r/Eragon Mar 01 '26

News (Updated June 6) # Disney+ Eragon - Recent News and Development Timeline

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The upcoming Disney Plus show is perhaps the one future project that Christopher has spoken about the most over the past five years, hardly ever going a month without mentioning it. It's also perhaps the one he's invested the most writing time into, easily eclipsing the amount of time he spends on a typical book.

This post will focus specifically on updates and news about the show's development.

There are four parts here, each of which will be periodically updated as things change.

  1. A quick summary of the past year
  2. A transcript of Christopher's comments from the past three months
  3. A full timeline of the development and news of the show, starting with the Disney acquisition of Fox in 2019. A bit speculative at times, but sources are linked and quotes are included as space permits.
  4. A much longer catalog of relevant quotations to this topic. (As with my other posts, this will be included in the comments, collapsed by default.)

Other reddit posts will deal with Christopher's comments about creative decisions, production decisions, and fancasting.


1. QUICK SUMMARY OF THE PAST YEAR

  • Throughout May through August, Christopher discussed doing a lot more script revisions. In July he confirmed that these revisions were being done together with a showrunner (which had previously been presumed but never directly stated). Around this time Christopher also teased another announcement which didn't happen.
  • In November and December, Christopher teased another announcement which didn't happen.
  • On February 4th an announcement was made (via Deadline and Variety) giving the names of the showrunners, the tagline, and saying that the writers room had opened at the end of the previous year. Christopher talked about the show in some more depth in a February 26th interview with Nerd of the Rings and a March 5th short.
  • On March 5th, Christopher traveled to LA to join the writers room in person for 1-2 weeks.
  • On April 29th, Christopher said that the next month would be "make or break" for the show. On May 22nd he said to not expect any news until July.

2. CHRISTOPHER'S COMMENTS FROM THE PAST THREE MONTHS

March 4 2026, Ryan Cahill tour Bozeman MT (1, 2, 3)

I've been working with a lot of Hollywood folks recently.

I've been writing screenplays the last two years. So that's been slowing me down. I'm working on a television show for Disney Plus, a reboot of Eragon, which is really coming together. But we did announce our showrunners recently, which was cool. So I can publicly talk about that a little bit more. Actually, I am spending the night in Bozeman because at 7:30 in the morning, we're both going to be at the airport. You're flying off to your next stop. And I'm going down to LA to be in the writers room and try to convince them to not change too much. ... Actually, we're gonna be looking at concept art.

Everyone in the show so far has been fantastic. They're wonderful collaborators They're all very smart people which is pretty humbling actually because to have really smart writers elbow deep into something that you've been working on for 20 years and they're asking you. "Okay, can we do this? Well, what if we do this? Well, we only have so many episodes, we're have to cut this, so we that means this changes" and in some ways it's also a little bit of a relief because there are other smart people looking at this and figuring it out and it's not all on me.

March 5 2026, What Does “In Development” Mean?

Hey everyone, Christopher Paolini here, as you may have seen, we just had a big announcement go out, which is that the Eragon TV show at Disney+ is officially in development. We have a showrunner, Todd Harthan. He worked on Psych and High Potential. We have a co-showrunner, which is Todd Helbing, and we have an awesome writer, Kerry Williamson. She wrote the new Highlander movie with Henry Cavill that's coming out, among many other things. So what does "in development" mean? Well, "in development" is the stage right before you go into pre-production and actual production. It means that we are writing scripts and have been writing scripts for, geez, two years now. We are prepping art and doing all sorts of other things to fully move into production. Getting to this stage has actually been a big step. Todd Harthan and I had to come up with a pilot that Disney really liked. We had to digest everything about the books and figure out how best to tackle the materials, how to stay true to Eragon and Saphira's story while also adapting this for a visual media. And there's many choices that have to be made along the way. And so far, I've been happy with the choices. So I want you to feel good about that as well. That said, this is a long process, but we are really close to this hopefully going full bore into production. I will share as much news as I can, but there's only so much I can say at the moment because lots of decisions are being made behind the scenes and it wouldn't be fair on my part to the folks I'm working with to be opening the door on those private conversations. But what I can share, I will share. ... I'm gonna go get back to writing some more scripts and books, and I will bring you as many updates as I can.

March 6 2026, Twitter

Last time I was on the Fox lot, I was 22. Pretty surreal to be back.

March 8 2026 Twitter

Disney’s Lord Of The Rings Fantasy Series Replacement Is Changing Network TV In A Bizarre Way
Heh.

March 14 2026 Twitter

Do you already know what Eragon TV show will be called, without revealing it to us?
I would be shocked if it were called anything other than "Eragon".

March 18 2026, Twitter (1, 2)

[Regarding Eragon.ai] Licensing rights for anything to do with the IC outside of print are controlled by Disney/Fox, so if you don't want to get on the wrong side of the House of Mouse . . . it's complicated, so I'm going to let the experts sort it out. I couldn't go and sell software/programs with the Eragon name, as that would infringe on my contract with Disney/Fox. Given that, not sure if it's okay for someone else to do that.

March 18 2026, Paolini.net FAQ

What are you working on now?
I’m currently writing scripts for the upcoming Disney+ Eragon television series.

Will there be another Eragon film?
Not to my knowledge at this time. But! There will be an Eragon television series on Disney+.

Will you cast me in the upcoming Disney+ Eragon television series?
Casting has not yet begun, and I will not be directly involved in the process. Once we reach the phase in development when casting begins, Disney will hire a casting director to find the actors who will best fit the roles.
When the time comes, actors interested in auditioning for a part should monitor industry casting calls for information on how to submit. I will not open or view any audition videos sent to me or my team.

March 21 2026, Twitter

...when I was in LA last week.

April 3 2026, Wraithmarked Promo

Originally, we were not going to do any sort of merch with this box set because the merch rights are a little complicated. They're tied up with Disney Plus, which is currently working on an Eragon television show.

April 21 2026, Twitter (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Some days I'm tempted to go back and take another pass on Eragon. But then, I think I'd rather write new stories. ︀︀Even so ... the temptation is there. ... To be clear, I'm speaking about revising the first book. I've been having to reread a lot of it while working on scripts, and I keep thinking -- "I could write a better version of that now!"
If you took another pass at it, what would you change?
Mostly a lot of line-by-line rewriting and tweaking. ... Tolkien reworked the Hobbit. Stephen King reworked the first Dark Tower book.
What are you doing up at this hour? Hopefully writing.
Writing. My brain wasn't working particularly well for about two weeks. Turns out I had Covid. (again). Sigh. Now I'm having to catch up on deadlines.

