I pretty much checked out a while ago and haven’t seen any reason to check back in. As far as I’m concerned, the whole thing can only ever be a zombie franchise until the movies that actually made it what it is - namely, the original unaltered films - are given justice. The longer it continues in this zombie state, the more irrelevant it becomes.
This makes no sense to me.
I dunno, maybe you need to dive down further into the zombie metaphor to get it. “Zombie franchise” describes a franchise that keeps shuffling along after the thing that gave it life and soul is simply dead, gone, and no more. Seems apt so far. The more numerous the zombies become, and the longer they are around, the easier it is to dismiss it as just another irrelevant monster, forgetting that it once had a life and soul of its own. Still very true. And the only way to kill it is with a shovel to the neck. Yeah, okay, I admit that part could use some work. But it’s still way better than a car metaphor.