The issue might have to do with a drive for selling to an international market:
How the Global Box Office is Changing HollywoodThat is, if more than two-thirds of revenues now come from international markets, then movies have to be adjusted to meet the latter. That means higher costs to pay for higher marketing budgets, lots of spectacle (involving CGI) and lots of content (to make the film longer than two hours) to justify the high ticket prices, less sophisticated storytelling because the movies have to be marketed across several language barriers, in some cases hiring A-listers (and even from different countries) to make foreign audiences happy, selling U.S. ideals of good triumphing over evil, preferably PG ratings to hit the viewer sweet spot (to target younger audiences who won't think they're watching a family movie), high turnaround to cover overhead (that means lots of prequels, sequels, reboots, remakes, re-imagination, etc., and mine all those older TV shows and movies), etc.
And as more foreign companies (including those from China) become major investors, then one should not be surprised if many franchises are significantly modified to cater to the largest audiences.