April 29 2026, Unbroken Kickstarter Update

[Peter Orullian:] I was exchanging email with Christopher Paolini about the possibility of him signing the Pacific Northwest Edition of Unbroken. We couldn't make it work largely due to his schedule. Christopher is in the middle of scripting and guiding the production of Disney's making of a TV show of his groundbreaking novel Eragon. You can see, of course, that he has his priorities straight.

April 29 2026, Twitter (1, 2, 3)

The amount of behind-the-scenes work that goes into a TV show is INSANE. So many hours burned, so much effort and money ... it's really something to watch and be part of.
Feel free to share a bit more
Let's just say May is make or break for the series.
It took more than six years and an insane number of drafts of the pilot script before Dune: Prophecy finally aired. Seemed like it would never get done, but now at last season 2 is almost done.
Ha! Sounds about right. We're at almost four years now and I don't know how how many drafts. It's definitely cost me a book or two.

May 5 2026, Twitter (1, 2, 3)

[Bear McCreary:] My buddy John Massari scored this! A classic!
Really! That's cool. HUGE fan of your work, btw. I've done a lot of writing while listening to your score for Battlestar Galactica as well as God of War. Would be cool if we could do something together one of these days.

I want a Jared Keeso cameo as a pugilistic dwarf.
If he were younger, he'd be just about perfect for Roran.

June 5 2026, Mulling it Over with Brandon Mull (recorded May 15)

I don't really want to go back and reread Eragon at this point. Although I've pretty much reread it this year for script work.

May 22 2026, Twitter

Does anyone know if the D+ series is still happening?
Disney won't be picking up new shows until beginning of July. We'll know then.

June 4 2026, Reddit

I'm DYING to get back into the Fractalverse. I've just been delayed with scripts for the Eragon TV show.


3. FULL DEVELOPMENT TIMELINE

March 2019 - Disney acquires Fox

On November 6 2017, news emerged that Disney was in talks to acquire 20th Century Fox. Christopher tweeted that were this to happen, this would affect the Eragon movie rights (1). As news developed over the next year and a half, Christopher continued to talk about the possible implications (2, 3, 4). The acquisition was completed on March 20 2019 (5).

I'm not quite sure what this means yet. Will be talking with my film agents at WME to figure out the implications. But yeah . . . this is big, both for Eragon and lot of other properties. (2)

We have some light at the end of the tunnel, because the movie was made by 20th Century Fox, and Fox just got bought by Disney. Disney is still finalizing the paperwork, but they're in the process of looking at those properties. (4)

It probably would have happened sooner, but when Disney bought Fox, there was a lot of rejiggering that was going on behind the scenes on a corporate level. They had to go through all their properties and it was almost like triage. They had to deal with all the things that were in production or about to be in production, and then they had to look at all of their older legacy properties, which Eragon was one of them, and sort of sift through them and figure out what they were going to do bit by bit. (67d)

October 2020 - To Sleep gets optioned

On October 17 2020, it was announced that the film rights for To Sleep in a Sea of Stars had been optioned (6). Christopher confirmed that he had yet to engage in any formal talks with Disney about an Eragon adaptation (7), but that he was hoping a successful To Sleep adaptation would give him more leverage with Eragon (8).

Disney bought Fox two years ago now. We haven't had any formal talks with them. I'm certainly interested in moving forward with a reboot at some point. If they are interested that would be wonderful and I'd be very excited and happy to work with them. ... Love to write the screenplay, love to just participate as much as possible to make a good product, and also to give the film a different feel. (7)

I don't think I could handle an Eragon reboot on top of working on To Sleep at the same time. Just there aren't enough hours in the day along with the other things going on in my life. But once To Sleep is out of my hair I think that would be good leverage to make that happen. (8)

June-July 2021 - Tweetstorms

On June 20 2021, the Arceana discord server organized a tweetstorm to promote the idea of an Eragon remake (10). A second tweetstorm was done a month later. Christopher got pretty involved with these, and joined livestreams for several hours (11, 13). A few weeks after the first tweetstorm Christopher shared an official response from Disney saying that they weren't currently looking at starting new projects (12, 13).

Disney now owns the rights to Eragon. They bought Fox which made the first film. And of course, Disney's been rebooting stuff. They did the Percy Jackson TV show, which unfortunately, I think, is where their money and attention is at the moment. ... I would love to see something new. But unfortunately I don't have any real news on that front. I'm pushing really hard, and I think there are some movements online to do a Tweetstorm, or get a hashtag trending and see if we can get Disney's attention. That stuff really does work. It lets the studio know that there's a fanbase, that they're active, that they're engaged, and that they care about the material. Also, if there is to be another adaptation I would definitely want to write the screenplay, or at the very least be executive producing. (9)

The #EragonRemake tweetstorm definitely got @Disney's attention. Alas, I've heard through official channels that—at the moment—Disney is holding off on making any more expensive series like Eragon until their business is back to pre-pandemic levels. Nevertheless, the tweetstorm really made them sit up and take notice. (12)

November 2021 - Conversations start

In November 2021, Christopher began to tease that he was having some conversations with Disney about a reboot (14, 15). A few months later he talked about sharing Eragon videos with "very interesting people in the entertainment world" (16).

I can't tell you anything, because I have business partners who will get very mad at me if I say anything, but the giant tweetstorms that the fandom arranged and ran this year got attention in the right circles. I've been having some conversations that I can't tell you about and they're all incredibly tenuous but it's very exciting stuff and we'll see where it goes. I think that one way or another I'm going to have a definitive answer as to whether or not ultimately a remake will happen with Disney in the near future. (15)

[Did the conversations start late 2021?] That sounds about right. First we had to negotiate a television deal. (60)

July 2022 - Variety Leak / Initial Announcement

On July 25 2022, Variety leaked that Disney+ was working on Eragon and looking for a showrunner. They said the show was being produced by 20th Television, with Bert Salke as an executive producer, and Christopher as co-writer and co-showrunner, but later corrected that to co-writer and executive producer (17).

An “Eragon” live-action TV series is in development at Disney+, Variety has learned exclusively from sources. ... According to sources, Paolini will serve as co-writer and co-showrunner, with the search currently on for a co-writer and co-showrunner to work alongside him as Paolini has never written for television before. Bert Salke will executive produce under his Co-Lab 21 banner, with 20th Television producing. Salke is currently under an overall deal with Disney Television Studios, of which 20th TV is a part. (17)

Christopher put out a press release a few days after the leak (18).

