Margot Robbie’s Ocean’s 11 Prequel Can Fix A Long-Running Franchise Problem

[Nergal]

 

 

The Ocean's franchise is being rebooted with Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling in the main roles, and it has the potential to fix the franchise's biggest problem. While Warner Bros. has the DCU, Harry Potter, and many other financially successful franchises, the Ocean's series is one of the studio's most reliable of them all. Audiences show up in droves to see ensemble casts of movie stars stylishly rob millionaires, and even the negatively received films in the series are huge hits. So it comes as no surprise that the studio is rebooting the franchise once again, just a few years after the last movie.

The Robbie and Gosling-starring Ocean's movie marks the third reboot of the series. It follows director Steven Soderbergh's 2000s Ocean's trilogy, which was a reboot of the 1960 original, and Ocean's 8, which was successful at the box office but was critically slammed for repeating the 2001 movie by the book and repeating the biggest problem the previous four movies had. However, there's enough separating the new reboot from everything that came before it, as the new Ocean's film is set in the 60s, putting a period-setting spin on the franchise. And, above all else, it can finally end the series' neverending gender problem.

Ocean’s 11 Reboot Should Feature Both Male & Female Con Artists
 

 

While Ocean's 14 has the perfect premise, it's yet to find its perfect cast, but the casting of Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling is a promising start. The con artist teams in the Ocean's movies have never been made up of both female and male characters, but the two movie stars' casting hints that Warner Bros. is finally correcting that problem. The remaining members could be made up of nine other stylish movie stars, male and female. However, if Robbie or Gosling ends up simply being a non-crook love interest like Tess (Julia Roberts), the movie will have failed the one thing it can fix about the franchise.

All 5 Ocean’s Movies Failed With Their All-Male/All-Female Teams
 

 

While the original Ocean’s 11, which was released in the '60s, was made up of the Rat Pack, Soderbergh’s 2001 Ocean’s reboot could have easily introduced females into the group. There's no reason why Rusty, Reuben, or any other character couldn't have been a woman. And though Ocean’s Twelve added Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta-Jones into the mix, they weren’t officially part of the team. Then, Ocean’s Thirteen totally undid what little progress Ocean’s Twelve made by not having a single female involved. And in 2018, Ocean’s 8 tried balancing the scale with an all-female reboot, which just highlighted the original imbalance further.

Robbie and Gosling's chemistry must be off the charts, as they're playing Barbie and Ken in Barbie. The fact that they're returning in a movie together hints that they could be great on screen, which is promising for the Ocean's reboot. Between Robbie and Gosling's chemistry and the chance it could have a diverse and balanced mix of con artists, the Ocean's reboot stands a chance of being the best in the franchise yet. Though there's still a long way for the reboot to go, as it needs to find a director as great as Soderbergh and a cast of Robbie and Gosling's caliber, as that's the main appeal of the series.