Can the Arthurian legends become a hit in this time?
Disney‘s Merlin has just found its new director. Michael Matthews will direct the live-action adaptation of T.A. Barron’s novel series on King Arthur’s mentor. We got to know that Ridley Scott was attached to the movie, but had to leave due to busy schedules.
About the movie
Matthews is best known for directing last year’s Love and Monsters, starring Dylan O’Brien. He also helmed the 2017 Neo-Western drama Five Fingers for Marseilles.
Merlin is still in early development, and is produced by Gil Netter. Chris Weitz has written the latest draft for the script. The classic novel told the story of the wizard’s origins, before he became a mentor to King Arthur. He also appeared as a guide to Arthur in Disney’s 1963 animated feature, The Sword in the Stone.
We are not aware of the new actor to play Merlin. In the past, he was played in movies by Brian Gleeson in 2019’s Hellboy, Stanley Tucci in Transformers: The Last Night, and Patrick Stewart in The Kid Who Would Be King. He was played by Colin Morgan in the British drama series Merlin, which was a big hit.
The success of Arthurian legends
If you take a look at the live-action King Arthur movies, they were pretty bad. The last three outings were Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, Joe Cornish’s The Kid Who Would Be King, and Antoine Fuqua’s King Arthur. 2021’s The Green Knight directed by David Lowery also featured Merlin, and the movie had great reviews. But the box office collections were still bad.
Matthews displayed a flair for quest-based storytelling with Love and Monsters, and this must be what caught Disney’s eye. Now we can see whether he can give a fresh perspective to the famous wizard.
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