Now that Game of Thrones is finished, I keep reading articles saying what series HBO should adapt next. Amazon has a new Lord of the Rings and Wheel of Time series coming out soon. What will HBO do to compete? I have an idea.
The Iliad or more precisely, a show about the Trojan War. I got the idea while watching the movie Troy the other night. The movie is pretty bad, but the Iliad (and Odyssey) are fantastic stories. Here is how I would do it…
-Focus each season on a different part of the entire Trojan War saga. Maybe season one is based on the Iliad. I think it would work really to tell the story in flashbacks. Start with Achilles being pissed off and sitting out the war, then flashback to why he is mad at Agamemnon. Then flashback to how the war starts, then have a flashback to the birth of Achilles and the prophecy of his death.
-Keep the gods in the story. Maybe not as much as they are in the actual Iliad, but they definitely need to be present. We need to know that Achilles is the son of Thetis (a sea nymph for those wondering).
-The war lasts ten years, so you can jump around and there are plenty of season long stories to tell. I think the main buildup of the first seasons needs to be Achilles versus Hector. One thing the movie did really well was make Hector a likable character. The show should do the same.
-Then the next arc would be the actual fall of Troy. This could last a season or two. Great battles, tons of betrayals by the gods. Fun stuff! I think it would be a real kick in the nuts to viewers to kill off Achilles midway through a season during some battle.
-There could be a few episodes with side missions, finding Philoctetes and Heracles bow would be a good adventure for Odysseus. The madness of Ajax would also be cool to see.
-I think the final part of the Fall of Troy arc would be the Trojan Horse. I mean, it has to be, right?
-Then you can do a third arc of the returns to Greece. Each hero had their own adventures trying to return, but the most famous is Odysseus, which we learn about in the Odyssey. There could be the story Agamemnon’s tragic end by Clytemnestra (and how he is avenged by Electra and Orestes).
Seriously, so many great stories to tell. I would probably contact Eric Shanower for help adapting something like this. His comic, Age of Bronze, is the perfect template (and hey, it may finally end up complete at some point). Or maybe just adapt the late David Gemmell’s Troy series. And before anyone says anything, I am aware that BBC did this last year, but come on, I bet it was not nearly as good as what I envision…
