Recently,Disney+has announced that they are beginning to work on a new TV series, an adaptation of the popular fantasy book series,The Inheritance Cycle.More commonly known asEragon, after the first book’s title, this joins another of the service’s adaptations of a popular book series that already had poorly received adaptations,includingPercy Jackson and the Olympians.
The stories follow a young man, Eragon, who finds and hatches a rare dragon egg, bonding himself to the dragon and becoming a dragon rider. The ruler of the lands, Galbatorix, is also a rider, but killed all the other riders because of his want for power and everything they did to him. Some of his most elite assassins are sent after Eragon, who now has to run from his old farming life and get swept up in a revolution to free the land from Galbatorix’s rule as he and his dragon, Saphira, learn the ins and outs of their bond, their new-found magic, and how to be such an important figure in the resistance. The movie definitely had its faults, however, and fans can only hope the series will do better.
The Negative Reception of the Eragon Movie
By all accounts,Eragonwas a box office success. With a budget of about $100 million,it made $250 million in theaters— a pretty big gain for something that ultimately failed. The studio and director were prepared to make an entire film series to adapt all four of the books, sinceEragonwas a New York Times Best Seller and started the author Christopher Paolini’s career. The movie received two Saturn award nominations too, one for Best Fantasy Film and one for the lead actor. However, the reviews and reactions of the audience and critics are what really did the movie in.
Related:Disney+ Announces Price Hike and Ad-Supported Tier Coming By the End of 2022
There were many faults the movie had in the audience’s eyes. Some people took issue with the acting and dialogue, claiming they were both stiff and felt lifeless, falling flat in the eyes of anyone who had seen it, whether they were fans of the original material or not. Some of its visuals were also criticized, though the CGI was thought to be good by some people. The biggest problem, however, was the unfaithfulness to the source material. Many fans had a hard time liking the many differences the film included, and for adaptations, how close or far away from the source material the movie is can make or break it.
The Fans Ended One Adaptation and Started Another
Some of the many differences theEragonmovie decided to change from the books are simple, like appearance changes, that might not have affected the film if they were the only changes. As long as the mark Eragon receives after touching Saphira exists because of its importance, it doesn’t matter that much what it looks like or where it is. Saphira herself is also different, but still a dragon and still blue, if not duller than what she sounded like in the books.
However, there were many character and plot issues the movie ran into. Arya, Eragon’s love interest for the series, has a cold personality and never really showed him any romantic affection, but the movie changed both of those entirely. Some other important characters were also changed too far for them to still have the same later significance, like Angela, or were removed altogether, like Orik. The plot also changes completely when Galbatorix actually knows the location ofall the elvenand dwarven cities, and is trying to kill Eragon and Saphira instead of recruiting them to rebuild the riders under his rule.
Related:MCU Shows on Disney+: A Guide to What’s Coming in 2022-2023
For around 15 years, the fans had to accept the single adaptation and its failure, especially knowing that with many of those changes to the first book alone, the subsequent movies only would have been less and less faithful. Things changed when Disney bought 20th Century Fox, now owning the rights toThe Inheritance Cycle.Fans took to Twitter in 2021 andmade #EragonRemake trend worldwide, successfully trying to show Disney just how much interest there would be for it. It was led by none other than Christopher Paolini himself, who rallied his fans together to all tweet together around the same time on the same day, bringing a roaring success and finally announcing the new adaptation in 2022.
The Eragon Series Already Has More Potential
The series is already on the right track, as Christopher Paolini is directly involved as a co-writer and producer. It’ll be very hard for the series to get it wrong when the original author is involved, as he knows the world and the characters the best. There are definitely things they need to keep in mind as they begin to work on the show, however, and this can definitely be helped by keeping in mind the movie’s mistakes. By remembering what the plot is and what’s important to it, they can make the adaptation as true as they can while pleasing all the fans who were angry with the movie’s mistakes.
Whether appearances are the same as they are in the book, the important thing is to verify all the right characters are in the series too, and in the right way. Fixing Angela and Arya will be important, and adding characters that didn’t appear but are important for future plot points, like Orik and Solembum, will be necessary to make a good adaptation. Every character is important in their own way to the story, even if they only have a small role at first. Bringing the world together in the way it was originally written will not only make fans happy, but it will make the show a wonderful new fantasy adventure to explore.
