This is why the hero’s journey is outdated as a creative tool for writers
This journey created artistic and creative poverty in which an endless stream of formula movies blocked new stories and developments
A long time ago in what seems a galaxy far, far away, the world was quite simple. If film studios like Sony, Disney, Warner Bros or MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) wanted to make a blockbuster movie they simply needed to follow the recipe: an appealing narrative, preferably according to the Mehm structure (Mehm, 1992), good actors, an excellent movie director and a large sum of marketing money. Typically a movie was about two hours long, and it would be shown in large movie theatres with enormous screens and impressive Dolby sound systems.
In the span of two hours, an orphan that lived in a cupboard turned into a powerful wizard and saved an important stone; a young lion lost his father, was kicked out of his land and still somehow managed to become the king of the savanna; or a bullied student became a superhero after a spider bite. The ending is positive, all positive in 120 minutes for movies like Harry Potter, The Lion King and Spiderman that are built on what is called a hero’s journey structure.
This structure, also known as the monomyth, was first described by Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Campbell, 1949) and was cemented in 1992 when Disney screenwriter Christopher Vogler published The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Storytellers and Screenwriters (Mehm, 1992). Since the start of cinema, thousands of movies have been produced using the hero’s journey structure.
In television, a more compact hero’s journey also proved to be an effective tool for straight-forward television series like The A-Team or MacGyver. Nowadays, it is still a useful narrative for some movies and series, but the hero’s journey as a creative tool for writers is losing relevance and becoming outdated. This is not because it is a bad tool but because of the demand for other more complex, more balanced and more creative narratives that fit better with contemporary society.
Three driving forces can be identified behind the rising demand for alternative narratives. Firstly, due to the rise of streaming services, the way viewers consume television has drastically changed (Matrix, 2014). This has created an enormous liberation for storytelling and scriptwriting. Secondly, the world has changed dramatically since Joseph Campbell wrote The Hero with a Thousand Faces. The world needs more diverse and inclusive methods of storytelling than the simple tale of a hero on a journey (Drummond, 2017). Thirdly, the monomyth creates artistic and creative poverty where an endless stream of prequels and sequels hinders new stories and developments (Farquhar, 2017). In other words, the monomyth limits innovation in media.
Netflix has changed scriptwriting
Something that can not be said of Netflix, that even has its own official verb in the Dutch language (Onzetaal.nl, 2013) The streaming service is considered the biggest game-changer in the television world. After years as a DVD rental company, Netflix launched its streaming service in February of 2007. Over the next decade, Netflix extended its services to more than 100 countries and now is the largest paid streaming service. According to Netflix (Neflixinvestor.com, 2019) in 2019 Netflix had 167 million paying subscribers and almost 5 million free-trial customers. Along with Netflix other streaming services like Hulu and Amazon Prime were launched, like Hulu, Amazon Prime and more recently Disney and Apple has also joined this market.
Scriptwriters in the Netflix era do not have to take commercial breaks into account anymore.
The rise of streaming services has had a deep impact on the media landscape and media consumption, which has been coined the “Netflix effect” (Mittell, 2015; Matrix, 2014; Sharma, 2016). Three elements of the Netflix effect are relevant for its influence on storytelling: viewer environment, viewer engagement and producer circumstances.
Netflix has created more creative freedom for tv-stories
Traditional television demands commercial-friendly, low-risk series that are easy to catch up on (Sharma, 2016). Series that air on streaming services like Netflix no longer have to obey the rules of traditional commercial television with the limitations of schedules, timeslots, commercial breaks and seasons. The viewing environment has changed dramatically due to the appearance of streaming services. Before Netflix, a television show typically included a few commercial breaks. The narrative for commercial television is often designed in such a way as to encourage viewers to keep watching across the commercial break. “Without reliance on advertising or a linear schedule, it feels no need to restrict its target audience or content volume.” (Sharma, 2016). Scriptwriters in the Netflix era do not have to take commercial breaks into account anymore. This has helped with the loosening of the narrative structure and created greater liberty for screenwriters (Sharma, 2016).
Rising engagement means leverage for streaming services
Furthermore, the Netflix effect created additional drivers that changed the paradigm of television. For example, viewer engagement has increased with Netflix series as compared to regular television. Netflix commonly makes all episodes of a season available at once online. A season on Netflix is often viewed in a few days (binge-watching) or over a couple of weeks. On traditional television, a season can last up to three months or even more. In the case of Netflix, the viewer’s recollection of earlier episodes is higher. Also, unlike traditional television, viewers do not miss an episode. Thus, with Netflix viewers are more able to engage with a series than with traditional television (Matrix, 2014). For writers, this has meant greater freedom to write more in-depth stories. As Mittell (2015) explains: “The Netflix effect leads to more heavily serialized storytelling, in terms of shows featuring more complicated plot lines filled with embedded clues and mysteries that require viewers to pore over the minutiae of episodes.” This development has led to a growing demand for complex stories.