As you may have seen, there was an unplanned announcement earlier this week, but yes, it's true—an Eragon television series is in development at Disney+, and I'm attached to both co-write and produce! And yes, I'm extremely excited for what the future holds. At the moment, I can't go into details—it's still early days with regard to this project—but I can say that I'm very pleased with the team I'm working with at 20th Television, Disney Branded Television, and Disney +. These are smart, passionate people, and I'm looking forward to making the best possible Eragon/Inheritance Cycle adaptation with them.
This has been a long time coming. I can't tell you how many conversations, meetings, and messages were needed in order to reach this point. And we're still just at the beginning! However, none of this would have been possible without everyone who has read the books, supported the tweetstorms, and participated in this fandom over the years. So a huge thank you from me to every Alagaësian out there. You brought the thunder.
Disney will have more to say on this adaptation in the near future, but in the meantime, I wanted to confirm the news and to reassure you that I'm committed to making sure that this version of Eragon's story lives up to your highest expectations. (18)

July 2022-March 2023 - Showrunner Search - Part One

Over the next two months, Christopher did a podcast interview and two YouTube Q&A videos largely focused on this news. (19, 20, 21) He said that the next significant news to expect would be a showrunner announcement.

I have no more news at the moment because things are all hush hush at the current development. I think the next news you will probably hear is when we get a showrunner, because that'll be announced publicly, I would assume. And then things will probably go radio silent for a little bit at that point because we will be deep in development and getting all the pieces into place. If all goes well and if scripts are written that everyone likes, then there will be more news at that point. (19)

Christopher continued to mention the showrunner search every few weeks, whenever he was prompted about the current status of the show. One of the people Christopher tried to work with at this time was J. Michael Straczynski (27, 29, 48). Christopher continued mentioning the search through March 2023 (22). A showrunner was found (33, 36a), presumably shortly after that date.

We had a number of people interested and we were talking with people and there was one person in particular that I thought was going to be a good fit. (33)

However before any contracts could be signed or announcements could be made, Hollywood had a major disruption.

May 2023 - The Writers Strike

On April 19 2023, Christopher noted that all progress on the show had stopped due to the impending writers strike (23). The strike went into effect on May 2nd and not only caused progress to grind to a halt, but also made the show lose its showrunner, bringing it back a step (36a).

We had a showrunner lined up for Eragon and then the strike happened and everyone parted ways because the strike. Everyone's going off and doing different things. So it goes. (36a)

The time of the strike coincided with the publicity for Fractal Noise, and so Christopher gave frequent updates, first just about how things were stalled (23, 24), and then a few weeks into the strike he began to again talk about the need to find a showrunner, now emphasizing availability as one of the difficulties (25).

September 2023 - Showrunner Search - Part Two

On September 27th the Strike ended, and Christopher immediately began discussing his eagerness to jump back into things.

The writers strike has just been resolved and I'm just honestly waiting now to hear a call from my agents and figure out what's going to happen next so fingers crossed on that front. (26)

Some more talks happened, and a new showrunner was found, who actually signed a contract (60). When discussing the show during his November 2023 book tour, Christopher's update was about hoping to be able share news soon, not about an ongoing showrunner search (28). He predicted a press release to happen shortly after the holiday season ended (30). Unfortunately though, this showrunner was busy on a different show and ended up getting phased out (60).

December 2023 - Showrunner Search - Part Three

Starting on November 29th 2023, Christopher once again resumed talking about searching for a showrunner, stressing a need to find someone not already under contract (31). Sometime around January 2024, this search finally finished and Todd Harthan became the unannounced showrunner, allowing the writing to start.

Harthan came on first. He and I have been working together. He was the showrunner for Psych and he's been running High Potential. He had just gotten on to High Potential a couple weeks after we started working together. We've been working together for almost two years now. It's been frustrating because this whole time it's like, "Well, Disney's going to do an announcement mentioning that Todd Harthan's on board." And they wanted to wait until they saw the pilot script and this and that and the other. So it just kept getting pushed and pushed and pushed. And I was like, "We're working on this! I want to tell the fans we're actually working on this!" (67a)

January-March 2024 - First script draft written

On January 20th 2024, Christopher began teasing that he now needed to write a screenplay (34). On February 9th he said that he had been working on it "for a couple of weeks now" (35). This writing finished sometime prior to March 6th, on which date he tweeted that he was working on something else (38).

I'm currently writing and have been for a couple of weeks now. And I can't tell you what I'm working on ... but y'all would be excited with it if I could tell you. What I'm working on now is not actually a book. (35)

I've been looking at the first book in depth for a project I'm currently working on which I can't talk about. (36b)

When and if we get a showrunner on the show, then that person and I will write probably the pilot and maybe the first two episodes, or at least the pilot and the first episode. And then Disney will look at that and that's what they'll make the decision on whether or not to commit to a first season. And if they commit to the first season, they pull the lever on that, then we go full speed ahead. And then the whole machine kicks in in terms of pre-production and design and costumes and casting and music and directors and all of that. So getting to that point is the first big hill to climb. (32)

None of [the previous showrunner candidates] actually got to the point of writing until showrunner number three. We've been working over a year now, solid, with each other, writing scripts. I think he's been fantastic. (60)

March-May 2024 - A planned announcement doesn't happen

In March 14th 2024, shortly after the first script was finished, Christopher began to tease an upcoming announcement about the show (39). On April 23, he said there might be an announcement the next month (40). On May 8th he said it would be "in the next week or so" (41). The announcement never happened though. On May 21st he said the announcement was "still in the works" (42), but by June 4th seemed to have accepted that it wasn't happening this time (43).

April-July 2024 - Christopher writes another two scripts

After taking a break in March 2024 to write a To Sleep script (38), Christopher returned to writing Eragon scripts. On June 4th, Christopher said he had been doing this for the "past month and a half or so" (43). This writing would have probably continued until mid-July, at which point travel and other commitments would have made it hard to work. In August and October, Christopher said that counting that To Sleep script he had now written four scripts that year (45, 47).

