It's always been done, consciously or subconsciously, and if it ever stops the tradition will die. If the rewrite is good it will live on, and if not it will fade away. It won't destroy the original. Go for it!

On the sbuject of The Seven Yellow Gypsies, I wonder if the The Gypsy's Wedding Day could be considered a possible prequel to it ('Once I was a gypsy girl, but now a squire's bride').

Valmai (Lewes)