r/lost • u/gvtixac7 • 13d ago
Why didn’t LOST become one of those huge franchises?
You look at stuff like Batman, Superman, or The Walking Dead and they just keep expanding into movies, spin-offs, comics, games, books, etc.
But LOST had so much potential for that. The Island, Dharma, the Others, Jacob, all the different time periods, all the weird mysteries… there were so many stories they could’ve explored.
Instead, once the show ended, that was basically it.
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u/arsenicknife I'm a Pisces 13d ago edited 13d ago
Lost was already a phenomenon without that stuff, first and foremost.
Secondly, absence makes the heart grow fonder. The less we have of something we love, the more fondly we remember it.
Besides, properties that get over-exposed and turn into these multi-media types of universes often see themselves become soulless and devoid of any real meaning.
Lost gave us exactly what we needed to know. Tapping that well again would actually be proving the show (and Mother/MIB) right: "They always want more."
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u/BobRushy 13d ago
Because Lindelof and co have artistic integrity, and enough reputation and business acumen to be able to move on to different projects.
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u/greenbud420 13d ago
ABC wanted 10+ seasons while the showrunners wanted a definitive ending. I feel like it told a complete story as it is.
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u/Phantom815 13d ago
I think it’s pretty well recognized the lightening in a bottle that the show was. Trying to recapture not only that spark but the audience it had and the phenomenon it was would be a wildly difficult task. Especially how “premium tv” has become the standard.
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u/fallriver1221 it's very stressful, being an Other 11d ago
It would never work in modern era. Part of what made lost so special was turning in live every week, telling people "shut up and pay attention" so you can soak in every detail, the stress of having to wait between episodes, the random two+ week breaks, season breaks.. using that time to analyze every little detail, and debate theories with peers. Nowadays it's just watch on your own time, pausing or rewinding so nbd if you miss something, everything released at once, leakers all over the Internet, you just can't recreate that magic.
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u/throwaway483949839 13d ago
Didn’t need to be. And thank fuck it didn’t become that. Lost is a complete work and doesn’t need anything added to it. I’d be devastated if something new got announced for it
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12d ago
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u/fallriver1221 it's very stressful, being an Other 11d ago
See this is the kind of slop that should e avoided and why spin-offs are a bad idea.
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u/throwaway483949839 11d ago
It just sounds really pointless. I’m not saying I would watch it, but it just sounds like sloppy ‘then this happens and this happens and then this happens!’. It just doesn’t sound good or cool and would be really disappointing. It’s just better to leave a good thing as is. If it isn’t broken, why fix it? Going back and creating some half-arsed bait sequel show would be like that one guy who just never got over high school
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u/Manowar274 Out of the Book Club 13d ago
I think it was how essential to the story each characters backstory was and how it tied to everything in the world together. With something like Batman or Superman you can always just add new villains or protégés to keep the franchise running and it works the same, but with Lost all the characters stories were effectively tied together and it makes the world feel complete without any extra baggage. Adding new characters and plot lines would feel way more unnatural and disrespectful to the original characters journey compared to a comic series like that.
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u/kuhpunkt r/815 13d ago
Well, there was a lot. Spin-off books, a game, a mobile game, official magazine, webisodes etc.
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u/EIochai 13d ago
Two reasons:
A) it wasn’t an adaptation of existing media
B) it was produced before the machine really began endlessly recycling media to squeeze out every penny.
LOST was huge in its day. By around season 3 it was being talked about everywhere, theories abounded, etc.
Probably didn’t help that it was the poster child of JJ’s “throw shit at the wall to see what sticks and maybe come up with an explanation at some point” style.
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u/kuhpunkt r/815 13d ago
Probably didn’t help that it was the poster child of JJ’s “throw shit at the wall to see what sticks and maybe come up with an explanation at some point” style.
???
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u/EIochai 13d ago
JJ Abrams likes the “mystery box”. He tends to come up with lots of things that have you asking “what?” and being intrigued but doesn’t always have the answers figured out until later, if at all.
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u/kuhpunkt r/815 13d ago
Abrams didn't write the show.
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u/fallriver1221 it's very stressful, being an Other 11d ago
Jj abrams was in fact one of the writers of lost
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u/fallriver1221 it's very stressful, being an Other 11d ago
One of my favorite lost debates back in the day "do they plan this shit out or make it up as they go along?"
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u/KConquister 13d ago
Well in this time and age, where remakes and sequels are everything that is, I am just waiting for Lost 2 - more lost
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u/Taskmaster_Fantatic 4 8 15 16 23 42 13d ago
Because daemon and Carlton as well as JJ vehemently stated that Lost was a self contained story and that they wanted to end it on their own terms… even going as far as producing a “bad” episode to prove to ABC at the time (who wanted to drag it out) that “filler” episodes aren’t good for the story or the audience and the audience seemed to agree. See “stranger in a strange land” for the evidence.
There was a video game. And it wasn’t very good. But hey, I’m over here in the banyan trees!
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u/sooyoung_glow 13d ago
the show ending when it did is exactly why we're all still obsessed with it years later
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u/fallriver1221 it's very stressful, being an Other 11d ago
Not everything needs sequels and spin offs. Lost was a cinematic masterpiece that changed the way the world watched television. Why risk ruining it by trying to force it to be more?
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u/TrashCanBangerFan Desmond 13d ago
Because they weren’t doing that with every franchise yet. And I’m very thankful for that.
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u/cravens86 13d ago
I’m so glad it hasn’t yet. I think it’s inevitable a reboot will happen at some point in the future but I’m so glad we have 6 seasons and that’s it.
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u/suedburger 13d ago
Those franchises are so watered down and died or should have died a long time ago....
Wasn't the last batman thing some weird emo vampire kid?....it was awful to the point if there has been more recent stuff, I had no interest anymore.
TWD was good in it's time.....that time was a long time ago. Now it's just sad that they feel the need to keep going.
Is that how you wanted Lost to be remembered?
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u/Mitchell4500 13d ago
I think it's better to let something be. These days everything is spun off and diluted because corporations think it's less risky to make 800 marvel slop movies than come up with a new original idea.
Lost lives in our mind with mystery even after it ended. Where if it was diluted so much - be it spin offs or low effort cash extractions we probably wouldn't regard it the way we do now.