King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is one of the most recent adaptations of the Arthurian legends, and while there’s enough material for more than one movie, a sequel to it never happened – and here’s why. The legends of King Arthur have become some of the most popular stories in history and as such, they have been adapted to all types of media for years. Hollywood hasn’t missed the chance of exploring these and has brought a variety of versions of the legends, and among the most recent ones is King Arthur: Legend of the Sword.
Directed by Guy Ritchie, and co-written by him, Joby Harold, and Lionel Wigram from a story by Harold and David Dobkin, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword followed the title character (played by Charlie Hunnam) as he learned about his royal lineage after pulling the magical sword Excalibur from a stone. With the help of Sir Bedivere (Djimon Hounsou), Arthur set out to destroy King Vortigern (Jude Law), the tyrannical king who killed his father and was trying to kill him too. King Arthur was released in 2017, and while it was marketed as a big, epic adventure, with Ritchie’s name as guarantee seal, the movie ended up being an epic failure.
Following the critical failure of King Arthur in 2004, Warner Bros. was looking to adapt the Arthurian legend one more time, and after a couple of ideas that were eventually dropped (such as a movie titled Arthur & Lancelot which could have seen Kit Harington and Joel Kinnaman as the leads), the studio decided to go with a much bigger plan. Warner Bros. planned a King Arthur shared universe that would begin with Ritchie’s movie, but the critical and commercial failure of Legend of the Sword put an end to all those plans.
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword had a production budget of $175 million and grossed $148 million worldwide, and it didn’t do well with critics either, who weren’t on board with the movie’s pace, story, and how it took much of what makes it a classic story out. These failures are what ultimately killed all plans for a King Arthur cinematic universe, and while the movie told a full story and can stand on its own, it did make way for, at least, one more adventure. At the end of King Arthur, the title character started building a Round Table where his knighted friends would meet and finally became king, taking his father Uther’s (Eric Bana) crown. The King Arthur shared universe was planned to have six movies, which would have eventually brought in characters who were left aside in Legend of the Sword, most notably Lancelot and Guinevere, but that will only live in the imagination of fans.
Following the failure of King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, Guy Ritchie directed Aladdin and The Gentlemen (both received a lot better than the Arthurian legend), and Charlie Hunnam appeared in different movies, most notably Triple Frontier and The Gentlemen, but he shared in January 2020 (via CheatSheet) that he would like to go back to the universe of King Arthur – though at this point, it seems unlikely that those shared universe plans will be revived.
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