aeon flux
Aeon Flux
LIQUID TELEVISION: AEON FLUX, 1991. (c) MTV Networks/ Courtesy: Everett Collection.

If you haven’t already heard, MTV is revisiting Aeon Flux.  But not in the way that you might think.  This development is going to be a “live-action” reboot of the original series that ran during the 1990s.  The rebooted series is set in a future dystopian state and revolves around a young assassin who teams up with a group of biohacking rebels in order to save humanity.  The lead character becomes the hero, known as Aeon Flux.  The original show first aired on MTV back in 1991 and started as a six-part sequence of shorts that was featured as part of their Liquid Television experimental animation series.  It then returned in 1992 with 5 individual shorts, and then again 1995 as a 10-episode half-hour series.

Why are they bringing this back?  Honestly, what’s old is new again these days.  Hollywood has been bringing us all kinds of shows that were once popular when we were younger.  This concept is a bit of a crap-shoot when it comes to being successful because we simply don’t know.  Some re-boots have been successful – absolutely, but some of these shows make a comeback, and well, they’re a bit lackluster.  In this case, the show isn’t being rebooted in the same format.  Rather, MTV is taking an animated series and turning it into a live-action show.  While I’m not saying that this is the key, I do think that they might have some success in this regard.

I also think that there is something to be said about how we portray the future.  The whole idea of a “dystopian” future is getting a lot of airtime right now.  I think that this has a lot to do with the world we live in, and how both politics and technology are changing our culture at such a rapid rate.  That’s not to say that our future will look like any of these scenarios, but I think that we shouldn’t discredit any possibilities.  Did we ever think we would live in a world where artificial intelligence has advanced as rapidly as it has?  Did we ever think we would live in a time where self-driving cars were the norm?  Maybe, but they were always these far-fetched ideas that we read about in novels, or watched on TV.  Both of these things are a reality for us now, and I think that’s why these shows are popular right now.

aeon flux

The planned reboot sets the show in the future, at a time when only two cities have survived a global disaster.  Aeon, who is an assassin from the state of Monica, is tasked with infiltrating the rival state of Bregna, which is run by her enemy/lover Trevor Goodchild.  Of course, this is an action show, but there is also bound to be other themes emerge – because that’s what is going to make it.  If these two characters are both lovers and enemies, lines are going to get crossed and it’s going to be incredible.  Stay tuned for more details on this one.