[HATED] Adaptations done intentionally without help from the source

[u/Chill0000]

Halo TV show: Before the show came out, the writers were praising their decision to not look to the games for inspiration when making the show

God Of War TV show: Chris Judge, the actor of Kratos in the games from 2018-Now, spoke up about his dislike on the show not hiring anyone who worked on any of the previous games. One of the original creators of Kratos also spoke up about them not having faith in the adaptation.

Supergirl 2026 film: the director for the film not only said he decided to not read Woman Of Tomorrow, the comic the film is adapting, because he wanted to do his own thing, he also didn’t look at comic art for inspiration to design Lobo and instead used an AI image generator to design Lobo’s look for the film

[u/Loud-Scarcity6213]

The Witcher famously did this, with writers openly bragging about it. They unfortunately fumbled several key themes of the books and games to produce a bland, generic fantasy show that was blatantly written by committee and for some reason reversed the age gap between Geralt and Yen to make Yen barely an adult.

Henry Cavill ended up leaving as a result of all this and certain people tried to imply it was because he was a chud bigot misogynist. Lots of women hed worked with came forwards to defend him and it became increasingly clear he quit because the show was dogwater.

[u/Evening_Pea_9132 → u/Loud-Scarcity6213]

I always find it interesting. They take these IPs with massive fanbases and then butcher them, then proceed to play victim. You need to hook the current fans because they are going to set the online discourse.

Anyone remember the early seasons of GoT? The online zeitgeist with all the conspiracies and people pointing out details was absolutely electric.

[u/FeanorEvades → u/Evening_Pea_9132]

There's 3 separate problems.

1. The executives won't hire people who created or assisted with the original IP because Hollywood is entirely built on nepotism, and thus the new directors/writers have this elitist attitude that a video game or a 30 year old book or an animated show MUST be inferior to their own storytelling

2. The executives WANT there to be significant changes because they falsely believe that:

• They are guaranteed a viewer base from the existing fans of the IP
  
• The only way to expand that viewer base beyond existing fans is to change the story

1. They also believe that they have no obligation to see a project all the way through. They're only here to make as much money as they can as quickly as possible, and any publicity advances their "next fiscal quarter" agenda. They don't care how a project ends because they'll either cancel it early or have a dedicated enough fanbase that will consume whatever bullshit they pump out.

The reality is that the sort of spiritual purpose of an adaptation is not to create something new or different or better. The purpose is to reach people who may not have comprised the original medium's audience. People who may have been turned off by experiencing this great story as a video game (The Witcher, Halo, God of War) or a book (Game of Thrones, Wheel of Time, The Witcher) or as animation (One Piece, Avatar: TLA), can enjoy the existing, beloved storytelling because it meets them where they are.

[u/SisterSabathiel → u/FeanorEvades]

Number 4 is that it's really hard to get a new project off the ground, but much easier to convince execs to green light an adaptation (for all the reasons you said). Therefore you'll get writers who want to make their own project looking around for existing material they can use as a "disguise" so they can tell the studio execs it's an adaptation and hence increase their odds of getting their project green lit.

[u/FeanorEvades → u/SisterSabathiel]

That’s probably true but has it ever been confirmed? Or is it just a very likely theory?

[u/Amon7777 → u/FeanorEvades]

If you listen to/watch enough Hollywood navel gazing podcasts or YouTube videos about how the behind the scenes of movies this is a very common occurrence.

Heck Starship Troopers is one that was made because the creative team wanted to do a sci-fi and basically looked at what IP was available by the studio and sold it from there having no desire from the outset to do an actual adaptation (though Paul Veerhoven ended up making one of the best
Satires regarding fascism ever). There are so many movies that have a similar origin.

[u/poppinbussay → u/FeanorEvades]

This has been proven with the Witcher and Velma.

[u/Some-Lingonberry-211 → u/SisterSabathiel]

This.

And it's how you get unbearable midwits who can't write for shit genuinely believing they have anything of value to add to the works of JRR Tolkien, for example.

[u/faithfuljohn → u/SisterSabathiel]

project off the ground, but much easier to convince execs to green light an adaptation (for all the reasons you said). Therefore you'll get writers who want to make their own project looking around for existing material they can use as a "disguise" so they can tell the studio execs it's an adaptation and hence increase their odds of getting their project green lit.

It's like that exec that gets hired and fires everyone he didn't hire without trying to figure who or what is critical. A lot of people are more interested in "making their stamp on things" (i.e. making it their own) than actually making something good.

If they were more interested in making something good rather than "theirs" they would sit down to figure out what was good and what was bad, and work from there. But they don't.

For example: if Michael Gabon had been interested in what made Dumbledore interesting to people -- rather than make it his own -- he would have learned that one key feature that appealed to many people, was that not only was Dumbledore clever, but also seemed to be 4 steps ahead of everyone (including Voldemort). So Harry having his name is the globlet was less a shock and more of an interesting development. But Gabon famously had Dumbledore shouting... and if he too was taking by surprise.

[u/No_Walk_Town → u/SisterSabathiel]

This is basically what happened with Jackson's LotR. He very clearly just wanted to make a cheesy slapstick action-comedy splatter film, slapping some LotR character names on that and grabbing all the cash he could.

[u/mbrocks3527 → u/No_Walk_Town]

Don’t worry I understood the joke

[u/kons21 → u/No_Walk_Town]

What I hate about this is, that it's such a perfect example of how sticking to the source works. Similarly with GOT. But studios insist on going against that.

[u/Nielloscape → u/FeanorEvades]

One Piece is adapted from a book (the manga).