After the genre became well-known and accepted/ respected during the second half of the twentieth century, the question was how fantasy would develop after the year 2000. Had it reached it’s top and would the genre settle down again or would it remain strong and continue to strenghten it’s position in literature and on the screen?
Authors
The authors that were big in the nineties, like George R.R. Martin, Robert Jordan (who regretably passed away in 2007), Raymond E. Feist and Robin Hobb, continued to write and dominate the world of fantasy literature. Most of them are still working on series that are far from finished.
However, new talents also have emerged. There have been quite a few newcomers, one more successful than the other, but for me the most notable are Steven Erikson (The Malazan Book of the Fallen) and Patrick Rothfuss (The Name of the Wind).
Old and new authors combined, I would say that the genre still is thriving and that we can be assured to have great new fantasy books and series for years to come!
Movies and television series
Many high profile fantasy movies have been made during the first decade of the new millennium. Of course there was the Lord of the Rings trilogy brought out between 2001 and 2003. Also the Harry Potter movies were released from 2001 onwards. Other fantasy movies worth mentioning aar The Chronicles of Narnia movies (2005 and 2008), The Golden Compass (2007) and Pan’s Labyrinth (2006).
Besides the successful movie releases, several new fantasy television series were produced between the year 2000 and 2010. Examples of these are Legend of the Seeker (cancelled after season 2), True Blood and BBC’s Merlin.
Not all movies and TV series have been of the utmost quality and/ or successful but from the perspective of movies and TV series, I think we can say the new millennium started out pretty good!
We have seen that fantasy remained a force to be reckoned with over the last ten years and managed to find the general audience better than ever but what is the current state of the fantasy genre and how will develop in the future?
Tags: Development, Fantasy Authors, Fantasy Books, Fantasy Genre, Fantasy Movies, Fantasy Series
