Declaring War on Bad Fantasy Movie and Show Adaptations

The purpose of this article is to declare a State of Emergency regarding the worrying state of fantasy movie and show adaptations.

The purpose of this article is to:

1. Declare a State of Emergency regarding the worrying state of fantasy movie and show adaptations.
2. Formally declare war against showrunners, production companies, and streaming networks that fail to carry out due diligence with scripts and casting for fantasy movie and show adaptations.
3. A call to literal arms against all forces of misappropriation of cultural and intellectual property within the publishing and motion picture industries.

Okay, okay, it’s not that deep! I’m not about to get all foul-mouthed and aggressive. I’m only looking to make my thoughts known on what’s been on the lips of the book fandom for some time now.

Murmurs of discontent

It’s not funny anymore.

Ever since Peter Jackson worked his magic to great effect in The Lord of the Rings, there’s been something of a scramble to make the next best live-action adaptation in the fantasy genre.

Many have attempted. Many have failed. Warner Bros. Pictures’ Harry Potter, HBO’s Game of Thrones, and Netflix’s The Sandman are rare adaptation successes in what is fast becoming a post-apocalyptic field of figurative castaway gear, outdated equipment, and other rotting and dead things.

The fandom is growing frustrated. The murmurs are getting louder, and the fan bases are getting riled up.

The Wheel of Time fiasco

The Wheel of Time books, the absolute darling of fans worldwide, was adapted for TV in November 2021 by Amazon Prime. A huge undertaking it was, with the showrunners faced with the mammoth task of transmitting the complex plot and huge character lineup to a suitable motion picture format. From the start, it was obvious that it would be a hugely expensive production.

But dive in, they did. And, after delivering three decent seasons, they abruptly announced the show’s cancellation on the 23rd of May, 2025. While Amazon Prime’s The Wheel of Time was far from perfect, it had understandably captured the attention of several fans globally, who, like the book fandom, found the allure of Randland irresistible.

Amazon Prime’s adaptation of Robert Jordan’s eternal fantasy classic won the hearts of millions of viewers around the world, who were enthralled by the performances of Rosamund Pike, Marcus Rutherford, Zoë Robins, Josha Stradowski, Daniel Henney, and co.

Even most of the purist fandom who groaned with the release of each episode at the poor handling of the plot threads would grudgingly agree that the cast, more than anything, brought the story to life.

Unfortunately, none of that matters anymore. The show has been cancelled, and Robert Jordan (R.I.P.) would be fuming from the beyond at how his legacy wasn’t just massacred, but treated with utter disregard. The producers, to their credit, did their best.

But it just wasn’t enough.

The fanbase goes mad

As expected, the news of The Wheel of Time‘s cancellation was mostly not well received. Fans of the shows railed and cursed, and rightly so!

In an even crazier twist, some sections of the fanbase lashed out at other Amazon Prime productions, specifically The Rings of Power, another fantasy adaptation.

The most likely reason for the show’s cancellation was the realization that the same production line could not simultaneously fund the two most expensive fantasy shows ever produced. With The Rings of Power alone consuming a budget of roughly $1 billion and $260 million spent on the first two seasons of The Wheel of Time, something was bound to give at some point.

In the 48 hours since the unfortunate news broke, every possible entity has been blamed, from the showrunners to Amazon Prime, and even Donald Trump, the American president, whose controversial economic policies were speculated to have strained any fiscal wiggle room Amazon had.

But all of this matters not. The deed is done.

The aftermath of this figurative bloodbath prompts bigger questions, however, particularly about the viability of fantasy show and movie adaptations in the future.

Should fans take the flops in stride or not?

Regardless of what the purists in the book fantasy fandom think, it is unfair to mount movies and show adaptations on the same pedestal. Movies are a vastly different storytelling vehicle from books, and various elements will be invariably lost in their adaptation.

While motion picture producers are not necessarily obliged to carry out faithful adaptations, they are nevertheless obliged to try. With The Wheel of Time series, so much was butchered that the author himself would be rolling in his grave. Still, it is credit to the showrunners that the production managed to amass such a huge following before it was finally cancelled.

But this brings into question whether fantasy adaptations should be attempted at all, especially in the case of the biggest epic classics. It is one thing to adapt a marginally successful fantasy book. It’s quite another thing to take on one of the greatest fantasy series of all time. It’s a huge responsibility. And, it could be argued that representative entities of the respective fandoms ought to be consulted before such productions get underway.

Call it gatekeeping if you like, but you wouldn’t expect a farmer to lie stock-still while robbers loot the heirlooms of his forebears.

More worrying news

Even as movie and book fans of The Wheel of Time are reeling from the shock cancellation of the TV series, more unsavory news crests the horizon.

There are rumors that the upcoming Netflix adaptation of C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, directed by Greta Gerwig, may feature a female Aslan, potentially voiced by Meryl Streep. 

The issue with this isn’t even about female lions not having manes, or the fact that such a change would bastardize the Christ-like significance of C.S. Lewis’ Aslan. It’s the fact that it’s such an utterly abhorrent and unnecessary deviation from the original story!

And that’s not all!

With filming for the adaptation of Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone series officially underway ahead of a projected January 2027 release, there’s concern among many in Nigeria, the world’s most populous black nation, about how well the show will replicate the intricacies of Yoruba myths on screen. After all, there were several glaring cases of cultural misappropriation in the books.

At this point, questions need to be asked.

Why are fantasy stories being adapted?

Why aren’t producers doing more to stay faithful to the source material, or at least deliver quality adaptations?

Or, is this just pure capitalism at work, an attempt at milking the life out of every vibrant fantasy story out there without a care as to how fans of the original works feel?

Unfortunately, the book fandom can only rail and curse. For as long as the corporations rule the roost, they are able to do as they please and get away with virtually anything.

What next for fantasy show and movie adaptations?

There’s a school of thought that fantasy adaptations should be limited to animation. And, while this approach may solve some problems with budgetary constraints, it’s hard to resist the allure of live action.

Fantasy stories are particularly tricky to adapt to motion picture primarily due to the heavy worldbuilding that characterises most works in the genre. This, more than anything, is the reason why companies like Amazon have to spend close to the GDPs of a small country to enact them.

It’s not easy. And, despite the flak that many fantasy shows get, it remains a privilege to see beloved worlds come to life on the big screen.

However, whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well.

The rallying cry

So, where does the fandom head from here? To watch fantasy adaptations or to shun them altogether?

Do our opinions even matter? Or are we doomed to an endless cycle of half-baked productions that continue to corrupt the memory of our favourite classics?

What can the fandom do about this incessant sacrilege? This has gone beyond signing online petitions, spamming comments sections, or rants on X. When will the revolution start?

One thing is certain, however. Something must give, either on the part of the capitalist producers or the authors who sell them rights to their work.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments!