It's definitely not cool to admit that you love reboots. After all, critics often argue that the sheer number of them dominating the current entertainment landscape is proof that Hollywood has run out of ideas, creativity, and anything remotely new to bring to our screens. But it's more complicated than that.
Reboots are popular – even if they're distinctly uncool – because of the comfort they bring. The nostalgia.
This explains the hype around the return of the 1990s and Noughties slasher franchise, I Know What You Did Last Summer. For me and many others, it harks back to nights of sleepovers and teen secrets, watching a horror film being the height of rebellion. It was among my first introductions to movies, popcorn, Hollywood royalty – with Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr, Ryan Phillippe, and Jennifer Love Hewitt members of the '90s It Crowd that we all loved and aspired to be like.
Similarly, the reboot stars beautiful, young talent, including Outer Banks star Madelyn Cline, The Studio's Chase Sui Wonders and The Little Mermaid's Jonah Hauer King. The reviews for the film – which, just like the original, sees a group of teens stalked by a killer who knows that they inadvertently caused a car accident, and someone's death – are mixed at best, dubbed “torture” to watch at worst. But the quality of the reboot isn't what we crave, it's the return to a previous story or characters that we once loved. The seduction that nostalgia brings.
It feels like this summer is the official reboot season. Freakier Friday, a much-awaited follow up to the whacky and wonderful body swap extravaganza, 2003's Freaky Friday, starring Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis, is coming to cinemas in August. To be frank, I don't really care how sophisticated this story ends up being, I just want to return to the fun I had as an 11-year-old in the Noughties watching this romp for the first time. Jamie's makeover and her ride on the back of Chad Michael Murray's motorbike, that Battle of the Bands showdown and many more iconic scenes.
We've also seen the return of the Jurassic World franchise this summer, a reboot of and return to the Jurassic Park dinosaur thriller films. Starring a fresh cast – including Bridgerton's Jonathan Bailey and Scarlett Johansson – in this case it wasn't necessarily the characters we wanted to return to, but the familiarity of the fantasy world where dinosaurs weren't extinct. When I sit down to watch any Jurassic movie, I think of childhood Christmases and cosy movie nights.
Director Gareth Edwards has even admitted that his key aim was to make Rebirth “feel nostalgic”. “The goal was that it should feel like Universal Studios went into their vaults and found a reel of film, brushed the dust off, and it said: Jurassic World: Rebirth. And they’re like: ‘What’s this? We don’t remember doing this!’ I wanted it to feel like a film they’d discovered from the early 90s.”
28 Years Later is also back to revitalise the 28 Days Later franchise, with two movies of a trilogy set to come. A new take on the Fantastic Four movies is also coming this summer, starring man of the moment Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby. Superman has returned (again), with this iteration being described by audiences as “woke” in comparison to previous versions of the superhero's story. Pamela Anderson and Liam Neeson are also set to star in a summer reboot of crime spoof comedy The Naked Gun.
While Sarah Michelle Gellar only appears very briefly in a dream scene of the I Know What You Did Last Summer reboot movie (Prinze Jr and Love Hewitt are much more active, because they made it out of the original franchise alive) her own legendary TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer has recently been reported to also be getting the reboot treatment. As will much-loved Noughties medical sitcom Scrubs.
As a weekly episode of the unhinged, yet addictively watchable Sex and the City reboot And Just Like That… drops, it's certainly not the storylines or questionable writing (a character has just been revealed to have died twice in three seasons) that has us (read:me) watching. Again, it's the nostalgia. It's the reconnection with old characters and the old versions of ourselves that we were when we first fell in love with the original show, film or story.
So if the quality of the reboot isn't necessarily the priority or key reason for our reboot nostalgia, which it arguably isn't, what is? According to mental health therapist Shelly Dar, nostalgia is an expert-approved method of “emotional regulation”
“As a mental health therapist, I often recommend nostalgia, watching old shows or listening to old songs, to help clients with anxiety, overthinking or emotional disconnection,” she tells GLAMOUR. "There’s something deeply regulating about returning to a time that felt simpler, even if it wasn’t perfect. A familiar theme tune or character can spark a sense of safety, especially when life feels fast, uncertain, or overwhelming.
"These memories act like emotional anchors – helping the nervous system settle. That’s why reboots feel so soothing. They remind us of who we were when we first watched them, not just the storyline, but the feelings.
“In the therapy room, I see how people are craving something that reminds them of who they were before constant notifications and pressure to keep up. Life has changed so dramatically in the last 20 to 30 years, it’s easy to forget how freeing it once felt to be bored, to watch something slowly unfold, to not always be available.”
Dr Krystine Batcho, a professor of psychology and nostalgia expert, tells GLAMOUR that the attraction to reboots through our nostalgia is an attempt at control in a rapidly changing society by seizing hold of things we previously loved and felt comfortable around. Through “nostalgic reminiscence”, we are reliving the best of times, which helps us to “rekindle hope for better times ahead”.
“Reboots and revivals of films, TV shows, music and fashion are a great help in enhancing the benefits of nostalgic experience,” she says, giving social connectedness and feelings of belonging as examples of such benefits. “By reviving the past in more vibrant ways, film and TV intensifies the emotional and social benefits of memories.”
So whether they remind us of sleepovers, family Christmases, or perhaps even an old love or friendship, reboots align perfectly with – and reinforce – our nostalgia. Not because they're necessarily revolutionary, Oscar-winning or (obviously) original, but because they ground us in precious memories of something we've loved previously. And that's so valuable and powerful.
“In a world that feels uncertain and overstimulating, nostalgia offers something rare: emotional familiarity,” Shelly says. "And in many ways, that’s what we’re all really reaching for."
