The Shannara Chronicles is an epic television series based on the best-selling fantasy books by Terry Brooks. The series, which wrapped in June 2015, was.
After a promising premiere, the series hit one roadblock after another. And after confronting one too many challenges, was canceled after just two seasons.
The writing was on the wall: season 2 premiered in October of 2017, only to come to its conclusion a little over a month later. In January of 2018, Viacom officially axed the hard fantasy series, leaving co-creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar ( Into the Badlands) shopping the program to other networks. What exactly happened? Here's a closer look at all the reasons why The Shannara Chronicles was canceled. Nowadays it seems every network is looking for the next Game of Thrones. HBO is aiming to keep the Westeros action going even after the final season airs, with in development. Let's not forget Amazon's epic new Lord of the Rings series, which, according to, will cost an estimated $1 billion to make. The fantasy genre and young adult demographic go together like chocolate and peanut butter.
In short, MTV had a surefire hit on its hands with The Shannara Chronicles.Unfortunately, the show premiered during a time of transition. After MTV had produced a stretch of successful scripted shows — Teen Wolf, Awkward and Scream come to mind — they started shifting their lineup back to the inexpensive and wildly popular reality show format. And after a successful first season, the future of The Shannara Chronicles was suddenly in question. Keeping the program in the Viacom family, the move to Spike gave the show the opportunity to up the ante on its edgy tone and action sequences. This pivot offered two problems, though. As pointed out, when Spike TV launched in 2003, it was labeled 'The First Network for Men.' Over a decade later, that reputation proved hard to shake.Not only was The Shannara Chronicles out of place in the network's bro-centric lineup, Spike didn't substantially advertise that it was the show's new home.
Once season 2 premiered, viewership plummeted. As reports, 'At no point during its season 2 run did the live audience grow bigger than 310,000 people.' That's a huge nosedive from the 7.5 million the show attracted in its series premiere. Basically, it wasn't a question of if the show would be canceled, but when.
In February of 2017, reported on Viacom's plans to rebrand Spike as the Paramount Network. Just two years after the network dropped the 'TV' from its name, it seemed like Viacom was restructuring once again — with the aim of taking on more prestige programming to draw in viewers. With Spike's expiration date set for January 18, 2018, it felt as if this change of the guard would leave some shows in the dust.
And just half a year after the rebrand was announced, season 2 of The Shannara Chronicles premiered. ' The Shannara Chronicles was one of two scripted series to make their Spike debut ahead of the network's pending transformation into the general entertainment Paramount Network, designed to be Viacom's leading scripted brand,' noted. The other show to make the jump was a new adaptation of Stephen King's The Mist — which was canceled after one season.While Spike hits like Bar Rescue and Lip Sync Battle survived the transition, T he Shannara Chronicles joined a number of programs kicked to the curb by the network. In an era when content from heavy hitters like FX, AMC, Netflix, Hulu, and HBO reign supreme, Viacom was looking to their new Paramount Network as a beacon of hope. Water-cooler talks and Emmy consideration aside, the rebrand shifted focus to higher-end adult-focused content, leaving The Shannara Chronicles — and its young adult demographic — in the proverbial dust. Martin's celebrated Game of Thrones novels provided huge inspiration for HBO's flagship series similar to the way in which Terry Brooks' books formed the basis for The Shannara Chronicles. And much like HBO's eventual move to depart from Martin's original subject matter, which was simply due to the author's inability to write the newest book quickly enough, season 2 of The Shannara Chronicles moved away from many of the plot points found in Brooks' tale.
Called the Game of Thrones pivot a good thing. After all, straying from material put the entire fandom on even ground.
The small-screen story became even more impactful as no one knew what would come next. When it comes to fantasy on TV, Game of Thrones easily changed the game for how the genre can be explored. As magical as things got in Westeros, audiences remained connected with the characters. Without that human element, and the intense drama that came with it, it's possible HBO's hit would've crashed and burned.
The Shannara Chronicles was an outlier from the start. Called Brooks' books 'Tolkien lite,' and for good reason: this show was hard fantasy.
Emphasis on hard. Picture a Dungeons & Dragons game come to life — elfs, mages, and warlocks, oh my!
