Two stories this week lay bare how consolidated media monopolies choke out original storytelling: James McAvoy pitched a Star Trek series about a young Captain Picard that died on corporate logistics, while WWE star Cody Rhodes keeps dropping hints about joining Marvel's X-Men franchise — and neither studio can stop recycling the same characters instead of greenlighting something new.
When Disney owns Marvel and Paramount owns Star Trek, they don't need original ideas. They need new bodies to play old parts. McAvoy told the Happy Sad Confused podcast he pitched a limited series called Mutiny On the Stargazer, covering Picard's first command and "the secret he's been holding his entire career." He said Paramount was "into it" but "we had logistical issues that meant we couldn't do it." Translation: the suits couldn't make the IP math work. McAvoy joked that "all I really want to do in my career is play young versions of Patrick [Stewart]" — and he's not wrong, given that he already played young Professor X in four X-Men films. Stewart himself is returning as Professor X yet again in Avengers: Doomsday, according to Deadline. The same actor, the same character, another paycheck.
Screen Rant, meanwhile, spent an entire article breathlessly speculating that Rhodes might join the MCU as Colossus based on an Instagram story featuring X-Men '97 music, a visit to Marvel's Burbank offices, and a comment on Andrew Schulz's podcast where Rhodes seemingly referred to himself as a member of the X-Men. Screen Rant acknowledged this is "far from actual evidence" — then kept speculating anyway. The fan-casting logic is simple: Rhodes is muscular, Colossus is muscular, therefore Rhodes is Colossus. That's the depth of creative thinking these IP monopolies inspire.
The pattern is clear. Disney sits on the X-Men rights and will churn out mutant content for the next decade, plugging whatever actor fits the suit into whatever derivative storyline the writers' room produces. Paramount sits on Star Trek and would rather resurrect Picard for a third time than let McAvoy build something new with the character's backstory. Meanwhile, independent creators with original IP can't get a meeting, can't get distribution, and can't compete with corporate marketing machines that turn every opening weekend into a cultural event whether the product is good or not.
McAvoy said he still lies in bed thinking about the Picard story he wanted to tell. The question is whether any studio left in America still wants stories — or just brands.
