While it’s true that 2016 may not be remembered as a stellar year — we’ve lost a lot of pop culture greats, after all — on the whole, fans of movies, TV, and games have had quite a lot to be happy about. As the year comes to an end, it’s time to look back on the best of the best and select the winners of our Year in Fandom Awards. Have a look at the nominees, and cast your vote below!
Here are the nominees for Best Franchise Film, Sequel or Reboot:
Captain America: Civil War
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has become a consistent source of cinematic enjoyment, providing superhero thrills for audiences each movie season. The spring brought us the latest Captain America movie, Civil War, which was really an Avengers movie — and that’s alright with us. Civil War saw Marvel’s big-screen heroes facing with one another in a battle of freedom vs. security. That’s heavy stuff, so it’s a good thing (a great thing, really) that Spider-Man showed up to bring the fun.
Deadpool
20th Century Fox’s R-rated Deadpool movie was a huge box office hit that brought big changes to the superhero cinema world. The comic book flick’s raunchy humor, wanton violence, and self-aware sensibilities brought something we hadn’t really seen when it comes to spandex-wearing do-gooders on the big screen.
Doctor Strange
Director Scott Derrickson’s Doctor Strange stars Benedict Cumberbatch as the title character and Sorceror Supreme while Mads Mikkelsen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Tilda Swinton support. It’s a trippy, mind-bending experience backed with surprising humor. It may not compete with The Avengers on the spectacle scale but Doctor Strange broadens the Marvel brand in a fun and organic way.
Star Trek Beyond
Beyond is the third installment in the new-school Star Trek movies, rebooted by J.J. Abrams in 2009, set in the time-travel alternate universe known as the Kelvin Timeline. Director Justin Lin of The Fast and the Furious franchise directed this latest installment, giving it a unique, imaginative spin. Yes, they blew up the Enterprise again. And, yes, the villain (Idris Elba’s Krall) could’ve strong, but Beyond takes the cast of characters in new and surprising directions, and delivers a thrilling visual feast.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Rogue One, the first in the Star Wars standalone films, is finally here. The story of Jyn Erso and her band of unlikely heroes who steal the Death Star plans and rally the upstart Rebellion is a non-stop emotional thrill ride of epic proportions. Tonally, it’s quite different than past Star Wars movies, but that’s not a bad or unexpected thing. No spoilers, but we still can’t believe they totally did the thing.
