There’s no doubt that sci-fi was once an incredibly niche genre for movies, television, books and gaming. Even the success of movie franchises such as Star Wars and TV shows like Battlestar Galactica didn’t bring sci-fi entirely into the mainstream. Sure, these things were popular and they opened the genre to so many people, but even after those successes, sci-fi was still considered the realm of the geek or nerd.
However, in recent years we’ve seen a massive shift in attitude towards science fiction in general. From Oscar nominations and wins in cinema to the massive influence of the genre on the world of video games, here’s how sci-fi has taken over the world of entertainment.
Movies
In the cinematic universe, sci-fi has always drawn in the crowds, but it still fell short when it came to consistent success and critical acclaim. The Oscars didn’t care much for the genre and it was seen as more of an action niche that was rarely taken seriously.
All that changed when advances in technology resulted in incredible visual effects that brought fantasy worlds and creatures to life. Films like Avatar broke new ground in the genre creating a completely new world in Pandora. Where the worlds of Star Wars were relatable, James Cameron and his crew brought us a completely new experience. But it wasn’t until the ground-breaking Everything Everywhere All At Once that we saw the first sci-fi movie to win Best Picture at the Oscars.
In fact 2023, was a breakthrough year for the genre with Everything Everywhere All At Once picking up 11 nominations. Meanwhile Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was nominated in five categories, Avatar: The Way of Water was nominated in four, and The Batman earned three nominations. Never before have we seen that many nominations for sci-fi movies.
Star Wars blazed a trail in the 70s, but it has taken almost four decades for the cinematic world to catch up and now it looks like nothing will be able to stop it.
Gaming
The gaming industry has always been a hotbed of sci-fi themes allowing players to immerse themselves in unique worlds and alternate realities. But it’s only in the past decade or so that we have seen these themes permeate the industry so thoroughly that sci-fi is by far and away the most popular sub category in gaming.
The sci-fi theme can be seen in pretty much every niche of the gaming industry and we’re not just talking about regular video games. It has even made its way into the online casino industry. Online platforms host sci-fi and space themed titles such as the ever popular Reactoonz series of slots and its most recent iteration Dr Toonz. In fact, sci-fi themes are hugely popular in the online slots industry accounting for some of the most popular titles online.
Where the genre has really come to life though is in the massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) niche. Games such as Fortnite have consistently smashed records for player volumes and even revenues from games. They have also broken new ground with immersive experiences such as virtual concerts played in virtual worlds by real world artists. There’s nothing more sci-fi than actually living an experience which would have been considered completely fictional just a decade ago.
And that brings us to the world of music.
Music
As mentioned earlier, the sci-fi gaming genre has led to some, frankly, quite incredible innovations such as the virtual Fortnite concerts. These include performances by artists such as Marshmello and Travis Scott, amongst others.
But sci-fi had made its mark on music long before Fortnite. We can go all the way back to 1969 when David Bowie took the music industry by surprise with his trailblazing ‘Space Oddity’. This was the first true marriage between music and science fiction and led to scores of similar releases that were heavily influenced by the genre. These included albums by Rush, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, to name but a few.
In later years, the launch of MTV and the growing popularity of the music video gave artists license to play with sci-fi themes even when songs were clearly not related to the genre. One of the most popular examples of this is Britney Spears’ hit song ‘Oops I Did It Again’. In recent years the sci-fi theme has continued to dominate music videos with Eminem’s ‘We Made You’, Aerosmith’s ‘Amazing’, and Doja Cat’s ‘Kiss Me More’.
From critically acclaimed movies to space-themed video games and everything in between, it’s clear that science fiction has transcended its niche origins to become one of the most popular and influential themes in the world of entertainment.
