The lack of a good Earthsea adaptation is kind of depressing and it makes more sense than ever to take another crack at it given Hollywood's newfound commitment to racial diversity in media.
The Culture series by Iain Banks would be amazing, especially considering that the world is way more accepting of race/ethnicity, sexuality, and gender issues than it has been historically (not even to mention that we could use some hope for the future in our media instead of dystopia constantly). But instead we get baby yoda series 3. (for reference, I do like The Mandalorian, I just felt like being snarky).
Star Wars is an interesting case.
It went from a franchise making money on every movie to a mix of ok movies and flops. I know a lot of people (including me) just tuned out with the latest trilogy.
The films and series that have been produced since the Disney acquisition a decade ago have created an entire new generation of fans and spawned theme parks, hotels, cruises, merchandise, and spinoffs... it's been an amazing success for the franchise.
The only bright spot left is what Filoni or Favreau are doing.
That's really why the Rings of Power sucked. The company wanted 10 hours of content and paid nearly half a billion dollars for it. But budget can't create story and characters where there are none and the writers have to work around the appendices of a book.
It's the same fundamental problem as the Hobbit trilogy. That could have been a fantastic 100 minute film.
https://acoup.blog/2022/12/16/collections-why-rings-of-power...
Especially if it’s being made “for a modern audience”. Sic.
If those phrases are used during the promotion, that’s a 100% guarantee I won’t be watching something.