This isn't a knock against the genre at all. But there's a specificity to the aesthetic the show had. Movies like, Legend, and even came to mind on multiple viewings of the series. As successful as those movies were, it proved to be quite a challenge in bringing a fantasy tale like this to the small screen.
There was a clear lack of balance between the human element and outlandish fantasy unfolding onscreen.' It's all pretty cheesy,' said in their review of Season 1, 'and made more so by just how sincere everyone comes across as. There's very little humor in the Shannara Chronicles, and far too much earnestness.' Sure, The Shannara Chronicles was pretty to look at. But pretty ain't permanent. 'It's all very campy, almost generic fantasy,' points out, 'and has been long-ridiculed as such, even while the series has a pretty big fanbase.' Season 1 of The Shannara Chronicles doubled down on the Lord of the Rings-style saccharin sweet tone that was all the rage in mid-'80s fantasy entertainment.
For a show aimed at a younger demographic, the visuals and score ended up appealing to a nostalgic older crowd. In the end, the antiquated look and feel ultimately failed to connect with the millennial audience. Once season 2 premiered on Spike, it was obvious the end was nigh. Tyrion Lannister never talks like this. There's a heaviness to his character that is expanded upon in the way he walks and talks. Unfortunately, The Shannara Chronicles got stuck trying too hard to relate to their millennial demographic.
Called it 'a fantasy show secretly designed to be drinking game,' where each trope requires the viewer to take a shot.That sounds fun and all, but it wasn't MTV's goal. 'The dialogue is often painful, and painfully modern,' pointed out. 'It's not that I want a bunch of thee's and thou's mucking up the conversations, but I do want something resembling what people might sound like in this setting. Anyone over 22 basically achieves that. The younger cast? Not so much.' The story of The Shannara Chronicles takes place roughly 2,000 years in the future.
Much like Into the Badlands — the other fantasy series from co-showrunners Alfred Gough and Miles Millar — the program involved some detailed world-building. Yet unlike that AMC series, Shannara had a bit of a diversity problem. Said the program 'depicts a dystopian fantasy version of Seattle in which people of color are barely present.' While there was a collection of strong females to reckon with here, season 1 of the series, aside from the occasional Asian face, was all white.
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Success breeds imitation, and nowhere is that more visible than in film and television. Just as the success of spawned many attempts at fantasy film franchises, the rampant popularity of HBO's may explain a recent burst of and stabs at television literary adaptations.One such adaptation – long circled but rarely approached – is, a series of novels by Terry Brooks. After starting down the road toward television over a year ago, it appears that MTV has now signed on to broadcast a Shannara series.shares the scoop that MTV has given Shannara a series commitment, dependent on the quality of its pilot script. Said script will be penned by creators Al Gough and Miles Millar. Director Jon Favreau has reportedly signed on to helm the series' pilot episode. The Shannara books comprise one of the longest-running and most beloved fantasy novel series in the world. Beginning with The Sword of Shannara in 1977, the series depicts an Earth 2,000 years after a demonically induced cataclysm wiped out civilization and summoned magic back into the world.
Over the course of the series' many sequels, prequels, and side stories, the descendants of legendary hero Jerle Shannara battle deathless warlocks, demonic hordes, evil empires, and even a sadistic AI from before the war that destroyed the old world.According to Deadline, the first season of Shannara will be based on the second novel in the overall series, The Elfstones of Shannara. This is a very wise move, as The Sword of Shannara is – putting it bluntly – a fairly bald-faced ripoff of The Lord of the Rings. Though not exactly the pinnacle of originality, Elfstones is a faster-paced, better-written novel with more interesting characters on both sides of the protagonist/antagonist divide. MTV's acquisition of Shannara is a bold, fascinating move for a network previously known primarily for.
Should the series get off the ground, it will no doubt have quite a bit of momentum out of the gate. The popularity of Brooks' novels guarantees a sizable initial audience – and doubtless MTV will position the series' premiere episode as event television. In addition, the sheer number of Shannara novels will provide a rich well of material for scriptwriters to draw upon for a long-running show.All this said, Shannara will be immediately (and erroneously) compared to Game of Thrones.
In order to avoid such comparisons – fair or not – Shannara will have to immediately distinguish itself from its darker, more politically minded cousin.