Headscratchers / Screen Rant Pitch Meetings

• Is the "He's from the other movies!" Running Gag really supposed to be a dig at the characters it's used on? Some of the characters in question, such as Lando from The Rise of Skywalker, Barbossa from Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and Optimus Prime from Transformers: Age of Extinction aren't necessarily unpopular or poorly written, so it's hard to see what sort of problem Ryan has for them.
  • Not so much the characters themselves. More just what he sees as cheap references or badly done integration of characters. Like having a prequel include a popular character even if they logically should be like -11 years old given the series timeline. Plus, sometimes even if the character has a good purpose in that movie, the opening scene if made wrong or with too much focus on this character could come across as a poorly done "He's back" sequence. So he has the producer imitate what the real life producers hope is the audience's automatic reaction.