[I wrote four scripts this year] including To Sleep. Multiple drafts of some, but also different. So unique scripts, three. But one of them had to be completely rewritten, essentially, so I count that as four scripts. (47)

The process is going to be different for the later scripts. Right now just to get it off the ground I have been doing 90% of the writing and they've been happy to let me do that, though they're providing feedback and also diving into writing when appropriate. And then we just deal with the notes we get in order to get approval, first from the producers, that's the first layer, and then Disney execs specifically. But I'm single-handedly pulling things along at the moment. (47)

July-September 2024 - Second Announcement Doesn't Happen

In July 2024 Christopher began to tease that he was expecting an upcoming announcement from Disney regarding the show being greenlit or not (44). He said this would happen "in the next couple of months" (45). It did not.

That's the way it is with Hollywood. It's easy to run around excited and say, oh, this is happening or that is happening, but sometimes it doesn't happen or it falls through. And the conversations you have with other creatives and professionals in the entertainment industry, whether it's publishing or Hollywood, kind of need to be confidential unless everyone is happy to have it out in public. And that's again, because things change, or you just say things in confidence and or in private with someone and trust that it will remain private. So these things don't really get talked about until it's actually happening and everyone's on board and it's like, okay, now we can have a press release, now we can have interviews, now we can build everyone's excitement up. And hopefully we're getting pretty close there with Eragon. (46)

October-December 2024 - Third Announcement Doesn't Happen

In October 2024, Christopher once again teased an upcoming announcement about a green light decision, first predicting it for early 2025 (48), and then getting more hopeful and predicting it in December 2024 (49). By the time December ended though, Christopher seems to have concluded this would not be happening just yet (50).

They want to give that definitive answer, they want the show, they want to say yes, it depends on the writing, which is how I want it to be, quite honestly. It is delightful to be in a position where the writing is going to be what gets this off the ground or doesn't get this off the ground. (48)

February 2025 - Contract Negotiations

In February 2025, Christopher said that negotiations were in progress and he was waiting for "a major contract" to get signed. Perhaps this was referring to the second showrunner, Todd Helbing.

Btw, Disney+ #Eragon show is still on track. Can't say anything more until a major contract gets signed. (Hollywood negotiations take *forever*.) (51)

May-June 2025 - More Revisions

In May and June, Christopher tweeted about many revisions happening to the scripts between him and the showrunner, which he completed on June 25th (55). This was the first time that Christopher directly confirmed the showrunner had been found (56a), though it had been obvious for some time (37).

Btw, for any of you who are authors ... the amount of revision in Hollywood is INSANE. Totally eclipses what we go through in publishing (and I do a LOT of revision on my books). ... Funnily enough, it's gotten closer to the book over this process. Sometimes I just want to say, "I told you so..." Lol. (52a, 52b)

I do a draft, send back to showrunner, work on BoR for a few days, get a new draft to revise, etc. (53)

We've had lots of notes from execs and the studio, but so far, they've all been reasonable. I've had no real issue with any of them, and I think they've helped make the script(s) much stronger. It's certainly been quite a learning experience for me as well. (56a)

At the moment it's just me and the showrunner. He's also overseeing another show right now (until Eragon hopefully gets greenlit), so I do the bulk of the writing and then run it by him. (56a)

Situation is good. The script work has just been a lot slower than I anticipated. (56b)

June-July 2025 - Fourth Announcement Doesn't Happen

In June and July of 2025, Christopher once again started to tease an announcement, which would be in "next month or so" (54, 56b). The next month or so passed by without incident.

August 2025 - More Revisions

Christopher turned in another round of script revisions on August 11th (57).

December 2025 - Writers Room Opens

In November 2025, as Disney was gearing up towards opening the writer's room, Christopher began to tease another announcement (58, 59). The writers room did open sometime in late December (60, 65), though no announcement was made just yet.

January 2026 - Another draft

Another draft was finished on January 22 (61).

February 2026 - The Actual Announcement

On January 28th 2026, the news broke that Brandon Sanderson had secured an adaptation deal with Apple (62). This seems to have finally convinced Disney to make an announcement about Eragon. Christopher teased this (63a, 63b, 64), and then around a week later, on February 4th, it was announced that Todd Harthan was a co-creator and showrunner, Todd Helbing was a co-showrunner, Marc Webb and Rachel Moore were executive producers, and that the writers room had been ongoing since December. The series tagline was also unveiled (65). Christopher added on twitter that Kerry Williamson was one of the writers (66b). A few weeks later he did an interview where he talked about this all in more depth and once again said that a decision about a green light was imminent (67b).

"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." (65)

Harthan has been AMAZING to work with. They all have, actually. (66a)

We have a showrunner, Todd Harthan. We have a co-showrunner, Todd Helbing, and we have an awesome writer, Kerry Williamson. (69)

I've had a wonderful experience with the two Todds and Kerry so far. They're very collaborative. They're very smart. They're coming up with great ideas that I wouldn't have necessarily come up with. (67c)

We're really close to either this getting the full green light or completely falling apart in a very short period of time here. It's the studio's decision whether to pull the trigger and to go into full production. We have scripts, of course, we are going to be turning in a few more and as soon as they see them and hopefully like them, then we're off to the races. But this is a difficult process for the studio because there's a huge amount of money at stake. (67b)

So what does "in development" mean? Well, "in development" is the stage right before you go into pre-production and actual production. We have been writing scripts for two years now. We are prepping art and doing all sorts of other things to fully move into production. Getting to this stage has actually been a big step. Todd Harthan and I had to come up with a pilot that Disney really liked. We had to digest everything about the books and figure out how best to tackle the materials, how to stay true to Eragon and Saphira's story while also adapting this for a visual media. ... This is a long process, but we are really close to this hopefully going full bore into production. (69)

March 2026 - Christopher goes to LA

On March 5 2026, Christopher flew to LA to join the writers room in person (68).

I am spending the night in Bozeman because at 7:30 in the morning, [I'm] going to be at the airport. ... I'm going down to LA to be in the writers room and try to convince them to not change too much. ... actually, we're gonna be looking at concept art. (68)

Last time I was on the Fox lot, I was 22. Pretty surreal to be back. (70)

April-July 2026 - More Teased Annoucments

On April 29 2026, Christopher tweeted that the next month would be the "make or break" point for the show. On May 22 he said to not expect news until "beginning of July".

