Death of What-if Novelizations
The movie novelization used to be big. When films didn't come out for home media to the general public fans had to rely on reissues, music, and novelizations to relive their favorite stories. Novelizations also helped deepen and enrich movies they'd loved by going deeper into each character's mind. In some cases the novelization was an improvement over the film, but then there came a special niche within the niche of novelization that was so brief I bet not many people realized they existed. This niche inside of a niche was what I'd call the "What if" novelizations. Books that continued the stories of a franchise universe, or simply adapted planned films that inevitably fell through. The most well known of these is of course the Star Wars novels of old canon. Taking it upon themselves, authors crafted the universe of Star Wars after the original trilogy into a deeply rich universe. Others that may not surprise you are the Alien and Predator series, but also Roland Emmerich films.
Today we have a simplified version of this genre. Whenever a big blockbuster comes out with a novelization, usually, another author will be in charge of writing a prequel to it. It happened with the recent Planet of the Apes trilogy, and with Pacific Rim. While not fully going out of their way to expand the universe, and more probable that they were written with little plan except that of more money, these new additions to beloved franchises are at least trying to recapture that brief period of old that dominated the expanding universe of novelizations.
Roland Emmerich is famous for two science fiction movies from the 90s. Stargate, which would later become a long running TV series with multiple spin-offs, and Independence Day, which had a sequel recently after a decade. Both properties Emmerich planned to have more sequels and turn each into a blockbuster franchise. Both properties never went through with his plans and quickly the idea of more diminished. Before Stargate flourished on television Emmerich and Bill McCay turned their initial plan into novels. While the television show took some of their proposed plan they rightly took their own path. Now, the only way to see what Emmerich had in mind for this franchise is to read Bill McCay's novels that explored Abydos and Ra's relationship more closely.
Similarly, the same thing happened with Emmerich's Independence Day franchise. While it did get a sequel in 2016, a mere twenty years later, it was only due to Hollywood's new tactic of rebooting and revitalizing cult classics and franchises. But, long before this Independence Day took to the books. After the novelization by Stephen Molstad, he was asked to write two more books, forming a trilogy. Then, once Independence Day: Resurgence came out with it's novelization by Alex Irvine, author Greg Keys stepped in to write the prequel to that and bridged the gap between the two movies.
While these mini-universes were being expanded in the books a cult readership formed to gobble them up. To the general public these books don't exist. Never recognized, only toward those fans that needed more. Star Wars had the most passionate fanbase and thus flourished beyond everyone's imagination. Creating years and years of history, both from the Old Republic and toward the future with Luke and Han's kids. Star Wars, and Star Trek, are the only book universes that have captured the minds and imaginations of readers for decades. Sadly, while this trend seems to be increasing with television shows, it appears to have nearly withdrawn from motion pictures.
Fans of novelizations have grown fewer by the year, yielding only the biggest of blockbusters to warrant them, and even fewer to garner a prequel novel. I feel lucky enough to have those little insights to these universes. The Alien books that were based off of Dark Horses comics are great, and fun to explore the what ifs. It creates another layer for fans to rally behind and feel connected to their favorite properties, and even today I still see the potential for these what-if franchises to be turned into novels.
The best example for such a success would be the controversial Justice League "Snyder cut." As fans most likely know by now the film that Zack Snyder had worked on was originally going to be something different. Although his intention was already changed before he left the film, it was heartbreaking to watch the film change yet again during production when the negative reviews from his previous superhero film came out. Now, this "Snyder cut" will never happen. It will never be released, and we will only hear how it could have been once the years roll by. Another option that no one is considering, however, is to turn Snyder's original vision into a novelization. There had been recent talks that Snyder had a five film arc he wanted to do for the DC universe. If you used the previous novelizations for the stand alone films, and added new ones based off his original script, then fans could have their "Snyder cut" in the palm of their hands. This small DC book universe based on the movies could have been a really cool way to appease the fans, earn a little money, and build their trust back up.
Continuing on the superhero train you could also write a novelization to the George Miller scrapped Justice League movie. I'm sure there's a solid audience for that. And then, you could have Tie-in authors bring those universes away from what has come and really given them a new outlet to play. Just think of the sequels you could get out of novelizations. Untapped potential is what I see, and with the amount of plans that get thrown out the window over scrapped films, failed sequels, then all I see is the potential that Stargate had with it's five books, and Independence Day got with it's five books. While not massive, and profitable, as the Star Wars media, it's still worth the potential to go down these "What if" book universes and let fans connect more with these franchises that had bad luck.
