godwulfAZ

In one of the 'What Else Are You Watching?' threads, I was commenting on the fact that they did a 'Deadwood' film thirteen years after the show ended, and that led me to thinking about what a 'Fringe' movie would look like and wondering if it would be any good.

Would Peter and Olivia still be 'Fringe' agents? Would the writers find a way to bring Walter back - and would the show be worth watching, really, if they didn't?

Which brought to mind an even bigger question, at least in the context of this forum: Would you want to see them make a 'Fringe' movie...or would you prefer to leave the story and the characters and the whole 'Fringe' world wrapped up in those 100 episodes that already exist?

If not a 'Fringe' movie or new series (a la 'X-Files' season 10), would you like to see one or more of the actors from the series reprise their role on another show? (With the 'Fringe' owners' permission, of course.) It hasn't happened all that often in the history of television, but it has happened and I generally think it's kind of cool when it does.

One instance that comes to mind is Mike Connors and his Joe Mannix character. More than twenty years after the eighth and final season of 'Mannix', Connors as Joe Mannix appeared on an episode of 'Diagnosis Murder'...and in a big screen comedy called Nobody Knows Anything! some years after that. I think handled in the right way, it's a fun concept.

With so many police shows on the air these days, some of them involving the F.B.I., would you like to see Lance Reddick as Agent Broyles or Jasika Nicole as Astrid Farnsworth appear in an episode or two of one of them?

Ironhorse25

Set the series or movie in the reset 2036 prime universe so they could also bring back Georgina Haig. Thanks for the new thread!

FoxPhile

I thought they ended the series pretty well, so I'm not sure a movie would be a good idea. I do like the idea of seeing the characters reprise their roles, although my one recent experience with that - where David James Elliott and Catherine Bell from JAG appeared on NCIS: LA - I was not very impressed with. For one thing, it ruined all my theories about the couple's happily ever after. I wouldn't want to see that happen to Peter and Olivia.

godwulfAZ

'JAG' and 'NCIS' always did share a universe, though - the 'NCIS' characters being introduced in 'JAG's eighth season. And John M. Jackson's Admiral Chenwiggen has appeared in several episodes of the L.A. spinoff in recent years. I was thinking more of shows that never really had any 'Fringe' connections.

As for Peter and Olivia, I'm not worried about that pair.

Ropetuned

I love the way Fringe ended and a lot of reboots end up undoing certain things from pasts seasons of a show so I’m not sure

Plus there’s the fact Anna and Josh don’t get along so you can’t really have Peter and Olivia

FoxPhile

Anna and Josh not getting along isn't a good reason not to have a reboot. It *might* cause one or both of them to turn down the offer, but as professionals, I would hope they would have better reasons than that to turn down a job. They managed to work together for five years, they could do it again.

I think it more likely that some of the cast will feel they've moved on from those roles and not want to have a do-over. Although cameos as their old characters might be appealing.

Ropetuned

Well, yeah I agree with that and it’s definitely not what I was meaning to imply but I can see how two series leads not getting along in general isn’t a good start for the original story. I would love for them to be able to put it aside and do at least a Fringe movie but who knows. It sadly makes sense about them especially in S5 they barely had any emotional scenes together, whether that was intentional or not well never know.


Even cameos would be great and if you could convince Josh, Anna, John, Jasika, Georgina and Lance to come back that would probably be a sufficient enough story to tell

Sadly, I don’t see it happening and after seeing how a lot of reboots have turned out...as much as I desperately want more Fringe maybe it’s best to let it rest

Ironhorse25

How about a "Fringe" reboot with a different cast?

godwulfAZ

Sacrilege!

FoxPhile

No way. I can see them doing it with one or two members absent. But you need at least some of the core characters with their original actors for it to really work.

Although - it did seem to work with Star Trek. Both in the spinoff series and the new cast movies. But that I think is an anomaly that just demonstrates the tremendous strength of the Star Trek franchise and the original concept. The story of Star Trek is not about the individual characters. It's about a world and a universe that manages to make itself better. That's a story that appeals no matter who the players are.

Ironhorse25

Other shows have done it. Look at "Lost in Space", "Dark Shadows", "Battlestar Galactica", "Hawaii Five-O", "Magnum P.I.", "Dynasty", etc.

godwulfAZ

The only one of those shows whose original version I was really a fan of (or watched much of) is 'Magnum P.I.' - and the new version doesn't do anything for me. The new "Magnum" is not Tom Selleck, who I think it's fair to say really owns that role.

Sometimes it works and sometimes not so much. They tried to re-boot 'Dragnet' with Ed O'Neill as Joe Friday. (O'Neill was also tasked with reprising Gene Hackman's "Popeye Doyle" character in a series.) That was a disaster. On the other hand, Dan Aykroyd's Joe Friday on the big screen, done for laughs but with a focus and a sincerity that never wavered, was wonderful.

I certainly agree that a re-telling can work, and even at times be better than the original. How many James Bonds have there been? Every generation has - and needs - its own Superman. Having grown up with Clayton Moore as my Lone Ranger, I feel sorry for the kids who will always remember the character from that godawful Johnny Depp movie.

As for 'Fringe' - okay, maybe having just re-watched the whole series recently I'm a little too close to it to be objective. Fans of the original will always have it - those 100 episodes aren't going anywhere. I think of different versions of the same basic story as occurring in an alternate universe, so something like that might even be interesting...someday.

FoxPhile

The only one of those reboots that I like is Hawaii Five-O. The others range from "Meh" to "Oh, no you didn't!" in my opinion. Even with the original actors, I'm not a big fan of The X-Files reboot. Although I did like the first TXF movie, the second fell flat. On the other hand, the Firefly movie, Serenity, I thought did a great job of wrapping up the story. Many of the Star Trek movies have been really good, but just as many have not.

One reason I'm hesitant to support a Fringe movie or reboot is that when I'm a big fan of a show, I can't keep myself from watching them, even if reviews and the opinions of other fans say no. Then when they are bad, they take some of the joy of the original away for me. I'd rather remember a show the way it was, than to have it ruined by a bad attempt at revival.

Ironhorse25

O I wouldn't worry so much about Anna Torv and Joshua Jackson not wanting to return as much as perhaps Lance Reddick and Blair Blown - both whom have gone on record criticizing the series.

On the other hand, at the rate the casts' careers have been going since "Fringe" ended, all might be so inclined to welcome a chance to reprise their "Fringe" roles for a movie or a Season 6, if offered the opportunity.

This reminds me that Pauley Perrette's new sitcom, "Broke", was cancelled by CBS last week.

FoxPhile

It's sad that so often actors in hit tv shows don't manage to find anything steady when they leave the show. There are exceptions, of course, but a lot of them wind up either getting occasional guest roles on other shows or, like Pauley, getting roles on shows that don't last more than a season.