The fad for adapting any notable YA literary series for the screen ran for a lot longer than it realistically should have, based on the sheer volume of fantasy-tinged blockbusters that failed to make it past the first hurdle. The hits vastly outweighed the successes, but few had to make a climbdown as embarrassing as that of The Mortal Instruments.
Sony were typically bullish about the potential in turning Cassandra Clare’s six-book saga into a money-spinning cinematic property, but things didn’t exactly go to plan. Opening chapter City of Bones could only cobble together $95 million at the box office on a $60 million budget, and found itself panned six feet under by critics to the tune of an abysmal 13 percent Rotten Tomatoes score.
It was initially announced that sequel City of Ashes would start filming a little over a month after the opening salvo hit theaters in August 2013, with Sigourney Weaver even lined up to join the returning members of the ensemble. That didn’t happen, but director Harald Zwart claimed in May 2014 that while he wasn’t returning to direct, he remained confident cameras would begin rolling soon enough.
Five months later, and it was officially confirmed that The Mortal Instruments was on its way back to our screens… as completely unrelated small screen reboot Shadowhunters. Ouch. It was an ignominious end to a doomed enterprise, but City of Bones has somehow conspired to find new life on streaming.
As per FlixPatrol, the dismal battle of good versus evil has become a Top 10 hit on HBO Max in 20 countries, even if it’s far too late to try and dust off the property, given that Shadowhunters was canceled after three seasons back in 2018.