Sequels, Prequels, Reboots, and Remakes

So, after witnessing far too many arguments break out over what constitutes a reboot, or the difference between remake and a remaster, I figured a definitive list of terms was required. Here it goes:

Sequel

Nice and easy, this is a thing that follows the original thing. Shrek 2 takes place after Shrek.

Prequel

Nothing too complicated here, it’s a thing that happens before an established thing. Prometheus takes place before Alien.

Remaster

Someone rereleases the original, but looking/sounding better. In the case of films, this means rescanning the master tapes, hence the term “Remaster”. In videogames, this is a type of Port, that often involves touching up or redoing textures. In both instances, there is temptation to “fix” supposed issues in the original, such as each time Geroge Lucas Remastered Star Wars.

Port

This one is a videogame specific one. This is simply releasing a game on a different device that the one it was originally designed for. While new games can be ported with little effort, older games will often be Remastered, and in previous decades had to be Remade (see below).

Remake

Someone tries to make the same thing again, presumably to improve it but often not. The 2006 version of The Omen is a remake of the 1976 original. In videogames, older games are sometimes Remade from scratch for a new version (such as the confusingly titled Ducktales: Remastered). If it’s not made from the original code, it’s a Remake, not a Remaster!

Interquel

When your film doesn’t take place before your earliest film, nor after your latest film, but somewhere in-between, you have an Interquel situation. This comes in at least two flavors: The first is an entry between two existing entries, such as Mad Max: Fury Road, which takes place between the original Mad Max and Mad Max 2. The second, sometimes known as a Midquel, takes place in the middle of an existing entry, for example The Lion King 1&1/2, which fleshes out the missing years in the middle of The Lion King. You could also argue a third flavor, where the events are taking place at the same time as another entry, such as Saw IV, or the Sanford and Deimos entries of Madness Combat, which I suppose you could call Paralleloquels, or you could simply stop and admit that your timeline is an unholy mess, which conveniently leads on to...

Reboot

Chuck all the Sequels, Prequels and Interquels out and start over again from scratch. Batman Begins was a Reboot from the first 4 Batman films.

Soft-Reboot

Sometimes, you have a series that , while winning in the concept, setting, and characters department has just become too much of a mess for the average person to follow (see: Paralleloquels) that you just need to ditch some of it. Enter, the Soft-Reboot. Take everything you don’t need for the series to keep functioning and either A) use time travel to remove the troubled elements (Terminator Salvation, Star Trek 2009), or B) shove everything aside to drip-feed back in later (Doctor Who, Curse of Chucky). In comics, this is such a frequent phenomenon that it is now expected to happen to the whole canon universe every decade or so, and more frequently with individual heroes, known as “Jumping-On Points” so new fans actually have a hope in hell of getting into the hobby.

Deboot

Okay, so this term doesn’t actually exist (yet) but I ask, how else is one to describe a work that exists to undo a reboot/bring everything back to the original canon? There are a few high profile examples of this, such as Devil May Cry 5, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and that last Halloween film, which debooted so hard it actually rebooted most of the original canon as well.

???boot

Look, if anyone can come up with terminology to easily explain the Death Race franchise (which went Original, Reboot, Prequel, Interquel, Deboot, then Sequel to Reboot [essentially debooting the deboot?!?]) then be my guest, cause honestly, I’m done.

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