Currently, Netflix is spending billions of dollars on Netflix Originals that offer the complex stories viewers now demand. The company has evolved from a distribution platform to a content powerhouse. According to Statista, it spent $15 billion in 2019 on streaming content (Statista, 2019) Netflix’s sole source of revenue is subscriptions. The company has collected large amounts of data on consumers’ viewing habits. Based on research, Netflix can predict what types of series its customers are likely to enjoy. (Medium, 2018). Thus, for example, House of Cards was commissioned for two seasons before even a single piece of the show had been recorded. Netflix simply knows which plotline, setting and actors will receive high ratings. This gives the company the power to drive the story rather than the external factors that influence traditional television. Also, Netflix orders a full season, or in some cases even two seasons, at once. This offers producers, and therefore also screenwriters, more certainty than a traditional television series, which would sometimes be stopped due to declining ratings. This development has created a need for even more complex stories (Fennis, 2016).
There is a need for more diversity in script writing
Joseph Campbell wrote his famous book The Hero with a Thousand Faces over 60 years before Frank Underwood tried to become president of the United States in House of Cards. (Campbell, 1949). The television world, the real world, and our world view have changed dramatically since 1949, which raises the question of whether the hero’s journey as a narrative structure still fits contemporary society. Campbell conducted a thorough study on myths and narratives from across the globe. He concluded there was a common storytelling pattern across different geographical locations, eras and cultural backgrounds. Over the years, criticism of his findings has grown. There are three main reasons why his monomyth and The Hero with a Thousand Faces have lost relevance for modern storytelling: Campbell spoke from a Western point of view, there is evidence that cultural boundaries have more influence than Campbell recognized, and the modern media landscape has transformed such that everybody has the ability to produce media.
The criticism on the work of Joseph Campbell is centered around his research methods. Campbell’s work focuses on similarities between myths. There might be common motifs in these myths, but that does not mean they have the same lesson or meaning behind them (Jane, 2008). Also in his book Campbell ignores regions outside the Indo-European tradition, like East Asia and Africa (Seager, 2015). One can argue that the comparison from Campbell, therefore, does not provide a truly global insight into universal myths. Campbell believed that all myths tell a single story. He focused primarily on male mythic figures and stories that agreed with his own theosophical views (Priest, 2011). Priest states that the monomyth Campbell tells resonates strongly with Western audiences because it was written by a Westerner. Campbell wrote from a Western perspective, ignoring several parts of the world in his research and focusing on the male experience. (Priest, 2011).
The hero’s journey ignores important parts of our world
The criticism on the work of Campbell is there in abundance, but there is more backfire on the Hero’s Journey. Seve Seager states that the main issue with Campbell’s work lies in the monomyth itself (Seager, 2015). He argues that the proposed hero’s journey is intended to act as a grand unified theory of storytelling to help storytellers develop tales that anyone can connect with regardless of their culture and social background. However, this goal is not necessarily achieved. For instance, Seager (2015) points out that a Russian would have challenges understanding a Japanese story. It is evident that when it comes to storytelling there are limitations in crossing cultural boundaries that stem from differences in beliefs and plot structures. Cognitive linguists have also proven that stories are interpreted differently by different cultures (Chafe, 1975). By this, it is hard to argue that myths around the world all have the same meaning and it is even harder to see the work of Campbell as a global instrument.
From a single to a collective journey
One can conclude from the start on, the monomyth has had signification limitations in serving as a truly global storytelling tool. However, the situation has become even more complicated for the monomyth over the last ten years or so. The media landscape has changed at a radical pace with the rise of social media like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. This technology gives people across the globe more opportunities to connect and collaborate on different matters. The narrative, therefore, has slowly been shifting from one that focuses on an individual to one that embraces and encourages connectedness. Drummond argues that the monomyth, or the hero’s journey, is limited in delivering a narrative with a worldview that different people across the world can resonate with. (Drummond, 2017). For example, the Chief Executive Officer of Transmedia production studio, Jeff Gomez, is an advocate of the collective journey (Gomez, 2017). The collective journey facilitates the exploration of new ways of analyzing, telling and participating in narratives (Cron, 2013). This has been aided by interactive and engaging media technologies that inform as well as allow their audiences to respond and interact on various matters of international interest.
