Pages

Monday 27 May 2019

What's next for the fans after #GameOfThrones Endgame?

I managed to miss all 73 episodes of Game of Thrones, which I understand had a disappointing conclusion.

The problem seemed to be that the film had got ahead of the book.

But it managed to dethrone The Sopranos, attracting 19.3 million TV viewers.

However, the author George RR Martin, is apparently going to write a different conclusion. This is a shrewd marketing move.

Fantasy, which started its semantic life 700 years ago meaning "imagination" has become vast business, since the wizardry of special effects has come into its own in the realisation of bizarre creatures and magical transformations.

Currently "on screen" is the starkly titled Avengers: Endgame, uncritically labelled "the mother of superhero films", including "every figure in the Marvel cinematic universe".

Normally staid critics get carried away on a "huge sugar rush of excitement in this mighty finale".

The father of Middle Earth, as he might be called, Professor JRR Tolkien, was rightly suspicious of Hollywood and only grudgingly accepted the International Fantasy Award in 1957.

"Fantasy" has become a multifarious genre, including mythological figures like Thor, modern creations like Ant-Man and abstract entities like Quantum Realm.

But what happens to all those fans after "Endgame"?