“The Shannara Chronicles” is finally coming off the pages to your TV screen! The only question is will it be done right? MTV is taking Terry Brook’s fantasy series and running with it. I have loved this series most of my life, I remember being 10 years old and telling my Dad I wanted to read one of his fantasy books and the book he handed me was “The Sword of Shannara” and I have been hooked ever since.
The show is being produced by Al Gough and Miles Millar who said they are trying to create something that has never been seen on television before. Gough said “When you look at what we’ve achieved in terms of the visuals, this is a show that nobody has ever seen before.” From the effects we’ve seen in the trailer I’d have to agree. For a TV show the special effects look incredible.
Lovers of fantasy who haven’t read the series yet definitely should. An important thing to note about the series is that it is not like “Game of Thrones.” This is a book and hopefully a television series for the whole family. Terry Brooks, the author of the books, said:
“Don’t mention Game of Thrones to me. We were saying, ‘We don’t want to go that route.’ That’s not what the Shannara books are. They’re a family-oriented fantasy and always have been. That’s been one of the strong selling points. Anyone from 10 years of age up that has the reading skills can read these books. We’ve always talked about it as a family drama that anyone can watch. I thought of it as a straight adaptation. I told Al and Miles early on, ‘I know you’re going to have to make changes. Just hold the bones of the story together.'”
Fans of the book series will notice that the show is starting with book two “The Elfstones of Shannara” rather than book one. Brooks himself explained why: “Elfstones has a much broader scope in plotting. It has strong female characters, and I felt strongly that the network and writers would want to have strong female characters.” The big question here is that the books take place years apart and have a different characters so it will be interesting to see how the show handles that. All challenges and hurdles aside I cannot wait for this series.
“The Shannara Chronicles” will premiere January 2016 on MTV.