As Transmedia Storytelling is still a relatively young method of storytelling, it can be difficult to properly analyse what it should and should not look like. There are, however, basic guides that can be followed by assessing what already exists in the World.
Using the two most prolific examples of Transmedia Storytelling, Star Wars and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I will approach the telling of Transmedia stories in two ways:
Linear Storytelling (Marvel Studios)
Non-Linear Storytelling (Star Wars)
With these case studies, I’ll be defining and assessing the benefits and the drawbacks of each approach to reach an overall conclusion on which, if any, is the superior method.
Benefits of Linear Storytelling
One obvious benefit to linear storytelling is its ease of structure. Instalments can be easily broken down to follow a particular dramatic beat of the overall story, building in the same direction towards the conclusion. The Avengers (2012) is, as far as the MCU is concerned, the inciting incident of the Infinity Saga. As the multi-franchise story continued, each story built on the promise of this inciting incident until the ultimate culmination in Infinity War and Endgame.
In line with the simplified structure, character development is equally easier to follow. As mentioned in my previous post, Tony Starks sacrifice at the end of Avengers: Endgame is only powerful if audiences have followed him since his debut in Iron Man. Since then, audiences have watched a cocky weapons dealer become a deeply sensitive, empathetic hero with crushing self-doubt and a desire to ensure his loved ones are safe. Each time Tony appears, his story picks up where his previous adventure left off, and pushes him in a new, often tragic direction that makes sense to his evolving narrative.
When a story exists in the modern day, it can capitalise on a current, real-world zeitgeist within its narrative to aid its reception. When Captain America: Civil War was released in 2016, it became forever entwined with the real-world collapse of close friends and family as they split over their views on the USA election that saw Donald Trump take the White House. On my side of the pond, this also happened to families in the Brexit vote that same year.
Later, when COVID caused the World to lock themselves inside, WandaVision came along as Marvel’s first Phase 04 instalment, an intimate story about a family locked in a perimeter together, trying to survive.
The MCU, as a linear story and blockbuster heavyweight, is uniquely placed to capitalise on or even lead the zeitgeist as audiences access their stories by the million.
Finally, a linear narrative allows for audiences to assist in directing the narrative. Henry Jenkins, the godfather of Transmedia Storytelling, praises it as an audience led method of storytelling: it is their engagement that keeps stories alive.
It also, as in the case of the MCU, keeps it changing. When Thor: The Dark World was panned by audiences and critics alike, Marvel were forced to reconsider Thor’s place within the narrative. As a core Avenger and key player in the overarching narrative, they could not retcon his story thus far. Instead, with audience guidance, they took the character in a new direction that gave us Thor: Ragnarok, which reignited love for Thor and became the most critically acclaimed instalment in his franchise of movies.
Benefits of Non-Linear Storytelling
At first, the idea of a non-linear Transmedia story can appear misleading. Structure is often what separates a story from an anecdote. However, there are ways within this new Transmedia model to create a franchise of multiple structures that are simultaneously isolated and connected.
Expansion is the name of the game when it comes to non-linear Transmedia. While linear stories progress (often) logically from one beat to the next, non-linear expands outwards. As a franchise, Star Wars is now constantly expanding outwards. The Clone Wars expanded the franchise to explore more deeply Anakin Skywalker’s descent to the dark side, but also introduced crucial, galaxy expanding story elements such as the planet of Mandalore to the canon.
This expansion has now led to The Mandalorian among other shows and movies which exist in total isolation from the central Skywalker Saga. Where the franchise was once the story of a young man overthrowing an Empire to save his father, it has now developed into a more Hunger Games style model that accepts the importance of these monolithic heroes, but also highlights that the downtrodden in the Galaxy also had power of their own.
When telling a story in a non-linear fashion, it’s possible to revisit forgotten storylines long after their previous instalments have been released. In the Star Wars franchise, there is one shining example of this:
The latest live-action show set in the Star Wars Galaxy takes place in an often-overlooked period of time in the canon, when the Empire was at the peak of its power, and the Skywalker’s were at their furthest from the core of the narrative. By taking a relatively obscure character and witnessing the development of rebellious radicalisation through his eyes, audiences were shocked at how thrilling the experience was. In a franchise that was beginning to buckle under the weight of its own lore, this simple story set years in the past of its other live action material proved to be a tonic for the story and audiences alike. It is also, it must be said, essential viewing.
Something that has been touched on above is how non-linear Transmedia can evolve pre-existing events within the franchise. Andor explored the functionality of Imperial Rule, and The Clone Wars expanded on the crucial Clone Wars conflict that is ultimately in the background of the central Skywalker Saga. The Clone Wars also introduced Ahsoka Tano, Anakin’s previously unknown Jedi Padawan. When first released, audiences were confused at her addition to the franchise, her lack of appearance in the central saga highlighted that the show was perhaps ancillary material. By the shows end, however, the series had elevated Revenge of the Sith from a few great scenes to an emotional battlefield. Ahsoka’s absence from the movie was no longer a problem, but a stroke of storytelling beauty.
Finally, one quality that both linear and non-linear stories share is participation from audiences. The classic case for Star Wars is Boba Fett. The action figure inspired the creation of the Galaxy’s greatest bounty hunter. That bounty hunter would then be expanded upon in the Prequels to be the template for the entire Clone army, and his armour would go on to similar fame and prominence as the basis of Mandalorian society. When elements of a non-linear story work, writers and creators can expand the narrative to make it appear that they were always there. This is something that Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau now have the challenge of doing thanks to a single line of dialogue from The Rise of Skywalker.
More on that later.
Drawbacks of Linear Storytelling
One of linear Transmedia’s greatest assets is also one of its greatest flaws. Course correction, especially in the previously mentioned Thor franchise, can revitalise a story and its audience engagement. However, in order to course correct, something must initially go wrong.
