The original post: /r/television by /u/RonTheNerd on 2025-05-30 15:12:42.
I genuinely don’t understand it, every single time a tv adaptation happens from a book or video game or some source material it’s odds of flopping or not is entirely dependent on how well they actual just stick to the source material of what they’re making.
Look at the Fallout series, the last of us season 1, Sandman, hunger games, even Invincible to a degree, these all very closely follow either direct story or source material.
Compare this to the Halo show, the Amazon wheel of time series, and last of us season 2 all doing either so poorly they have been canceled or seen massive drops in ratings after diverging from source material.
The only show I can think of that has actually had success upon changing/improving from the source material is The Boys series, which didn’t seem hard based on what I’ve seen of that comic series.
But why is it that with endless evidence from 30 years of failed movie and tv adaptations of video games and books, do TV executives or producers or writers can’t just figure this out, when people hear of a on screen adaptation that’s what they’re are looking for an ADAPTATION, not a rewrite meant to ‘subvert expectations’ or completely change the purpose of a favorite character, or entirely change the overall meaning of the story, it just boggles my mind, they see direct adaptations succeed, and then the changed ones fail, and yet they just keep doing it.