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I’ve been saying for a couple years now that the fantasy
genre is unmoored. It’s basically
a slogan of these articles because it lets me talk about form and style and
genre history, the stuff I know the most about. However, I’m starting to wonder how true that actually is
anymore. After a decade at the top
of the blockbuster fantasy has definitely receded in the 2010s, producing fewer
Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings level sagas in comparison to the success of
superheroes and sci-fi properties.
That translated to a thoroughly unsure nature for the first
few years of the decade, especially when it turned out The Hobbit wasn’t as successful as everyone was gearing up for it
to be. However, as we pass the
midpoint of the decade and begin the slow trickle towards its twilight years
it’s starting to seem more and more like the new defining affect of fantasy is
what I call Number Zero stories.
I’ll get into what that means in a little bit but there’s no greater
example of it than the fact WB is giving Guy Ritchie the reigns of a new big
budget King Arthur movie.
