Harry Potter was a smash hit about a boy discovering he’s a wizard and going to school in a magical world full of wonder and adventure. Twilight didn’t hit quite that high a note, but the story of a teenage girl who learns her classmate is a vampire and falls in love with him did quite well. The Hunger Games popularized the dystopian genre with a bow wielding teenager stepping up to survive death games, have angsty romances, and fight the power.
As far as I can tell, nothing has quite hit that same kind of high since and it may be awhile until the next truly big wave. But if it were up to you, what would the next big thing be about?
Westerns need to make a comeback. I’d love a giant, sprawling Western saga with the amazing intersection of cultures. Chinese immigrants, entrenched as well as new European arrivals, African slaves or freemen and -women, American Indians trying to weather their own apocalypse, the list goes on. It’s undoubtedly one of the richest platforms for storytelling either real or imagined.
What’s Harry Potter
Nothing has been as popular as Harry Potter before or since. It’s one of a kind, and unlikely to be repeated any time soon.
I’d make Diane Duane’s Young Wizards series have all the fame it has always deserved far more than Potter.
Techno sci-fi would speak to this tech savvy generation, but it should be techno without getting geeky!
We need some new stuff
Maybe underwater society for teenagers? Like Atlantis but for teens, either with late discovery or born into it
Sounds a Aquaman like but I think it can be changed to be more YA than superhero
The dark tower cinematic universe