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The Disastrous 2000s Fantasy Fox Thought Could Rival Harry Potter & Lord Of The Rings
Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings are two of the biggest fantasy franchises out there, and Fox once hoped a 2006 film could rival them — though this didn’t go as planned. The 2000s were a pivotal time for fantasy movies, with Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings both showcasing the genre’s potential. This resulted in a push for more adaptations in the category. High fantasy hadn’t blown up on TV just yet, and Hollywood was committed to bringing such stories to the big screen. The results of this were hit-or-miss; many of the fantasy projects to emerge in the 2000s and 2010s weren’t as successful as studios had hoped, from The Golden Compass to The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones.
And one disastrous fantasy film from Fox was meant to be the next big franchise, ideally competing with titles like Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings. This was a tall order, as both IPs already had massive followings and exceeded all expectations of what the category could do. However, the movie in question didn’t just fail to live up to the high standards set before it. It also became a critical flop, eliminating any hopes of sequels. Fortunately, it could get another chance on the screen in the near future.
Fox’s Eragon Movie Was Supposed to Rival Harry Potter & Lord of the Rings
2006’s Eragon was one of many fantasy movies to adapt beloved source material in the 2000s, taking on Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle. The bestselling young adult books were big at the time, and their rich storytelling and world-building made them obvious contenders for an adaptation. The fact that the series followed a young boy who discovers and bonds with a dragon only made it more promising. After all, Harry Potter saw success by thrusting a young protagonist into extraordinary circumstances, and viewers were hungry for similar offerings, hence the rush to tackle titles like Eragon, Percy Jackson & the Olympians, and His Dark Materials.
Eragon was meant to give Fox a stake in that race, but unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way. The studio had the right idea when adapting Eragon, but sadly, the 2006 film failed to capture the magic of the books, much less the success of franchises as huge as Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings. In terms of box office numbers, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but it also wasn’t impressive. Per The Numbers, it made around $250,000 worldwide on a budget of $100,000 — meaning it was slightly profitable, even after marketing costs. However, critically speaking, the film was a failure. It received negative reviews, getting a 15% critic score and 46% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Its reception nixed any chances of a sequel, dashing Fox’s hopes of a franchise.
Why the Eragon Movie Failed
Many factors contributed to the Eragon movie’s failure, all of them leading back to a single truth: it simply didn’t capture what made the book great. The 2000s may not have been the best time to attempt a dragon story, as the effects weren’t yet where they needed to be. The film wasn’t impressive visually, nor did it convey Eragon and Saphira’s bond as well as the source material. Mental connections are always tricky to adapt, and a movie’s runtime didn’t allow viewers to get fully invested in the main characters, dampening the impact.
Additionally, the film changed elements of the source material, including its ending. This didn’t offer hope for a faithful adaptation of the rest of the series, and it turned fans of the books off of the project. With mainstream audiences struggling to get attached and established readers disappointed, Eragon didn’t successfully win over either group it needed to. It could get another chance to shine if its Disney+ reboot comes to fruition, however.
Disney’s Eragon Reboot Gives the Series Another Chance On-Screen
Fox’s Eragon movie may have had disappointing results, but there’s still a chance to bring Paolini’s story to the screen in a more satisfying way. In 2022, Disney announced that it would take another crack at adapting Eragon, reigniting hopes of finally seeing the entire Inheritance Cycle in live-action. Sadly, there’s been little in the way of updates since the Disney+ project was green-lit. However, other remakes offer hope that a TV show can succeed where the previous adaptation failed.
Percy Jackson & the Olympians is a prime example, as Disney is in the process of delivering a faithful adaptation of Rick Riordan’s books after the movies proved disappointing. The longer runtime ensures that nothing is lost in translation, and this is largely why HBO’s His Dark Materials works better than The Golden Compass as well. HBO Max is taking the same approach with Harry Potter, which is trickier given the movies’ legacy. However, Hollywood is realizing that TV is a better medium for doing fantasy book series justice. If Disney follows through on Eragon, it could be the next project to see better results the second time around. And after the 2006 movie, the creators have a good idea of what not to do.
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