Aeon Flux is being rebooted by MTV Entertainment Studios as a new series on Paramount+, and to finally do justice to the cult animated series, the reboot needs to veer away from the mistakes made by the 2005 movie. Peter Chung’s Aeon Flux is an ambiguous and complex dystopian sci-fi series that combines elements of Gnosticism, erotic fetishism, horror, psychological drama, psychedelia, biopunk, political intrigue, and transhumanist philosophy. Aeon Flux ran from 1991 to 1995, and its creative influences can still be found in more recent sci-fi works such as Netflix’s Black Mirror and Love, Death, and Robots.
Meanwhile, the 2005 Aeon Flux movie takes a few key elements from the original series and ultimately tells a dystopian sci-fi love story with a happy ending. While the film does manage to adapt some of the original series’ bizarre visuals, and the production design is impressive, in the end, it barely scratches the surface of the source material. Rather than an adaptation of Peter Chung’s highly influential animated masterpiece, the 2005 Aeon Flux movie looks and feels more like a forgettable tribute to 1999’s The Matrix, which started the trend of combining dystopian sci-fi, martial arts, and philosophy in Hollywood’s turn-of-the-century blockbuster films.
Paramount+’s new Aeon Flux reboot can learn a lot from these mistakes. That being said, Aeon Flux’s showrunners are under a lot of pressure, as the reboot’s success will determine whether or not the Aeon Flux franchise can finally break free from the shadow of the original Matrix trilogy as well as the 2005 Aeon Flux movie. In order to pull off the daunting task of properly adapting Peter Chung’s Aeon Flux, the reboot needs to change several key elements from the 2005 movie.
The Aeon Flux Reboot Must Stay True To Peter Chung’s Original Vision
Peter Chung’s Aeon Flux is a groundbreaking animated series that pushed the limits of philosophical sci-fi storytelling in the early ‘90s, and it continues to influence new movies and series in the sci-fi genre. Instead of telling a story that’s loosely based on the animated series, the Aeon Flux reboot needs to stay loyal to Peter Chung’s original gritty and nihilistic vision of the distant future, but this won’t be easy. 26 years after the series ended, the puzzle of how to translate Aeon Flux into live-action content remains unsolved.
The Aeon Flux Reboot Must Stick To The Series Format
One of the key reasons why the 2005 Aeon Flux movie bombed is because a one-off film isn’t a conducive platform for adapting Peter Chung’s bizarre and highly complex universe. Burdened by the constraints of film production, the movie’s straightforward plot and derivative sci-fi elements failed to do justice to the source material. Fortunately, Paramount+ has confirmed that the Aeon Flux reboot will be a series, a much more suitable format for adapting the six animated shorts and ten 20-minute episodes comprising Peter Chung’s Aeon Flux. Apart from how the series format gives the Aeon Flux reboot more time for fleshing out Peter Chung’s vision, it could also give showrunners more room for properly adapting the fast-paced and ambiguous storytelling of the original animated series.
Aeon Flux Reboot Showrunner Jeff Davis Must Have Full Creative Control
Paramount+ and MTV Entertainment Studios’ new Aeon Flux reboot will be headed by Teen Wolf showrunner Jeff Davis. Apart from being responsible for the successful series reboot of the classic ‘80s comedy Teen Wolf, Davis also created the CBS crime drama Criminal Minds. The new Aeon Flux showrunner is also a self-confessed fan of The X-Files, Moonlighting, and Stephen King’s novels. Whether or not Davis is up to the task of creating a satisfying live-action adaptation of Aeon Flux remains to be seen. What’s certain is that Davis needs full creative control of the series in order to pull it off. Based on the results of the 2005 Aeon Flux movie, Paramount is well aware of what happens when studio executives heavily interfere with the director’s vision. Hopefully, they won’t repeat the same mistakes, which would allow Davis to fulfill his showrunning duties to the best of his abilities.
The Aeon Flux Reboot Should Not Be Cast Based On Star Power
2005’s Aeon Flux famously stars renowned actor Charlize Theron. Despite the film’s faults, there’s no doubt that Theron was perfect for the role of Aeon Flux. That being said, this doesn’t mean that the titular character, or even her lover and arch-enemy Trevor Goodchild, need to be played by Hollywood A-listers. While casting a series based on star power alone guarantees interest, it’s not a requirement for high-concept sci-fi. Moreover, the money needed to hire an A-lister could end up limiting the reboot’s potential to properly translate Aeon Flux’s unorthodox animation for the live-action world. Rather than hiring actors based on star power, Paramount+ and MTV Entertainment Studios need to focus on finding actors that can actually blend into Peter Chung’s surreal universe.
The Aeon Flux Reboot Must Be Up To The Standards Of 2021 Sci-Fi
The Aeon Flux reboot is up against a formidable roster of new sci-fi reboots. This includes Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, the latest film adaptation of Frank Herbert’s cult sci-fi novel of the same name. Not only is 2021’s Dune also a reboot, but it also follows a disastrous albeit interesting previous film adaptation of its source material, just like Aeon Flux. Moreover, the combination of transhumanism, martial arts, philosophy, and political espionage in the novel Dune actually predates Aeon Flux by more than 20 years, and Peter Chung, along with the other artists of his time, was undoubtedly also influenced by Frank Herbert’s work. In turn, the creative fingerprints of Aeon Flux can be observed in several subsequent groundbreaking sci-fi properties, such the Matrix films, The Animatrix anthology, Equilibrium, Regular Show, Black Mirror, Love, Death & Robots, and even the new Dune.
In short, while Peter Chung’s Aeon Flux laid the ground for next-gen sci-fi in 2021 and beyond, the upcoming reboot now needs to be able to compete with an extensive catalog of new sci-fi properties, many of which have already tackled and popularized the key elements of Peter Chung’s original series. If showrunner Jeff Davis can rise above all these challenges, Paramount+’s Aeon Flux reboot could become the next biggest sci-fi property.