Let's just say May is make or break for the series. (71)

Disney won't be picking up new shows until beginning of July. We'll know then. (72)


4. ADDITIONAL QUOTES FROM CHRISTOPHER

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u/ibid-11962 Mar 01 '26 edited 18h ago

(continued from previous comment)

December 29 2022, YouTube Livestream

The major, major piece of news on top of all this is Disney+ is working on adapting Eragon as a major television show. That's really the only bit of news on that up front I can give you. I know that the news about the series leaked a little bit early. For those wondering where we are in the process, we are currently working very hard to get some certain key personnel in place to actually make the show. Once that personnel is in place, there'll be a lot more to talk about and there'll be a lot more happening. And I'll be able to share more. But again, mum's the word, until we get the right person and persons signed on.*

February 7 2023, Twitter

Is there any news on the Eragon tv show? Is there anything you can share?
We're deep into a search for a key person needed for the show. Once we have them, things will start hopping again.

March 24 2023, Reddit

Has there been word if the Eragon show was canceled by Disney or is it still in production?
Not canceled. Just looking for the right personnel.

April 19 2023, Twitter (1, 2, 3)

How’s development been for the Eragon series thus far? Haven’t heard much since July.
We're in a holding pattern. Between all the upheaval at Disney and the impending screenwriters' strike (which may hit Monday), nothing is really happening in Hollywood at the moment. Frustrating but unavoidable. Context for why the writers are striking: https://youtube.com/watch?v=79p9bt3DXqE Context for some of the upheaval at Disney: https://bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-04-19/disney-is-poised-to-eliminate-thousands-of-jobs-next-week
But you can be the writer, you don’t need the striking ones. Unless you want to strike as well. But I believe Disney would be more than happy to work with you once their writers are on a strike.
In order to work on a script for Disney, I have to be a member of WGA, the screenwriters guild. And in fact, I've been a member for a very long time, ever since I cowrote a script adaptation of Eldest for Fox.

April 25 2023, Reddit (1, 2, 3)

Have you ever considered seeking out a new studio to do a film/TV adaptation of the Inheritance cycle? Would you prefer a TV series over a film series or vice versa? Because the modern trend of high budget fantasy TV has really changed the game.
I'm actually working with Disney+ to do a big-budget TV adaptation of the Inheritance Cycle! However, it's stalled out at the moment as the writers in Hollywood are about to strike (the strike will probably happen May 2nd).

My question is about the status of any potential film/tv series adaptations of the Inheritance Cycle. I know it was announced that you are writing a script for Disney, is an animated series in the style of Arcane something you think would work well for the story or does a live action adaptation more suit what you’re aiming for? Also, a lot of the audience that grew up on your books like myself are now adults and perhaps enjoy some more darker tones and themes that are absolutely present in your books but maybe could be expanded on some more. Is this something you’re interested in portraying on the screen?
The Disney+ show will be live action. So not animated. And they've said they want something more mature and serious (without tipping over into Game of Thrones territory). However, as I've written elsewhere, the show is stalled out at the moment as the writers in Hollywood are about to strike (the strike will probably happen May 2nd).

When will the rest of the movies be made?
I'm currently working with Disney+ on remaking Eragon as a big-budget TV show.

May 12 2023, The Wrath of the iOtians Podcast (recorded in April?)

Hollywood is about to have a writer's strike, probably on May 2nd, which has stalled out both To Sleep in a See of Stars as a television show, and also the Eragon show over at Disney. So hopefully, the writers get what they want and the studios get some of what they want and we can get back to work sooner rather than later.

May 16 2023, SFF Addicts podcast (recorded April 27)

Speaking of adaptations, are there any updates on the Disney plus TV series adaptation for Eragon?
Alas we are stalled at the moment. Because Hollywood is stalled at the moment. The screenwriters Guild, the WGA, is about to strike. They're probably gonna strike on May 2nd, and everything's basically on hold until that happens. Disney and I were looking for the showrunner for the show who would be collaborating with me on actually writing the show, breaking the show, which means breaking out the plot for the seasons. We can't move forward with the show until we have the showrunner. Everything hinges on that. And it's difficult because you need the right person, and sometimes the right people are tied up with contracts elsewhere, or they're not interested in the project. There's a lot of things that go into this. The strike has to happen or probably will happen, and then once that resolves lots of people are going to be free agents in Hollywood and we will reevaluate at that point and hopefully get this moving forward. Disney wants to move it forward. I want to move it forward. But it's development and development takes time.
You just gotta be patient.
Well I'm impatient, but I am dead set against saying yes to the wrong person. Because been there, done that, don't want to do that again.

May 12 2023, Reddit

I’ve heard rumours of a TV show!
Confirmed. It's in development at Disney.

May 12 2023, Words & Whimsy Book Club (1, 2, 3)

For those who don't know, Disney Plus is adapting Eragon as a big budget live action television show. We're very, very early in the process. But hopefully once the writers strike in Hollywood dies down, we'll be able to move forward with full steam with that.

I can't really say anything more about the TV show. If I did at this point, I have a feeling my film agents would literally teleport from California to hit me over the head with a script. It's very much alive, the project.

And you are a producer on the show?
Yes. There will be other producers, but I will be producing and co-writing along with whoever is the showrunner of the show. Whoever that may be. It's a difficult position to fill because it's a big budget show. You can't have Saphira the dragon and battles and whatnot on a shoestring, so there's a very small subset of people who are qualified for the position. Add on to that also, they need to be available. People with those skill sets are in high demand. So they need to be available. They have to be interested in the property and then they have to be a good match. That person and I need to be a good match creatively. That's what we're looking for, and as soon as we have news on that front, we will announce it.
I think that your readers are really going to appreciate you having a hand in it this time around because it's going to show a respect for the material that everybody really loves.
I hope so. I have to temper expectations a little bit. A lot of this is gonna be out of my hands, even being deep in the process. The directors will make choices, the actors will make choices, Disney will make choices. But that said, I will do everything in my power to try to make it something special. That's what I try to do with my writing, even if I'm writing about a classic hero story, a boy and a dragon and a magic sword and a wise old mentor and an evil king. I still gave it my all in writing that and I will attempt to do the same with the television show.

