What’s long been rumored is now coming to fruition as Disney+ is in development on a live-action Eragon series, Variety has learned.
The series would be based on the Christopher Paolini young adult novel series The Inheritance Cycle, with Eragon being the first of the four books in that series. This is similar to what the streamer is doing for their Percy Jackson & The Olympian series, which is currently in production in Vancouver.
Paolini will serve as co-writer and co-showrunner, with the search currently on for a co-writer and co-showrunner to work alongside him. This will be Paolini’s first time writing a television project, which is why a search is on for a co-writter. Bert Salke will executive produce under his Co-Lab 21 banner, with 20th Television producing. Salke is currently under an overall deal with Disney Television Studios, of which 20th TV is a part.
Eragon tells the story of a farm boy named Eragon, who finds a mysterious stone in the mountains. The stone is revealed to be a dragon egg, and a dragon he later names Saphira hatches from it. When the evil King Galbatorix finds out about the egg, he sends monstrous servants to acquire it, making Eragon and Saphira flee from their hometown with a storyteller named Brom. Brom, an old member of an extinct group called the Dragon Riders, teaches Eragon about ‘The Ways of the Rider.’
Eragon was the third-best-selling children’s hardback book of 2003, and the second-best-selling paperback of 2005. It placed on the New York Times Children’s Books Best Seller list for 121 weeks. In 2006 the book was adapted for the big screen. Upon its release, it was met with poor reviews and, ultimately, was a failure, and the rest of the planned franchise was canceled.
