different storyteller be called Star Wars?' God knows I've read fanfiction and fan theories better than the content that some franchises put forward as canon.
Good food for thought :)
This post was edited by Asher at January 11, 2018 1:37 AM EST