Sometimes, it feels like there aren't any new ideas under the sun. Although there's some truth in that assertion, given how the ever-churning IP machine tends to dominate film and television, franchise name recognition has always factored into which projects do and don't see the light of day. The "there's nothing new under the sun" adage has always been true, and that's not always a bad thing. Tropes exist because we can only tell so many variations of a story; innovation often boils down to re-envisioning genres from the ground up.