Posted by Jonathan Klotz | Published
Science fiction is undergoing a modern revival thanks to the proliferation of high-concept sci-fi broadcast series such as The beast, The Three-Body Problemagain The foundationbut one of the most popular and established sub-genres has been left in the dust, with no major movies or plays released in the last five years. Steampunk, a retrofuturistic and anachronistic form of steam-powered invention, historical fiction, and often mystical and scary, has been thrown into the dustbin of history. Despite the lack of interest from Hollywood, fans will still go to dedicated meetings and show off amazing outfits on social media, so what’s wrong?
The Sudden Rise and Fall of Steampunk
Steampunk was coined after the rise of cyberpunk in the 1980s, but has its roots back in 1950s movie adaptations of classic sci-fi novels, including. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Time Machineagain Journey to the Center of the Earth. Dr. Who’s Daleks and The Wild Wild West they brought the genre to television, it proved it combining Victorian London with steam-based technology was a winning formula. It captured the imagination of sci-fi fans who embraced oversized coats, tall hats, and lots of sunglasses as the new wave of fashion for science fiction conventions.
Soon, there were steampunk novels, like Different Engine by William Gibson, even graphic novels, incl Hellboy again The League of Extraordinary Gentlemenwhile Robert Downey Jr’s Sherlock Holmes films helped take steampunk into the back half of the aughts. Even anime dipped its toes into the genre, with Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress again Fullmetal Alchemist fully embracing the look, feel, and sound of steampunk. We didn’t know it at the time, but that’s as good as it was going to get in this genre.
Why Hollywood Always Fails
In 2018, the big screen resolution of the Engines of Death it came to the theaters, it lived a wild story of the post-apocalyptic cities on wheels, but it didn’t just flow; it lost so much money, an estimated $190 million, that Hollywood hasn’t touched steampunk since. The closest we’ve had since then Poor Thingsa twist on the classic tale of Frankensteinbut even that is gothic horror. In books, it’s been a similar story, except for the steampunk novels that broke out six years ago by the way. Worldshaker or The Strange Story of Spring-Heeled Jack he did it in recent times.
The problem with steampunk is that it’s a very visual genre, and creating the feeling of a living, breathing world is difficult to do on a budget. It’s easy in books where talented writers can paint pictures using nothing but words and weave a fictional story without worrying about how expensive it would be to portray a two-ton cannon in live action. Even in anime, like Kabaneri shows, basic scenes become stronger when there are lots of moving gears and pipes filling the background.
Beyond the cost of bringing steampunk to life is the difficulty of explaining complex settings during a 2-hour film. Embracing alternate history and retrofuturistic technology may endear the genre to sci-fi fans, but it’s often too dense to count as mindless entertainment and generic plots can be too confusing for movie-going audiences. Even movies like 2011 The Three Musketeersthat put layers of steampunk on a classic story, are dragged to review sites for confusing episodes.
The Future of Steampunk
If steampunk can’t keep up with Hollywood studios, it’s no wonder that many classic sci-fi writers like EE Doc Smith, the father of space opera, have never been replaced. With complex visuals and complex structures, fans cannot trust studios that strive to bring to life the standard sci-fi and must look elsewhere for the future of the genre by returning to where it began: novels. Writers like Jennifer Haskin (The Clockwork Pen) and Dan Willis (A Pound of Meat) are among the many that keep the genre alive in one place that still allows imaginations to run wild, creativity to flourish, and actors to wear giant glasses and cool silencers while putting the finishing touches on a steam-powered airplane.
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