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Every hero has an origin story, but a new trend is cresting where storytellers feel like maybe you've seen it already - and they can skip ahead.

As we enter into an age where all major Marvel and DC heroes have had at least one movie reboot, the writers, directors, and studioheads realize you've seen those reboots before; and unless its dramatically different than what they're aiming for with their new film, they don't need to repeat it. This summer's Superman from DC Studios and Fantastic Four: The First Steps are both boldly stepping away from telling their heroes' origins - a first for both franchise - for that entirely refreshing reason.

And Marvel Studios set the stage for it nearly a decade ago.

How Marvel Studios broke the origin mold with Spider-Man: Homecoming

Two years before Spider-Man: Homecoming hit theaters, Marvel Studios began making it clear for people not to expect a new retelling of the Spider-Man origin - and with a good reason that listens to fans.

"In Spider-Man’s very specific case, where there have been two retellings of that origin in the last whatever it’s been – [13] years – for us we are going to take it for granted that people know that, and the specifics," Feige told CraveOnline in 2015. "It will not be an origin story. But, with great power comes great responsibility. It is inherent to who his character is. But we want to reveal it in different ways and spend much more time focusing on this young high school kid in the MCU dealing with his powers."

And through three movies, Marvel Studios held off in showing how Peter Parker got his powers - or even showing an Uncle Ben. The writers of Spider-Man: No Way Home have said there was discussion of having a scene with Tom Holland and Marisa Tomei's characters talk about the late Uncle Ben, but they cut it, leaving only the Easter Egg of Uncle Ben's suitcase in the film if you know where to look.

How Fantastic Four: First Steps, The Batman, and now Superman took the hint

This summer, Fantastic Four director/writer Matt Shakman told the Hollywood Reporter that his film was doing the same thing.

"One of the things we decided early on was not to do an origin story. One of the ways we’re making it our own thing is we’re not telling the story of them going up and being changed, and starting our story [there],” Shakman said. “There’s a lot of well-known narrative that leads into that moment, right? And then you’re making up your new story starting basically at the end of the first act, and we thought, ‘Well, let’s just start this thing off on a completely new foot. So we are beginning after that."

So while not as many people have seen the previous Fantastic Four movies - like the previous Spider-Man movies, they feel it was enough (maybe more than enough) to move beyond that element of their story.

In 2022's The Batman, director/co-writer Matt Reeves took similiar steps and assumed the hero's origin was known enough to not focus on it, and later this year the new Superman movie will do the same according to writer/director James Gunn.

"We just start in the middle of the action. Superman already exists," Gunn tells ComicBook. "Lois and Clark already know each other. Lex hates Superman’s guts from the beginning, although they don’t know each other personally. So we start right in the middle of the action. It takes place over a short amount of time."

And Gunn is doing the same for his version of Batman, as just witnessed in Max's Creature Commandos.

"I think it's a great way to show that Batman does exist, he already exists in this universe," Gunn says.. "Batman is a part of this universe, he's an important part of this universe, and he has an impact on it, including defeating pretty dangerous, scary people like [Doctor] Phosphorus."  

What it means for superhero movies & TV shows going forward

For those of you thinking this is the death of origin stories in superhero adaptations, hold off on that. As you can see from the storytellers, its only done when the origin is of a hero already widely known to the general public. So we'll likely see an origin for Simon Williams in Marvel Studios' upcoming Wonder Man TV series, and no doubt will we get a story telling us how DC Studios' The Authority formed. 

These modern film-makers aren't taking away the origin stories of your favorite heroes - they'll always be there, in comics, in the movies, in the TV stories, and in the shared history we all have now.

Keep up to date on Popverse's Marvel coverage, with these highlights:

• The MCU needs Anya Taylor-Joy's Magik in it (and not just for the X-Men connection)
• How Disney+'s What If...? is the moonshot for the next 50 years of Marvel Studios & the MCU
• Marvel Studios has accidentally created a new Phase that predates Phases 1 - 6: the MCU Phase Zero
• Overgrown children of the atom: Marvel's X-Men can't evolve past their '90s commercial peak
• The biggest outstanding questions of the Marvel Studios' movies & TV shows
• Donald Trump is the landlord for Marvel's House of Ideas
• Marvel Studios swapping out Doctor Doom for Kang offers the chance to jettison the Multiverse Saga
• What Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige is saying (and not saying) about the MCU X-Men franchise says a lot about the future of the Mutant Saga
• If Marvel is going to bring Loki back for Secret Wars, it's time to give him an upgrade
• In 2021, Sony's boss said people won't miss Spider-Man in its Spider-adjacent movie. Turns out, they do.