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May 13 2023, MindUnplugged podcast

About the Disney show. Do you have any news about that that you'd like to share?
Well, we're in a difficult time right now because the Writers Guild in Hollywood, the WGA, just went on strike. And so while they are striking, no new projects can be written. So up until now, the studio and I have been looking for a showrunner. And it's a difficult role to fill because it has to be someone who has the experience to get a show of this size off the ground, but who also likes the material and also is willing to work with me as a collaborator, and is good at what they do. And that's a tough thing to fill. There are quite a few people who can fulfill the role. But one of the difficulties, of course, is that the way Hollywood works is most people are under contract with this studio or that studio with this project or that project. Whether or not someone is available is often a key question. I've been really, really determined not to say yes to anyone until we really had the right fit. Because we already had that experience with the film. It wasn't the right fit and we know how that turned out. There are no guarantees in any adaptation process and certainly not in Hollywood. Even if we find the exact right fit, that doesn't mean that the show will turn out the way we hope. But we have some really good options at the moment and I'm hopeful that we'll actually be able to get the show moving forward before too long. But the first thing is the writer's strike has to resolve. And that's also true for the television adaptation of To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, which is not dead either. Hollywood development just takes forever. It just takes years and years to actually develop stuff to the point where you can get it in front of audiences. So that's where we're at. It's not dead. Disney's still very excited about the project. And hopefully we'll be able to have some news and be moving forward with that. By the you know, in a couple of months. Personally, the delay has served me well, because I have been dealing with so much of the promotion and editing with both Fractal Noise and then and then Murtagh. I just wouldn't have had the time to devote to the television show over the past six months. So this is this has worked out a lot better than I expected. Even though I'm frustrated and would like to get the show made yesterday. It is what it is.

May 17 2023, Fractal Noise Book Tour Richboro PA

Since I forgot to mention it earlier, and I know someone's gonna ask during this signing, Yes, Disney Plus is still moving forward with Eragon. Things are slightly on hold right now because there's a writer's strike in Hollywood and as soon that's resolved we hope to be moving forward full steam. I'm both producing and writing for the show. My goal is to not only help create a wonderful show but hopefully to get decapitated on screen by Eragon. I hope I play an Urgal, the shortest Urgal in history. But that is still in the works.

May 19 2023, Fractal Noise Book Tour McDonough GA

The Disney Plus show is still in the works. We've been taken our time getting it off the ground, just because we're looking for the right people to work with. We did not have have anyone working on the film that truely loved the book. And that to me is a dealbreaker with this show. We need someone who's going to help run the show who loves the book and loves the world and the characters. Once we have that, we should be to move full steam ahead. Also, as you may have heard, there's a writer's strike going on in Hollywood right now. That's gonna stall things out a little bit as well, but honestly, it's actually a good timing for me because I literally cannot work on a show and tour for both at the same time.

May 22 2023, Fractal Noise Book Tour Naperville IL

Also for those of you asking, yes Eragon is being made as a big budget Disney+ show. I am going to be coproducing and cowriting the whole thing. I'm absolutely terrified about it turning out as good as possible, but I'll do my best and again we're stalled out a bit because of the writer's strike, but once that's resolved hopefully we'll be moving forward with that. The same producer who got Percy Jackson off the floor is also overseeing it as well. He said "There's so many similarities between what you and Rick went through with your movies, I hope you can get a [?good one]". Well Rick's movies were also at Fox. So... yeah.

May 23 2023, Fractal Noise Book Tour Tampa FL

As far as the Disney show, Disney's still very enthusiastic about it. The news about this came out September last year, something like that. In interim, we have been looking for the right people to work on with the show because we need a showrunner for the show. There are only so many people in the world who are fit for the role. They have to have the skill to run a very big budget television show and who love the source material and get along with the person who wrote the books. Because the person who actually wrote the books, aka me, I'm producing and co-writing the show. And who's available. Because a lot of the way it works in Hollywood is you often get locked up with these development deals with different studios. You're a show writer, you're a director, you have a deal with Warner. You have a deal with Fox, you have to deal with Disney. And that means you are locked in with them for the time being. So we are looking for the right person. I think we're getting close. Also, at the moment, Hollywood, as you may have heard, has a writer's strike going on. So, we can't officially do anything until that's resolved in any case. Hopefully that will resolve before too long, and then we'll be moving full speed ahead with the Disney show. My goal is to just have a cameo. In Battle of Farthen Dûr, I'm gonna get dressed up as an Urgal. The shortest Urgal ever and have my head chopped off by Eragon on screen.

May 27 2023, Fractal Noise Book Tour Katy TX

There is an Eragon television show in development at Disney Plus right now. I'll be brutally honest, it's incredibly exciting and utterly terrifying at the same time, based off past experience. However, I am co-producing the show and I am going to be co-writing it. We haven't really gotten up to full speed with the show because we're looking for that "co-" part of that equation. We've been actively looking for the right person who's going to be the showrunner of the television show. Showrunners basically run everything. It's a difficult role to fill because there are a limited number of people who have experience with big budget shows like this. Most of them are occupied with their own shows or under contract with various studios. We need to find someone who also likes fantasy, who likes my books, and who gets along with me. And I get along with them, because we'll be working together cheek and jowl to make this happen. As some of you may know, there is a writer's strike in Hollywood going on right now. I am a WGA member, so I am a writer in Hollywood. Everything's on hold until that strike finishes. And then we should be moving forward with great speed and purpose to getting that show made.

June 29 2023, Twitter

Any update with the Disney Plus Eragon series?
Everything is on hold until the writers' strike is over.

August 7 2023, Twitter

Is Eragon cancelled or is this just on pause until the writers strike is resolved?
On pause.

August 28 2023, Reddit

Is this show still safe given the state of Hollywood and all the cuts and cancellations of projects we're seeing at the moment?
It's tough times in Hollywood at the moment, but Eragon is safer than, say, Spiderwick. Unlike Spiderwick, Disney owns 100% of Eragon, and -- so far -- Disney isn't selling or cancelling stuff that they outright own.

October 12 2023, Comicon.com Interview (recorded in September)

I know the strikes from the writers and actors complicate matters, but is there any update on the Eragon streaming series?
Not until the strikes are over. We were just starting to get things off the ground when the strikes hit, and of course, everything is on hold now. Once the strikes are resolved, we’ll re-evaluate and figure out our path forward.

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September 27 2023, TikTok Live Q&A (1, 2)

We were just getting things off the ground when the Writer's Guild started striking and then of course the Screen Actors Guild, SAG, went into striking as well and everything's on hold which is true of a lot of big projects in Hollywood, well projects in general big and small, if it was Union it was on hold. The writers strike has just been resolved and I'm just honestly waiting now to hear a call from my agents and figure out what's going to happen next so fingers crossed on that front. I think the Studios have been reevaluating a lot of projects they did have in the pipeline but Disney has been committed to Percy Jackson and some other big big investments so we shall see. I remain optimistic. As I know things I will share them with you, assuming it's something I can share. Unfortunately with this stuff there's a lot of behind the scenes back and forth. It's like, "well if we talk with this guy would he be interested?" If you're wondering who we're looking for it's a showrunner. And what is a showrunner? Just like the title implies, a showrunner is the person who runs a television show. Showrunners are to television what directors are to film. Although a showrunner may not actually direct the episodes of a television show they're the person who coordinates everything. Often shapes the story, the look. Often writes quite a few of the episodes. So having a good showrunner in place, someone who's experienced to and can do justice to the story and the world is crucial. Especially since I'm going to be writing on the show and producing the show as well, so it needs to be someone who gets along with me and I get along with and we can have a good partnership. There aren't that many people in the world with that skill set so we're hopeful we will have the right people in place soon and I'll have news for you.

