Fans of epic fantasy on TV can rest easy, as despite a period of silence from MTV of late, it has been confirmed that The Shannara Chronicles has been renewed for a second season.
Despite having as mixed a critical reception as you can possibly hope for, currently polling in at 50% on Rotten Tomatoes (for our part we actually quite like it), the show has been a big ratings success at MTV, although as Collider reports, cuts at parent company Viacom had left the show’s future in some doubt. Still, luckily this is no longer the case, and The Shannara Chronicles will have a chance to build on what is definitely a promising story.
Sure, it’s by no means perfect: at first the show was overstuffed with similar-looking characters (a gradual cull has remedied this issue), and what’s left is a strong ensemble full of characters you can actually root for. There’s a genuinely interesting love triangle of sorts going on between core trio Poppy Drayton, Ivana Baquero and Austin Butler, and former Arrow star Manu Bennett steals the scene every time he shows up. We’ve still got 2 more episodes to go over here in the UK, but from what we’ve seen so far there are plenty of interesting directions the show could go in. Admittedly it doesn’t exactly stick rigidly to Terry Brooks’ source novel, The Elfstones Of Shannara, but then there was never really any chance of this happening.
Brought to the screen by Smallville duo Al Gough and Miles Millar, Jenna Glazier, David Gardner, Tim Coddington and Tim Scanlan produce the show, while Dan Farah, Terry Brooks, Eugene Stein, Stewart Till, Jon Favreau and Jonathan Liebesman are involved as executive producers.
The Shannara Chronicles is currently airing on Thursday evenings on 5*. For more news about the biggest TV series, pick up the new issue of SciFiNow.
