Eragon, Disney+‘s live-action adaptation of Christopher Paolini‘s popular YA book series The Inheritance Cycle, has taken a major step in the development process, firming up its creative team and opening a writers room.
High Potential showrunner Todd Harthan has been tapped to co-create the series with Paolini, with Harthan and Todd Helbing (Superman & Lois) set as co-showrunners. Also boarding the project is Marc Webb (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend), who has signed on as an executive producer. A writers room for Eragon opened late last year and is currently ongoing.
Disney+ sibling — and High Potential producer — 20th Television, where Harthan is under an overall deal, is the studio. The series has been in the works since 2022 when 20th TV and studio-based producer Bert Salke (Percy Jackson and the Olympians), via his Co-Lab 21 banner, optioned the rights to the entire The Inheritance Cycle book series.
In Eragon, when destiny selects an ordinary teenager to become the first Dragon Rider in over a hundred years, he must forge an unbreakable bond with his dragon, master ancient magic, and challenge the mad king who destroyed the Riders.
Harthan, Paolini and Helbing executive produce with Salke, Webb and Rachel Moore.
Eragon is the first book in The Inheritance Cycle book series which has sold collectively over 40 million copies worldwide and is published in more than 50 countries. Published in 2002, Eragon placed on the NYT’s Children’s Books Best Seller list for 121 weeks and was adapted as the 2006 feature starring Edward Speleers as Eragon, Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich, Chris Egan and Djimon Hounsou. The film, which received mostly negative reviews, grossed $249 million worldwide.
Harthan serves as executive producer/showrunner on ABC’s popular drama series High Potential, starring Kaitlin Olson. Creator, writer and executive producer of Fox’s Rosewood, Harthan also has served as executive producer on the Disney+ series Crossover, ABC’s The Company You Keep and Fox’s The Resident. Harthan and James Roday Rodriguez co-wrote the forthcoming feature Rule of Three, which they are producing under their Taft Tennis Productions banner. Harthan is repped by UTA and Circle Management + Production.
Helbing is currently developing Mech Cadets with Brent Fletcher at Disney+, based on the Boom! Studios graphic novel. He served as co-creator and showrunner of The CW’s Superman & Lois, and was an executive producer and showrunner on CW’s The Flash after working on several hit series, including Starz’s Black Sails and Spartacus and CW’s Smallville. Helbing is repped by CAA and Kevin Kelly at Gendler, Kelly, and Cunningham.
Paolini is best known for The Inheritance Cycle book series, which consists of Eragon, Eldest, Brisingr and Inheritance, and the follow-up short story collection The Fork, the Witch and the Worm. His first science fiction novel, To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, was published in 2020. He holds the Guinness World Record for the youngest author of a bestselling book series. He is repped by WME, Simon Lipskar at Writers House and attorney Matthew Sugarman of Weintraub Tobin.
Denise Petski contributed to this report.
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