Angharad N. Valdivia and Isabel Molina-Guzmán, "Rebooting Inequality: Critical Takes on Film and Television Remakes" (NYU Press, 2026)

About this episode

The episode discusses how Hollywood's obsession with reboots and remakes often perpetuates existing inequalities despite claims of progress and diversity.

From Ghostbusters to Will & Grace, One Day at a Time to Jurassic Park, the past decade has seen Hollywood reach a new peak in its obsession with reboots, remakes, and revivals. Spearheaded by media giants like Disney and Netflix, these projects promise progress—more diverse casts, “timely” social commentary, and redemptive nostalgia—yet they often reproduce the very inequalities they claim to address.Rebooting Inequality: Critical Takes on Film and Television Remakes (NYU Press, 2026) brings together twelve concise, theoretically rich essays that interrogate how Hollywood’s recycling of intellectual property sustains entrenched systems of racial, gender, and sexual inequality. Across genres and platforms, contributors explore how the industry’s nostalgic return to familiar stories masks an ongoing reliance on white, patriarchal, and heteronormative frameworks of storytelling and production.Blending critical race, feminist, and media studies, the collection analyzes dozens of recent film and television revivals, remakes, and reboots from Roseanne to Charlie’s Angels to ask what it means when entertainment markets strive for diversity while leaving the structures of inequality…

People in this episode

Host: Marshall Poe

Guests: Angharad N. Valdivia, Isabel Molina-Guzmán

Topics covered

• film remakes
• television reboots
• diversity in media
• inequality in Hollywood
• nostalgia in entertainment
• critical media studies

Keywords

• reboots
• remakes
• Hollywood
• inequality
• diversity
• nostalgia
• media studies

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: NYU Press, Disney, Netflix

Books & works: Rebooting Inequality: Critical Takes on Film and Television Remakes, Ghostbusters, Will & Grace, One Day at a Time, Jurassic Park, Roseanne, Charlie's Angels

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