Previous Story Tie-Ins

It seems like just reading a story is not enough – we want to know everything about what’s going on.  We used to be able to accept some story elements on background, but now we want to hear the entire tale, which means going into the Land of the Prequel.

The problem with prequels is that we already know where the story is heading, so how do we add an element of the unexpected?  From Star Wars(we know Anakin will become Darth Vader and the Empire will rise) to the world of Fantastic Beasts in the Harry Potter realm(we know Dumbledore will defeat Grindelwald), the ending of those prequels is what gets us into the stories we already know.  So how do we get tension without surprise, or at least surprise that doesn’t alter the story to follow?

To me, the most obvious way is to introduce some character we all become attached to, and then kill off that character.  In the Star Wars prequels, maybe that was Mace Windu or Qui Gon Gin.  My guess in the Fantastic Beasts series is that it’ll be either Queenie, Jacob, Porpentina, or Lyta(Lyta being the clearest choice, in my opinion, to set her family on the path that would lead to Bellatrix LeStrange).  But this is part of what makes prequels so hard because these characters we get attached to come somewhat out of the blue since they’re not really mentioned, if ever, in the original series that got us here.

So what’s the challenge?  Is there one?  I’ve struggled with this as I think about my own writing.  There’s an entire backstory to Homecoming, and I’ve dropped enough hints throughout the text to give an idea, but is the story worth it?  I don’t know.