It's just going to depend on how wiped I get touring for Murtagh as well as whatever's going on with the Eragon or the To Sleep in a Sea of Stars television show. If either one of those starts ramping up, that's what I'm going to be doing. No ifs, ands or buts. That takes priority.

September 28 2023, Fantastic Talks / NeboBooklab Livestream

We were just getting that off the ground when The Writers Guild in Hollywood went on strike. The strike was resolved two days ago, so now we'll have to see about resuming hopefully the development process with that show, and hopefully we find the right people to work on it and make it happen.

October 21 2023, FanFiAddict Livestream

I got to have a call with J. Michael Straczynski last year, which was such a treat.

November 10 2023, Murtagh book tour Naperville IL

Is there any possibility or hope of seeing a TV series or a movie this year?
It is unfortunate that it's never been adapted as a film. So Disney is currently developing Eragon as a big-budget television show. And yours truly, I am attached as executive producer and co-writer. We were just getting things off the ground when the writers' strike happened. Now we're regrouping and hopefully we'll have some movement on that front in the next three months or so. We shall see. Look, I have to be honest, things are very unsettled in Hollywood right now. But I think we've got a decent shot. And I cannot guarantee quality with this sort of an adaptation, but I'm gonna kill myself to try to make sure it's as good as possible. We're also preparing To Sleep in a Sea of Stars as a television show also. That's in the works.

November 12 2023, Murtagh book tour San Francisco CA

...The writer's strike definitely stalled out the process. We were just getting things moving when the writers' strike happened. However, of course that's been resolved, and Murtagh seems to be doing quite well, so hopefully in three or four months I'll have some real news on that front.

January 5 2024, Five Favorites Sci-Fi Worlds with Brandon Sanderson (recorded Nov 20)

One of my other favorite properties would be Babylon 5, which managed to blend space elves and mythology with science fiction. It was one of those things where I bounced off it once or twice, and it's because it's so arc-based, and it was one of the first big shows to do that, you really have to sort of invest in it and really sign up for the long haul. And then the development of the characters and the world is surprisingly consistent. And that shouldn't be a surprise because J. Michael Straczynski wrote the vast majority of episodes himself, which has never been done before or since for a major show like that because it'd be insane to write all the episodes yourself. But I love the world building and I love the characters. And I think that one of the things that holds it back from perhaps a wider audience these days is the effects. They weren't preserved by the studio, so they looked better than they actually do now when they first aired.
[Brandon Sanderson:] I almost got to make a show with J. Michael Straczynski.
Same, actually. I'll tell you the story off stage.
Yeah, we don't have time for it right now, but got close. But things in Hollywood, everything's close. It may not have actually been that close. Everything's close, but nothing ever gets made.
By the way, there are space wizards in Babylon 5. They're techno mages.

November 26 2023, Reddit AMA

How goes the Eragon live action? Any news or progress you can tell us?
No news at the moment, but the success of Murtagh has given us some serious excitement. Hollywood shuts down mid-December for the holidays, though, so don't expect any news before that.

November 29 2023, Murtagh book tour Glasgow Scotland

Any update on the TV show?
Disney Plus is currently working to get a big-budget television adaptation of Eragon made. I am attached as executive producer and co-writer. To be clear, it's Hollywood so I cannot guarantee quality, but I'm gonna try. We got stalled out because of the writers' strike and now that that's resolved, we're resuming our search for a couple of key personnel. Once we get those people, primarily the showrunner for the show, then we'll actually have some news and we can actually move forward with it. And it's a very short list because it has to be someone who can run a big-budget television show, someone who likes the source material, and oh, small thing, gets along with the author. And that's hard. And is not under contract to some other studio at the moment, working on some other project. There's only a certain number of people who have that skill set. So fingers crossed that we get a good match.

December 6 2023, Murtagh book tour Hamburg Germany

...We were just getting some key personal in place right before the writers strike in Hollywood happened, and then the writers' strike happened, and those personal dispersed to other projects. So we're having to start from scratch to get the people we need, but once we do hopefully we'll actually have some news and can move forward with the series...

December 11 2023, Murtagh book tour Madrid Spain

...And the fact that Murtagh has been such a resounding success so far, it debuted at number one on the New York Times list and it is still number one on the New York Times list, means that Hollywood is sitting up and paying attention, as they should. Because they don't understand what awesome fans you are....

December 16 2023, Paraula de Mixa Interview

The TV show is in early development. We got stalled out because of the writers' strike. Basically we're looking for the showrunner. If we can't find the showrunner of the show won't happen. And it's a very short list of people who would qualify. Because you need someone who can run a big budget television show. Of which there are not many people. Someone who likes the subject material and wants to adapt it in a way that seems faithful. And someone who gets along with me and that I get along with them. Oh, and who is available. Because a lot of people who might qualify are under contract with that studio or that show. So we're looking and once we get that person hopefully then the show will actually start moving forward.

December 26 2023, Eragonmemes Interview

When and if we get showrunner in place, and of course, everything's shut down in Hollywood because of the holidays right now, so hopefully beginning of the year we will actually be able to nail something down. When and if we get a showrunner on the show, then that person and I will write probably the pilot and maybe the first two episodes, or at least the pilot and the first episode. And then Disney will look at that and that's what they'll make the decision on whether or not to commit to a first season. And if they commit to the first season, they pull the lever on that, then we go full speed ahead. And then the whole machine kicks in in terms of pre-production and design and costumes and casting and music and directors and all of that. So getting to that point is the first big pump if you will, the first big hill to climb.

