Of Jonathan Klotz
| Published
Science fiction is going through a modern renaissance thanks to the rise of high-concept sci-fi streaming series such as Silo, Three-body problemand Basicbut one of the most popular and most inventive subgenres has been left in the dust, with no major movies or series released in the last five years. Steampunk, the retrofuturistic and anachronistic genre of steam-powered inventions, historical fiction, and usually a touch of mystery and horror, has been consigned to the dustbin of history. Despite the lack of interest from Hollywood, fans still attend dedicated conventions and show off amazing outfits on social media, so what went wrong?
The sudden rise and fall of steampunk
Steampunk was coined after the rise of cyberpunk in the 1980s, but it traces its roots back to the 1950s film adaptations of classic sci-fi novels, incl 20,000 leagues under the sea, The time machineand The journey to the center of the earth. Dr. Who is the Daleks and Wild Wild West brought the genre to television, proving it combining Victorian London with steam-based technology was a winning formula. It captured the imagination of sci-fi fans who embraced the big overcoats, tall hats and abundance of glasses as a new wave of fashion for science fiction conventions.
Soon there were steampunk novels, such as The difference engine by William Gibson, and also graphic novels, incl Hellboy and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemenwhile Robert Downey Jr’s Sherlock Holmes movies helped bring steampunk into the back half of the aughts. Also anime dipped his toes into the genre, with Kabaneri from the Iron Fortress and Full metal alchemist fully embracing the look, feel and even sound of steampunk. We didn’t know it at the time, but that’s as good as it was going to get for the genre.
Why Hollywood Continued to Fail
In 2018, the big screen adaptation of Deadly engines came to theaters bringing to life the wild post-apocalyptic tale of cities on wheels, but it didn’t just flop; it lost so much money, an estimated $190 million, that Hollywood hasn’t touched steampunk since. The closest we’ve had since then is Poor thingsa twist on the classic tale of Frankensteinbut even that is more of a gothic horror. In literature, it’s been a similar story, with no steampunk novels breaking through in the same way in the last six years World shaker or The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack did at the end of August.
The problem with steampunk is that it’s such a visually intensive genre, and creating the feeling of a living, breathing world is hard to do on a budget. It’s easy in literature when talented writers can paint pictures with just words and weave a wildly inventive story without caring how expensive it would be to depict a two-ton steam-powered cannon in live action. Even in anime, like Kabaneri shows, the most basic scenes become visually intense when there are countless moving gears and pipes filling up the background.
Adding to the cost of bringing steampunk to life is the difficulty of explaining the intricate environments over the course of a 2-hour film. Embracing alternate history and retro-futuristic technology can make the genre a hit with sci-fi fans, but it’s usually too dense to count as mindless entertainment, and typical plots can quickly become very confusing for the average moviegoer. Even movies like 2011 Three Musketeerswhich layered steampunk paraphernalia on top of the classic story, are drawn to review sites for confusing plots.
The future of steampunk
If steampunk can’t catch up with Hollywood studios, it’s no wonder so many classic sci-fi writers like it EE Doc Smiththe father of space opera, has never been adapted. With intricate visuals and complex plots, fans can’t trust studios that struggle to bring the most generic of sci-fi to life and must look elsewhere for the future of the genre by going back to where it started: novels. Writers like Jennifer Haskin (The Clockwork Pen) and Dan Willis (Pound of meat) is among the many who keep the genre alive in the only medium that still allows imagination to flow, creativity to flourish, and characters to wear giant goggles and cool dusters while putting the finishing touches on a steam-powered airship.
