People like reboots. A story they know with characters they recognize, wrapped in a story they identify with? They'll gobble it up every time.
Remember how excited everyone was for the Christian Bale Batman trilogy? The country was ready for a reboot of the Caped Crusader's brand following the 4-series run of Batman movies in the late 1980s and '90s, where Michael Keaton and Val Kilmer and George Clooney all took turns as Bruce Wayne but it was all kind of one story.
The Dark Knight trilogy was the perfect mix of right time, right story, right people behind it, and it all worked. The series was a commercial and critical smash, but more importantly it was a cultural one as well. Even though some people make fun of the voice Bale used as Batman, it reset the image of the man in the cape for an entire generation. When people thought of Batman, they thought of Nolan and Bale's Batman.
And then they decided to make it again.
Ben Affleck's Batman movies made money, but good luck finding anyone who looks back on them fondly. People made fun of Bale's voice because everyone saw the movies, making it ripe ground for comedy. Can you name one identifiable trait of Affleck's Batman? The only thing the Internet seems to remember was how sad Affleck was to promote the movies -- and he was the star!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtfoRESVir0
Now, whether we want it or not, they're rebooting Batman yet again. Robert Pattinson, he of Twilight fame, will take a turn as Bruce Wayne for a 2022 film, this one called The Batman. I'm sure it's the first of three or four, no matter how the first is received.
Coaching changes aren't exactly like movie franchises, but they're similar in the way that each new coach tries to reset the idea of the existing brand he just inherited. Charlie Strong had "Put the 'T' back in Texas." Tom Herman had his 1-0 mentality and "Winning is really, really hard." And now, after those reboots failed, Steve Sarkisian is ripping the brake pedal out of the car.
All the while it's been 12 years since Texas won a conference title and 17 since the program's last national title (and that right there came after a 35-year drought). The time is right for Sarkisian to reboot the brand, and as you see he's attempting to spin the brand into something new while at the same time honoring the major characters of the past.
That's the thing about reboots. Nail it, and you're a genius. Miss, and you'll be amazed at how fast the culture forgets you exist and moves on to something else.