As stated earlier, the hero’s journey has been an extremely popular storytelling principle. Star Wars, Moana, The Matrix and many more movies tell stories that are built on the hero’s journey. After The Matrix two sequels were produced to continue the story, and the Star Wars saga still has not come to an end. According to critics, these may have been great movies, but sequels and prequels have clear limitations in the creativity of the movie scripts. The scripts have to be connected in some way, and usually, the same set of characters will be used in the movies. Furthermore, the popularity of the monomyth creates negative side effects. For example, scriptwriters might adjust their work excessively to fit into the well-known storytelling structure, and studios might over ask for scripts that are built on this proven story concept.
The use of the hero’s journey approach results in a decline in the originality and flavor of sequels and prequels.
This storytelling approach that utilizes the hero’s journey leads to the existence of numerous sequels and prequels. Even though these may be successful works, they limit the resources that could have been invested in more creative endeavors (Farquhar, 2017). While some movie-lovers may not consciously recognize the formulaic storyline, they do recognize it at the subconscious level. As a result, the tendency of all genres to use the hero’s journey approach results in a decline in the originality and flavor of sequels and prequels. The reception of such sequels and prequels is poor among the general public (Farquhar, 2017). Overuse discourages the audience from enjoying stories based on the hero’s journey concept.
The monomyth is a formula
The monomyth is a formula (Jane, 2008) that is used as a checklist and discourages originality. “You’re encouraging people to plagiarize the hell out of old stories. Instead of championing stories that are different,” says Charlie Jane in Gizmodo (Jane, 2008). Campbell, of course, did not think he was describing a formula, but nowadays the hero’s journey is effectively used as one. By this effect, the hero’s journey has become a tourist trap (Cron, 2013). According to Cron writers craft plots in which these events occur, rather than crafting protagonists whose internal progress depends on said events occurring. Rather than writing a creative story, writers throw dramatic obstacles into their protagonist’s path because the timeline tells them to. The push to force-fit all novels and screenplays into the hero’s journey paradigm results in a formulaic storyline that movie-lovers can easily recognize and predict, argues Cron. (Cron, 2013).
Farquhar (2017) argues also that the hero’s journey has been forced to fit in many story genres over recent years. He attributes this trend to Mehm from Disney who wrote The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Storytellers and Screenwriters (Mehm, 1992). According to Farquhar, after the publication of this book, a large number of movie scripts were written using the hero’s journey because financing for these kinds of movies was easier to secure than for other narrative structures. Movie studios had a high demand for scripts based on the hero’s journey. One can argue that the monomyth, therefore, created artistic and creative poverty in which an endless stream of formula movies blocked new stories and developments. In other words, the monomyth has limited the innovation of media.
The hero’s journey is still useful as a narrative structure. However, it is important to recognize its limitations, and in doing so, it becomes apparent that departure from the monomyth as global storytelling principle is eminent.
Due to the rise of streaming services like Netflix and Hulu, there is a growing demand for more complex stories, far more complex than regular commercial television with its limits in the schedule, breaks and season ever would demand. Viewers are more engaged with series on streaming services, and they want to be entertained with embedded clues and mysteries. Netflix understands what the audience likes and dares to order hours of television even before one shot of the film has been made. Netflix commissions sometimes two lengthy seasons at once. Writers need to submit complex and lengthy stories, which might not be the best fit for the hero’s journey narrative.
Furthermore, there is growing criticism of Campbell’s work, which has been labeled too Western, too male and lacking in true global insight due to its failure to recognize several parts of the world. Also, one can argue that cultural boundaries are a roadblock for stories to travel around the world. Maybe there are similarities in myths across cultures, but it is doubtful that the message of these myths is as unified as Campbell believed.
Since Campbell wrote his Hero with A Thousand Faces, the world has changed. Over recent decades the media landscape has evolved at a radical pace with the rise of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. In this world, people are connected and do collaborate. Therefore contemporary society needs a more collective journey than that of a single hero.
The monomyth has served as a practical and money-making story principle for the entertainment industry, but almost three decades after Mehm wrote his famous book based on Campbell’s work, it is time to move on. The monomyth resulted in an endless stream of formula films, hindered the creativity of screenwriters and served as a crutch to movie studios that relied too easily on the proven concept of the hero’s journey as a story structure. Therefore, it is time to leave the ordinary world of the hero’s journey and embark for the unknown.
References
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Cron, L. (2013). Why The Hero’s Journey is a Tourist Trap. Retrieved 13 February 2020, from: https://writerunboxed.com/2013/06/13/why-the-heros-journey-is-a-tourist-trap/
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Gomez, J. (2017) When It Comes to Story, You’re Not Getting It.
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Seager, S. (2015). Beyond the Hero’s Journey: Four innovative models for digital story design. Retrieved 13 February 2020, from: https://www.steveseager.com/heros-journey-four- innovative-narrative-models-digital-story-design/
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