Summary

• Some movie adaptations of popular young adult novels fail to capture the essence of the source material, resulting in unsatisfying and flat versions on the big screen.
• Bad timing and financial failures can lead to the downfall of potential YA franchises, causing them to fizzle out after just one installment.
• While some book-to-movie adaptations may disappoint fans, successful TV adaptations can redeem the story and characters to better reception.

Whether conjuring grim dystopias or romantic fantasy realms, young adult franchises tend to cultivate dedicated fan bases yet, some movie adaptations of popular YA novels failed to last for more than one film. Some are widely seen as unsatisfying adaptations that either changed the source material too much or simply translated it poorly to the big screen. Others were financial failures, while some weren't intended to carry on to cover an entire series of books.

Young adult franchises occupy a unique place in pop culture, providing their readers or viewers a pathway through ― or escape from ― the turmoil of adolescence and anxiety of new adulthood. Because of this, many YA book franchises and their characters hold special places in readers' hearts. A book series being adapted into a movie, then, is particularly exciting; fans have the chance at last to see their favorite characters come to life on screen. Unfortunately, this doesn't always work out, leading to these would-be franchises fizzling out after just one installment.

10 Mortal Engines

Mortal Engines is an adventure-filled and sometimes very dark book, the first in a quartet of the same name by British author Philip Reeve. Set in a post-apocalyptic future in which cities are enormous vehicles, the novel isn't afraid to lean into steampunk tropes ― airships, smoke-belching machines, and pirates abound ― while also featuring cyborgs made from corpses. Peter Jackson's 2018 adaptation was promising on paper, but ultimately painted a flat, lifeless version of the world the novels built, changing key plot points. One character, Hester, was a particular letdown, being less ethically ambiguous than in the book. After it bombed at the box office, Mortal Engines 2 never took shape.

9 Chaos Walking

Chaos Walking's cast, which included Spider-Man's Tom Holland and Star Wars's Daisy Ridley, was a good sign for fans of the novel series by Patrick Ness. Adapted from the series' first novel, The Knife of Never Letting Go, the Chaos Walking movie was wobbly but broadly delivered on the science fiction book's intriguing premise ― a world in which a plague has killed women and left men able to read each other's thoughts. However, the movie suffered from bad timing. Delayed due to reshoots then released amid the pandemic, it only got a small showing in theaters then simply fell through the cracks, losing money and killing chances of sequels.

8 His Dark Materials

Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials is a breathtakingly original book series, incorporating Milton's Paradise Lost to explore innocence and sin, and to critique the Catholic Church. Yet The Golden Com was an altogether different beast. Nervously avoiding the religious satire, making headstrong protagonist Lyra bland, and drastically changing the ending, it was perhaps for the best that a sequel never materialized. A second attempt was more successful ― His Dark Materials's recent TV adaptation was much better received.

7 Vampire Academy

Supernatural schools are certainly a tried and tested trope of YA escapism and wish fulfillment, from Harry Potter to Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and Wednesday ― and Vampire Academy is no different. Author Richelle Mead's six books follow half-vampire Rose, who starts her journey at St Vladimir's Academy. Despite a strong fanbase and the success of other YA vampire series Twilight, the first novel's film adaptation was a crashing commercial and critical failure, panned for being lazy and unoriginal. A second try didn't fare any better; Peacock's TV reboot of Vampire Academy only lasted for one season.

6 The Giver

The Giver is perhaps the seminal young adult dystopia, paving the way for genre staples like The Hunger Games and Divergent. Author Lois Lowry's novel, the first in a quartet, follows a boy named Jonas who lives in a seemingly perfect futuristic society, but realizes things are murkier than they seemed when he is assigned memories from an earlier time. Given its popularity and a strong cast including Meryl Streep, it's surprising that the 2014 screen adaptation failed to make its own cultural impact. A sequel didn't seem in the works anyway, but it's even harder to imagine one after the movie was disliked by critics and generally seen as disappointing after such a long wait.

5 Inkheart

The Inkheart fantasy series, by German writer Cornelia Funke, follows a girl called Meggie who can bring elements of books to life by reading aloud. Originally a trilogy and with another novel due to come out in 2023; that's at least some comfort for readers who only got to see the first book itself brought to life. Despite New Line Pictures buying the rights to Funke's whole trio, there has been no movement since 2008's Inkheart, starring Brendan Fraser. A tepid box office performance coupled with complaints that the movie hadn't done characters justice, especially fan-favorite Dustfinger, meant that though it was an enjoyable fantasy adventure, the story won't continue.

4 City Of Ember

The City of Ember is the first novel in the Books of Ember series by Jeanne DuPrau, and like fellow sci-fi dystopia Mortal Engines, it offers an intriguing and grim world. Its post-apocalyptic setting sees humans confined to an underground city ― but the fact they are meant to leave one day, and that there is a world outside at all, has been forgotten. Its film adaptation City of Ember ― starring Bill Murray and giving Little Women's Saoirse Ronan her breakthrough ― is enjoyable and compelling fare, but missing some of the originality and depth of the original. There's no indication if sequels were ever planned.

3 Artemis Fowl

Artemis Fowl is the first series in a wider collection of books about the same fantasy world, with Irish writer Eoin Colfer's novels following the titular young criminal mastermind. The film adaptation of the first novel took a long road to arrive at the screen, languishing amid vague development plans since 2001, and only coming out in 2020. When it did release, it attracted extremely negative reviews as well as outrage over changing core parts of the source material. Artemis Fowl was a disaster made worse by the pandemic, which denied it a theatrical release and forced it to go straight to Disney+ ― where it has since disappeared from.

2 Eragon

The movie of Eragon is now a notorious example of how not to adapt a book ― used almost as a shorthand to describe a hubris-filled Hollywood's struggle to understand what makes a franchise actually popular. The dragon-filled high fantasy YA novel, the first in The Inheritance Cycle, was itself written by a teenager, Christopher Paolini, who was influenced by folklore and Tolkien's work. The 2006 movie, though, was almost universally panned as a betrayal of the source material, as well as somehow managing to waste Jeremy Irons' talents. Thankfully, an Eragon TV reboot, ed by Paolini, is in early development.

1 Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events

A wonderfully subversive, smart, and decidedly non-patronizing series of children's books, A Series Of Unfortunate Events was translated into a surprisingly good movie that kept the wit and darkness of the series even if it tweaked some plot points. Jim Carrey, too, was well cast as villain Count Olaf. Seen by some as too dark for kids, it was criticized by others for softening the books' edges. However, the movie still performed well at the box office, and Paramount reportedly had discussions over sequels that never materialized. Instead, Netflix adapted the whole young adult series for TV, with Neil Patrick Harris giving Carrey's Olaf a serious run for his money.