Going through a “dragon phase” is a common coming-of-age moment for book-loving kids. For those who grew up in the early 2000s, this phase typically fell into one of three categories: deep diving into the faux-reference book Dragonology, obsessing over How to Train Your Dragon, or fixating on .
has seen multiple successful adaptations, so Disney is now taking on another member of this “holy trinity” of dragon-themed works. But there was already a prior attempt at adapting this — and it didn’t go well at all.
Per , Disney is officially developing a live-action series centered on Eragon — the first book in Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle. The project has been in development since 2022, and now a full creative team is attached: High Potential showrunner Todd Harthan serves as co-creator and co-showrunner, alongside Superman & Lois’ Todd Helbing who shares the showrunner role.
Eragon is a quintessential young adult fantasy series — and it was written by a young adult too: Paolini started drafting it right after finishing homeschool at 15. It was a huge success with teen readers, but critics consistently pointed out one flaw: it’s highly derivative, lifting elements from The Lord of the Rings, Wizard of Earthsea, and other fantasy franchises.
The plot centers on a young boy named Eragon who stumbles upon a mysterious stone that turns out to be a dragon egg. From it emerges Saphira — a stunning blue dragon with a telepathic bond to Eragon. Unfortunately, the tyrannical King Galbatorix will do anything to get his hands on Saphira. It’s the classic underdog hero story, but parallels to other franchises (especially Star Wars) are hard to miss: Eragon flees his home after his farmer uncle is killed, escaping with an old man who knows the secrets of an ancient order — the Dragon Riders, not the Jedi.
Even with its derivative traits, the first book got a 2006 film adaptation directed by renowned visual effects supervisor Stefen Fangmeier (to this day, it remains his only directorial project). The cast included Ed Speelers as Eragon, plus Jeremy Irons, Robert Carlyle, and John Malkovich — with Rachel Weisz lending her voice to the dragon Saphira.
Similar to the book, the film was well-liked by audiences but panned by critics — it currently holds a dismal 15% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. “An interminable Jackson-Tolkienian fantasy for boys, whose enjoyment levels will be in direct relation to testicle-height,” Peter Bradshaw said in his review for . “John Malkovich finds his loopy, nostril-flaring form as the wicked tyrant and Jeremy Irons, playing the boy’s wise mentor, is visibly thinking about his fee.”
Eragon was intended to be the first in a film series, but those plans never materialized. So if the movie version flopped, why would a TV series fare better? And how can a story that borrows so heavily from Star Wars coexist on the same streaming platform as the entire Star Wars franchise?
Maybe this new series will deviate from the original source and revitalize the story 20 years later, but right now, the track record makes Eragon seem like a relic of the past.