The Shannara Chronicles is MTV’s first foray into the high fantasy genre, and its largest fans may just be the cast and crew.
“Gentleman, I have a public announcement to make. From dwarf to king of the elves, eat your heart out, Orlando Bloom.” That was John Rhys-Davies’ introduction to his character, having been cast as King Eventine Elessedil. From there, he quickly jumped into his love for the show.
“This is a fantastic show,” he says. “I’ve been around a number of very good shows, like Shogun and Raiders of the Lost Arc and Lord of the Rings and a few other bits and bobs. You get the smell of the great ones after a while when you do that. And I think this is going to be one of the most remarkable shows on television. What it has is the big screen qualities that you expect from one of those epic Lord of the Rings shows and I think it’s going to be directly comparable in terms of complexity and seductiveness. The casting on this is brilliant. They’re all eye candy. But here’s the difference: They’re eye candy with real acting talent as well.”
And if that doesn’t convince you Rhys-Davies is on board with this show, he also says, “I’m not really fond of fantasy. I tend to be more of a strict sci-fi guy, so I was a little bit leery at first, but it won me over.”
Brooks’ support of the show is also admirable. “The writers had my permission to invent and change and move because we know it’s an adaptation,” he says. “It’s got to change. Much of what they did, I thought to myself, I could’ve written it that way. That would’ve been all right. That’s another way to tell it. That was very rewarding to see it come off as an alternative that was a solid alternative and not just something slapped together.”
Speaking with Manu Bennett, he says, “MTV is one of the players and they’re throwing their chips on the table.” A few years ago, MTV had nothing like this on their channel, but with the success of Teen Wolf they’ve begun to expand their horizons, and Shannara is certainly a huge step in a new direction. Bennett was also quick to credit Executive Producer Dan Farah for deciding to pursue this as a show rather than a film. (Farah is also a producer on the Ready Player One film.)
When asked how they will make a show for both book fans and newcomers, Producer Al Gough says, “What’s great about Elfstones and I think it’s why Terry decided to start there is because it’s a story when you come into it. It feels complete, beginning, middle, and end, so I think if you come into this world as a fan from the books, you’ll see things that you had always read about, and the Four Lands characters that, you know, you’ve seen, but I think if you come into it as a new viewer, I think you can completely start into it without any problems. You’re not going to be confused. Because Terry writes his books generationally, so if you started with Sword, that’s great and you’d have more backstory. But if you start with Elfstones, it doesn’t…and I think that’s one of the reasons his books have been able to sell so many copies and last so long because you can pop into that world at different points.”
There have been plenty of comparisons with Lord of the Rings, both as a book and as an adaptation, but unlike The Hobbit, Shannara has been largely built on practical sets and in practical locations, which will give the show a much more grounded and realistic look.
Leads Austin Butler and Poppy Drayton also spoke of the three weeks of preparation they had prior to the filming of the show. “He annihilated us in the gym,” Butler said of their trainer, Josh Randall. They practiced horseback riding, sword fighting, and stunt work, which will only make the show feel more vibrant.
But having such rich source material also helps, with Drayton saying, “It’s a gift.”