King Arthur: Legend of the Sword
Guy Ritchie’sKing Arthur : Legend of the Swordwas say to limit up a six - movie shared universe of sequels and spinoffs , but the plan failed at the first hurdle . Released in 2017,Legend of the Swordstarred Charlie Hunnam as a streetwise Arthur , who distinguish his purple blood line by pulling a sword from a stone and leads a rebellion against the evil King Vortigern ( Jude Law ) .
The architectural plan for an Arthurian shared universe was gestate when Warner Bros. , animate by the massive succeeder of Marvel Studios’The Avengers , went all - in on the idea of cinematic universes . In 2014 the studio announced a 10 - movie ticket of DC superhero motion picture that would subsist in a shared cosmos . Warner Bros. also create the MonsterVerse ( a deal universe featuring Godzilla , King Kong , and other cinematic giants),the Conjuring universe , and the LEGO movie universe . The King Arthur world was to be the studio apartment ’s 5th shared cinematic cosmos , but proved to be the only one that could n’t even make it as far as a sequel .
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King Arthur : Legend of the Swordwas produce after a serial of fail attempts to get a King Arthur movie off the dry land , including a reboot ofExcaliburand a fantasy script call Arthur & Lancelot . Warner Bros. believed that the six - motion-picture show plan , withLegend of the Swordeffectively suffice as the pilot for the various offshoots , was the key to success . Ultimately , however , it may have been the King Arthur existence ’s undoing .
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword Was Supposed To Start A 6-Movie Universe
BeforeKing Arthur : Legend of the Sword , the legendary public figure ’s last freehanded - screen excursion was 2004’sKing Arthur , which starred Clive Owen in the title character . Directed by Antoine Fuqua , it broke the mold by portraying Arthur as a romish air force officer call Artorius Castius , rather than as a mediaeval knight . King Arthurflopped at the box office and was poorly - received by critics , and today is scantily remembered by most movie fans . Though Warner Bros. was n’t dissuade from developing its own King Arthur flick for long , that bankruptcy did seem to make the studio a plenty more conservative about picking the right version ofKing Arthurto make .
In 2009 , Warner Bros. revealed programme to make a remake of John Boorman ’s beloved 1981 filmExcalibur , with Bryan Singer set up to direct . By 2011 , Singer confirmed that those design were dead , explain that programming conflict had delay the beginning of production and that , in the interim , another King Arthur labor had been pitched to Warner Bros. That project wasArthur & Lancelot , which actually come quite close to being made . Game of Thrones ' Kit Harington was lined up to play Arthur , and Joel Kinnaman was cast as Lancelot . Shortly before it was adjust to start filming , Warner Bros. short took it off the exit calendar . The studio apartment reportedly became queasy when the budget balloon from $ 100 million to $ 130 million , and slammed on the bracken in orderliness to look for ways to cut price .
So , how did Warner Bros. go from jib at a $ 130 million King Arthur film to making a $ 175 million King Arthur movie just a few years later ? It seems that the shared universe aspect was the key fruit . At a time whenThe Avengershad apparently try out that cinematic universe were the magic smoke for achiever , screenwriter Joby Harold pitched an mind for an Arthurian shared universe . The first movie would set up King Arthur ( efficaciously the Iron Man of the universe ) , and separate moving picture would plant other major characters like Lancelot . This is why so many mainstays of King Arthurian caption - like Guinevere and Merlin - are lacking fromKing Arthur : Legend of the Sword . The plan was for them each to have their own movie before at long last come together , Avengers - style , in an epic squad - up .
relate : How Guy Ritchie ’s King Arthur Changes The Classic Story
How King Arthur Setup Sequels & Spin-offs
Much of the oeuvre thatKing Arthur : Legend of the Sworddid in set up spinoffs was the aforementioned absence of major characters like Lancelot and Guinevere . Astrid Bergès - Frisbeywas originally set to play Guinevere , before her role was change to that of a mysterious unnamed mage , and a spinoff motion-picture show could well have revealed her origins and genuine name ( it was speculated that she ’s really Morgan le Fay ) . At the end of the picture , various knight of the circular table are knighted at Arthur ’s coronation . However , they ’re a mix of original characters ( like Sir George and Sir William ) and lesser - remembered knights from the legend ( like Sir Percival and Sir Bedivere ) . There are also a lot of empty seat at King Arthur ’s round mesa , waiting to be filled .
Harold ’s original script may well have set up sequels and spinoffs in other ways , but despite exciting Warner Bros. when it was first toss , his visual sense never really made it to the screen door . King Arthur : Legend of the Swordwas chopped and changed a neat deal both before it started filming , and again afterwards . After being contribute on dining table , Ritchie did revision with manufacturer Lionel Wigram , and element fromArthur & Lancelotwere folded in as well .
An initial edit of this version of film was test screened for audiences , who hat it , leave in a release date delay and panoptic reshoots that undertake to fix the story . The end result was a movie that felt Frankensteined together ( Arthur ’s epic quest into the Darklands is turn into a confusing collage of random scrap with giant bats and Rodents Of strange Size , intercut with the Mage and Bedivere speak about what will occur on the quest ) . WhileLegend of the Sworddefinitely has its highlights , like an attempted assassination that goes wrong , between the hyperbolic budget and poor reviews it became one of thebiggest box spot bombsof the decade .
King Arthur Bombed At The Box Office - And Killed The Shared Universe
ThoughKing Arthur : Legend of the Swordwas projected from ahead of time on to be a box seat office flop - with reshoots having pushed the budget to $ 175 million , its release date pushed back several time , and rumor spreading that the film was a mess - no one anticipated just how intemperate it would fail . caption of the Swordactually finished third at the box spot in its opening move weekend , with a terrible entry of $ 15.4 million that put it behind Amy Schumer - led comedySnatched .
King Arthur : Legend of the Swordcurrently holds a scotch of 31 % on Rotten Tomatoes , with reviewers criticizing its over - reliance on CGI , the tiresome nature of the quick - swing , non - elongate editing , Charlie Hunnam’slacking qualities as a leading man , and the film ’s fib for being at the same time over - packed and shallow . Ritchie ’s filmmaking style was also called out for being woefully mismatched to a brand - and - necromancy taradiddle , and underneath the flashing there was n’t much nitty-gritty . Between the talk of production trouble and pathetic trial screenings and thelackluster follow-up , there was n’t much ballyhoo forLegend of the Swordahead of its release .
The net nail in the coffin , though , was the competitor . King Arthur : Legend of the Sword opened in theaters merely a week afterGuardians of the Galaxy Vol . 2 , which targeted a standardized audience and already had the weight of a cinematic universe behind it , rather than being burdened with trying to originate one . Guardians of the Galaxy Vol . 2grossed $ 65 millionin its 2d weekend - more than four timesLegend of the Sworddid in its opening weekend .
By the next week , it was estimated thatKing Arthur : Legend of the Swordwouldlose $ 150 millionfor Warner Bros. , leave the cinematic universe that would have been sequester idle on arrival . With such a disastrous release there was no chance of a sequel , rent alone any spinoffs . It ’s inauspicious that things played out that way , as spinoff movies focus exclusively on characters like Lancelot could have been very interesting . Perhaps the big mistake Warner Bros. made was in starting things off with a character that everyone already knows .
Fortunately for fans of the Arthurian legend , a film focusing on one of Arthur ’s knights is still on the way this year , in the form of David Lowery’sThe Green Knight . It ’s unlikely to kick off any cinematic universes , but it will bring one of the strangest tale of the Knights of the Round Table to lifetime .
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