Recently, Disney+ announced that they are starting work on a new TV series, an adaptation of the popular fantasy book series, The inheritance cycle. Better known as Eragonafter the title of the first book, this joins one of the service’s adaptations of a popular book series that already had poorly received adaptations, including Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
The stories follow a young man, Eragon, who finds and hatches a rare dragon egg, bonds to the dragon and becomes a dragon rider. The ruler of the land, Galbatorix, is also a horseman, but killed all the other horsemen because of his need for power and everything they did to him. Some of his most elite assassins are sent after Eragon, who now has to flee from his old farm life and is dragged into a revolution to liberate the land from Galbatorix’s rule as he and his dragon, Saphira, discover the ins and outs of their band, their newfound magic, and how to be such an important figure in the Resistance. However, the movie certainly had its flaws and fans can only hope that the series will do better.
The negative reception of the Eragon movie
According to all accounts, Eragon was a box office success. With a budget of approximately $100 million, it made $250 million in theaters – a pretty big win for something that ultimately failed. The studio and director were willing to make an entire film series to adapt all four books since Eragon was a New York Times Bestseller and began the career of author Christopher Paolini. The film also received two Saturn Award nominations, one for Best Fantasy Film and one for the lead actor. However, the reviews and reactions from audiences and critics are what really made the film do.
There were many flaws that the film had in the eyes of the audience. Some people disagreed with the acting and dialogue, claiming that they were both stiff and felt lifeless and fell flat in the eyes of anyone who had seen it, whether they were fans of the original material or not. Some of his images were also criticized, although some people thought the CGI was good. The biggest problem, however, was the disloyalty to the source material. Many fans struggled with the many differences the film contained, and for adaptations, how close or far away from the source material the film is can make or break it.
The fans ended one adaptation and started another
Some of the many differences that the Eragon movie decided to change out of the books are simple like appearance changes which might not have affected the movie if these were the only changes. As long as the mark Eragon receives after touching Saphira exists because of its importance, it doesn’t really matter what it looks like or where it is. Saphira herself is also different, but still a dragon and still blue, if not duller than how she sounded in the books.
However, there were many character and plot issues that the film ran into. Arya, Eragon’s love for the series, has a cold personality and never showed him any romantic affection, but the movie completely changed both of them. Some other important characters were also changed too far to have the same later meaning, such as Angela, or were removed altogether, such as Orik. The plot also changes completely when Galbatorix knows the location of all the elven and dwarf cities, and tries to kill Eragon and Saphira instead of recruiting them to rebuild the horsemen under his rule.
For about 15 years, fans had to accept the single adaptation and its failure, especially knowing that with many of those changes to the first book, only the following films would have been less and less faithful. Things changed when Disney bought 20th Century Fox, now owns the rights to The inheritance cycle. Fans took to Twitter in 2021 and made the #EragonRemake trend worldwide, successfully trying to show Disney how much interest there would be. It was led by none other than Christopher Paolini himself, who gathered his fans to all tweet together around the same time on the same day, bringing a roaring success and eventually announcing the new adaptation in 2022.
The Eragon series already has more potential
The series is already on the right track with Christopher Paolini directly involved as a co-writer and producer. It will be very hard for the series to be wrong if the original author is involved as he knows the world and the characters best. However, there are things they should keep in mind as they start working on the show, and this can certainly be helped by keeping the film’s flaws in mind. By remembering what the plot is and what’s important to it, they can make the adaptation as truthful as possible, while also satisfying all the fans who were mad at the film’s flaws.
Whether the appearance is the same as in the book, the most important thing is to make sure that all the right characters appear in the series, and in the right way. Fixing Angela and Arya will be important, and adding characters that didn’t appear but are important to future plot points, such as Orik and Solembum, will be necessary to make a good adaptation. Each character is important to the story in their own way, even if they have only a small role in the beginning. Bringing the world together 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.