What is the state of sci-fi and fantasy in TTL by 2021?
Is there a close equivalent to Doctor Who, Star Wars, Star Trek, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Game of Thrones as well?
Science fiction, as of TTL’s 2021, remains a very popular genre in many countries, including in the USA and German Empire. This is tied in to continued public interest in space exploration, and the ongoing contest between competing blocs of countries to establish a permanent presence in Low Earth Orbit, on the Moon, and Mars.
One of the major differences in general in world cinema compared to our world has been the lack of a trend towards mega-franchises that occurred in OTL Hollywood. For example, this world never had any real equivalent to the
James Bond or
Godzilla franchise, although movie serials are certainly present as far apart as the US, Germany, Russia, Brazil, China, Bharat, ect.
The closest equivalent to
Star Wars in this world is the quartet of movies directed by US filmmaker Ella Nunez:
Planet of the Flotsam (2005),
Moon of the Villains (2008),
Star of the Harlequins (2011), and
Galaxy of the Smugglers (2014). Each movie focuses on a different segment of the series’ fictional galactic society. However, there is no equivalent in this series to either the “Hero’s Journey” or to the mysticism/Light Side-Dark Side conflict from OTL
Star Wars.
There is no equivalent to OTL
Star Trek, and such a TV series and franchise likely would not be successful in TTL’s 2021. Audiences in various countries, including in the US and German Empire, would likely not be able to accept the premise of a powerful, benevolent Federation not being backed by a powerful military force.
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Fantasy, as of TTL’s 2021, has developed on a very different trajectory compared to our world. JRR Tolkien, while managing to survive the First Great War, did not lead a happy existence afterwards: he returned to a Great Britain shattered by military defeat and territorial loss, and later found himself under suspicion during the Silver Shirt years due to his background as a Catholic of German heritage and professor of Germanic languages. Tolkien wound up as an exile in New Zealand, where he eventually completed a single epic novel:
The Fall of Numenor, published in Australia and New Zealand after the end of the Second Great War, but not published in the US until TTL’s 1980s. This novel is widely seen as an allegory for the fall of the British Empire in this world. Tolkien never completed any other major works of what could have been an alternate
Legendarium.
As of TTL 2021, a genre referred to as “American Fantasy”, which emerged in the mid-1990s, tends to dominate the US market for fantastic literature. In terms of themes, settings, and story lines, many American Fantasy stories might be best described as what would happen if you combined the setting of OTL’s
Wizard of Oz with the themes and overall brutality from OTL’s
A Song of Ice and Fire. For instance, the 1995 novel widely considered to have launched American Fantasy as its own distinct genre,
The Terrible Land of Iz, by Linda Straubing, has a similar plot to that of the OTL horror movie
The Night of the Hunter.
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On a side note, as of TTL’s 2021, there is no close equivalent series or franchise to
Doctor Who or
Harry Potter.