Brandon Sanderson, one of the most popular fantasy authors, recently criticized adaptations like Amazon’s The Rings of Power. He also questioned why Netflix ignored Henry Cavill’s advice on The Witcher.
Sanderson, known for creating the Cosmere universe (home to the Mistborn series and The Stormlight Archive), as well as writing superhero stories and finishing the last three books of The Wheel of Time, shared his concerns about how epic fantasy stories are handled. He also explained why none of his own famous works have been adapted yet—at least for now.
In an interview with Polygon, Brandon Sanderson shared that one of the main reasons he hasn’t moved forward with adaptations is the problems he sees with streaming. He mentioned that The Rings of Power and The Wheel of Time didn’t turn out as well as he had hoped, adding…
Streaming has had a big problem with epic fantasy, and this has me worried. Rings of Power and Wheel of Time have not gone as well as I would’ve hoped. Shadow and Bone lasted only two seasons, after a very strong first season. Streaming hasn’t figured out epic fantasy yet.
Maybe this is a holdover from network television days, where they’re trying to make the episodes fit into the structure of how episodic television used to work, rather than filming an eight-hour movie and showing it in chunks. But maybe that’s a bad idea. All I know is, right now we haven’t seen really great epic fantasy film television since the early, mid seasons of Game of Thrones. Fifty million dollars per episode has not done it, so it’s not a matter of the money they’re throwing at it. The other thing we haven’t seen is any of these shows really taking off to the extent that I would like with the general public.
Related: ‘The Rings of Power’ Season 2 Reaches 55 Million Viewers in One Month, Amazon Says
Sanderson praised Netflix’s animated series Arcane and shared exciting news about his own projects. He revealed that he’s working on an animated adaptation of Tress of the Emerald Sea and believes Mistborn could work as a movie series.
However, when it comes to adapting Stormlight, he’s unsure if it would succeed after seeing how shows like The Rings of Power and The Witcher struggled. His biggest issue with The Witcher? Netflix didn’t listen to the “visionary” Henry Cavill.
I would absolutely pick Stormlight, and I would do it on one of the streaming services. With an unlimited budget and unlimited creative control, I think I could make something really good. But who knows? I mean, The Rings of Power essentially had that, and it’s not very good. It’s fine, but is it the thing that you want? I mean, I really think the key member is that visionary filmmaker. Epic fantasy has responded poorly to too much oversight from above. I think that was The Witcher’s problem. You had that visionary: It was Henry Cavill. And they didn’t want to listen to him. So, well, there you go.
Fans of The Rings of Power and The Wheel of Time (both of which have multiple seasons) might not agree with Sanderson’s opinion about the shows. However, there were many reports of disagreements between Henry Cavill and the creators of The Witcher, which may have led to him leaving the series. Sanderson’s comments add an interesting perspective and seem to confirm that this might have been the reason Cavill stepped away.