In order to justify its existence, each story must be imperative to the overall narrative. If not, it is little more than a spin-off. I will write more on the difference in due time (don’t rush me!). So, when Thor: The Dark World was a critical failure, Marvel found themselves in an impossible position. Their overarching Infinity Saga relied on there being six ‘infinity stones’, and The Dark World introduced one of the stones, the Reality Stone, known then only as ‘The Ether’.
When stories go wrong in Transmedia, they can stain the entire franchise going forward. With The Dark World in mind, this reached a crunch point when Endgame writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely were designing the ‘Time Heist’ element of the movie that would take a wildly different version of Thor back into the story of this stain on the franchise. While in this instance, Marvel were able to course correct, and even somewhat redeem the film, they are now learning again that audiences require a consistency in quality far more than a consistency in release schedules.
There are notable exceptions to the point I am about to make, but when taking the MCU as a case study, the notion that a linear story must remain linear is crucial. The Matrix, for example, happily banded around its own timeline as the core trilogy progressed. The MCU, however, has set itself up as a far simpler construction. While it had other flaws, one of Captain Marvel’s greatest flaws was in its place within the timeline of the story. When it was released in 2019, the Infinity Saga was reaching its conclusion. Only a year prior, audiences had watched Thanos wipe out half of all life in the Universe. Itching to know what happens next, they were instead taken out of the drama to watch a movie set in the 1990s. Where Ant-Man and The Wasp was able to capitalise off of asking the question ‘Where was Ant-Man’, audiences that watched Captain Marvel were asking ‘Who is Carol Danvers?’ Removing audiences so jarringly at a crucial point did the film, and indeed the character, no favours in the eyes of audiences. It seemed for a while that Marvel had learned from that mistake, but as Phase 04 progresses, it becomes clearer and clearer that they do not know when each story takes place, only that they are ‘post-blip’.
This lack of clarity leads me onto the next and final point regarding the drawbacks of linear Transmedia. The MCU, in its Infinity Saga, is more of a franchise Transmedia experience, rather than an out and out multimedia journey. Despite attempts to branch out with the likes of Agents of SHIELD and the Netflix Defenders collection of series, the core narrative never strayed into other mediums. Production timescales can make linear Transmedia a near impossible task, especially when setting the story in the modern day and in a world resembling our own. When creating a Transmedia experience, it is worth taking time to plan how each story is expanded and explored across multimedia before undertaking the task, otherwise passion projects will be left in the dust as the story moves faster than production will allow.
Drawbacks of Non-Linear Storytelling
When, in The Last Jedi, Admiral Holdo fired her ship into the enemy front with a suicide hyperspace jump, audiences declared that Disney had ‘broken’ Star Wars lore. When telling a Transmedia story in a non-linear fashion, it is crucial to maintain a well organised and meticulous story world Bible. Without it, creators will be caught out by audiences, and in the modern world that can be suicide for the franchise. In The Last Jedi’s case, attention to continuity became the reason fans panned the film. Unable to look into the nuances of character, the turns of the story, and overall vision of the movie, it is now remembered as a tragic misstep for the franchise. Obi Wan Kenobi on Disney+ similarly suffered from audience wrath when it supposedly killed off a character that had already died onscreen at a later point in the timeline. Toying with continuity can be an interesting creative choice but making supposed changes to established events will only prove to alienate an audience.
Leading on from that point, audiences are the lifeblood of non-linear Transmedia. Where linear stories may misstep and recover, non-linear missteps are seen as more of a systemic issue with the story as a whole. After The Book of Boba Fett was somewhat poorly received, and Obi-Wan Kenobi played fast and loose with continuity and appeared to be cheaply made, audiences almost didn’t turn out for Andor.
Okay, let’s talk about the Emperor in the room.
Stories have played by certain structural rules for thousands of years. They’re fluid, flexible, and in some cases incredibly malleable. They should not be broken. This is exactly what Star Wars did in The Rise of Skywalker with three words.
This is the introduction to a third act of a story the trilogy was not telling. Audiences are not stupid. They knew this story beat was contrived, and the movie is rightfully abhorred for this reason. Non-Linear Transmedia is not about telling a story in the wrong order, but about exploiting entry points within stories to expand outwards rather than forwards. The end point is not an event like Infinity War and Endgame, but a full picture of a Galaxy at war.
But when is Star Wars complete? Some, like Liam Neeson, believe it’s already past complete. Others believe it can go on and on forever. They may be right. The Bad Batch is an example of how a story can be spun so far outwards that literally anyone has a story worth telling.
But, to return to a question as old as the Prequel Trilogy: What is the right way to watch Star Wars?
The fact is, there isn’t one anymore. At this point, audiences can watch hours upon hours of satisfying Star Wars material and never once hear the name ‘Skywalker’. This has, understandably, turned some audiences off. They don’t have time to play the games, watch the cartoons, and keep an eye on the cinema releases, and even if they did they won’t remember who the story is about, or where in the franchise it takes place.
With no ending, audiences can feel overwhelmed, and with more stories expanding into Transmedia, this is only going to become more prolific.
So, Which is Better?
The simple fact is, neither linear nor non-linear is the ‘perfect’ way to tell a Transmedia story. As previously mentioned, there are already existing Transmedia stories that walk the line between the two approaches, or in some cases totally disregard the structures altogether:
- The Matrix
- Harry Potter
- The Lord of The Rings
- Star Trek
- Doctor Who
The fact is, the story will decide how it is to be told. It will do this early on, so listen to what a story is telling you and stick to it. Betraying your story is betraying your audience, and neither are likely to forgive easily.
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