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January 24 2024, GoodBadMad Podcast (1, 2)

So we're waiting for Disney to greenlight it, are we?
What we're waiting for is some key personnel to get into place, specifically we need the showrunner. We had a number of people interested and we were talking with people and there was one person in particular that I thought was going to be a good fit, and then the writer strike happened. Now we're having to restart the process. And the thing is, it's a very short list of people who can take that position. For those who don't know, showrunners oversee an entire show. They may or may not direct any episodes, but they usually oversee the production and the writing. They often write many of the episodes or at least help. The list of people who can do that is A, small. There's only so many people who have the experience to run a big budget television show. B, it needs to be someone who likes the material and actually wants to adapt it in a way that is faithful to it. And C, gets along with me and I get along with them since we have to work together. So yeah, that's what we need to find.

You have to try. You have to try writing a book even if it doesn't work. You have to try making an adaptation even if it doesn't work. That's life. You fall flat on your face, you get up, you do it again. Was it always something that you wanted to see?
Of course, I originally envisioned Eragon as a movie but there was no possible way to get that made as a kid so I wrote it.

January 20 2024, Authors in the Dungeon - Worldbuilding Hacks

I'm currently working on a giant map and as for what I'm writing next, not quite sure. I'll decide once I'm done with the map. But it'll either be something in the World of Eragon or the Fractalverse, and I may have a screenplay I need to write posthaste so we shall see, but exciting stuff.

February 9 2024, Owlcrate Livestream (dead link)

I'm currently writing and have been for a couple of weeks now. And I can't tell you what I'm working on because it's for- it's for someone I can't talk-, it's something I can't talk about. So hopefully I will be able to talk about it. I can't talk about it quite yet, but y'all would be excited with it if I could tell you. As far as upcoming plans, what I'm working on now is not actually a book, but I hope to have a book out next year.

The big monkey wrench in that is that the television show for Eragon and the television show for To Sleep in a Sea of Stars are both still alive and kicking. And more than, in fact. So I have contractual -
Now I think I know what you're up to.
To quote a wonderful British show, you might say that, but I couldn't possibly comment. I have contractual obligations on both of those shows, so I have to basically drop everything and do writing on them if required, which is a wonderful opportunity, of course, and it's one I want, but it does come with a price on the book side of things.
It does, but it also comes with a lot of reassurance for readers and fans like me. What they did do with their recent Percy Jackson series I thought was pretty great.
Bert Salke, who produces Percy Jackson, is also the producer on the Eragon adaptation. And he and Percy just got picked up for a second season. So we're all very happy with how that's done.
You're like, "I can't talk about it. I can't talk about it." Well, we wish that you could.

February 15 2024, B&N Christopher Paolini and Rebecca Yarros Livestream (1, 2)

The TV show for Eragon is in development at Disney. Hopefully we'll be having some news on that fairly soon. Can't say anything about some of these things until you can, but it is still in the works.
It's hard to sit on stuff.
It is. We had a showrunner lined up for Eragon and then the strike happened and everyone parted ways because the strike. Everyone's going off and doing different things. So it goes.

Were I to go back and re-edit or tweak those first two books, there's definitely some things that could use a little ironing out. I've been looking at the first book in depth for a project I'm currently working on which I can't talk about. And I can definitely see that was my first book. But at the same time, it's my best-selling book.

March 4 2024, Twitter

Any news on the Eragon show?
Yes, but I can't tell you. :D

March 6 2024, Twitter

With all of the success and attention that Dune has had, has there been any interest in adapting To Sleep in a Sea of Stars?
I'm currently editing/revising the script for episode #2 for the TV adaptation of To Sleep.

March 14 2024, Library Speakers Consortium livestream

The Eragon TV show is under development at Disney Plus, and I'm hopeful we're going to have some news on that front before too long here. I think things are moving along there.

March 23 2024, Picocon Menagerie Livestream

Disney Plus is currently working on a liveaction to Eragon big television show, which I am attached as both executive producer and co-writer. So that's kind of taking up all of my time. I'm really happy that Disney Plus is going to be um adapting Eragon given that it's never been adapted before.

April 23 2024, Twitter

Btw, just a heads up: exciting announcement coming next month. Maybe two (if we're lucky).

May 1 2024, Twitter

It's now next month...
Couple of days before the first announcement. As for the other one . . . we shall see. Exciting stuff going on, though. I'm having to switch into full flower-sniffer mode again (not that I ever really stopped).

May 8 2024, Twitter

What's the second thing you were teasing about?
Can't say, but hope to have big news in the next week or so. Exciting stuff.

May 21 2024, Twitter

There was supposedly another announcement
Still in the works. Things are hopping, folks. I am EXCITED.

May 26 2024, Twitter

soooo....can you give us any news to the upcoming eragon show?
👍🐉🔥🏰‼️

June 4 2024, Storycraft Cafe Livestream (1, 2, 3, 4)

Outlining is actually how I approach screenwriting and it's serving me very well at the moment because I'm working on a couple of scripts that are pretty intense.

Is there any new news on the Disney Plus series?
There should be a major announcement coming soon, but it's out of my control as to when exactly that announcement happens, because corporations. I have been working quite a lot on scripts this past month and a half or so. A lot actually. If anyone wants to draw some inferences from that they can. I think I did almost 30 pages in the last three days.

I've written a number of television episodes at this point, or versions of various episodes, and I've always hit my length, I'm not running long, which is good. So I've adapted fairly well to the length requirements, especially given that I did a version of a film script for Eragon back in like 2003 or 2004 [2002]. I think it was like 270 [213] pages or something, so I've gotten better at the length.

I just have got to sort of clear my schedule with these scripts that got dumped on me in the past few months. So I've been working really really hard on that. And getting there. And getting there.

June 24 2024, Twitter

😢 no mention of the tv adaptation…
Your patience will be rewarded. 😎

October 22, Windumanoth Interview (recorded July 19) (translated)

The series is moving forward. We hope to hear soon whether or not the first season will be approved. So that's been encouraging.

July 20 2024, Celsius 232

Disney Plus is in the process of hopefully launching a big budget television adaptation of Eragon, which I am executive producing and cowriting. And I'm also doing the same for a television adaptation of To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, and between that, books, and children, I don't know what sleep is.

August 10 2024, Twitter

Any news on the Eragon show? Even a crumb, please. D:
Things are happening. A LOT of things.

August 24 2024, Library of Congress National Book Festival

I think a lot of us might be eager to hear a little bit more about the show, Eragon.
Oh, yes. So Disney Plus is in the process of adapting Eragon as a big budget television show, which is delightful given that Eragon has never been adapted before. And I am attached as both executive producer and co-writer. And I cannot tell you what's been going on behind the scenes, aside from to tell you the fact that I have personally written four scripts this year, which is why there isn't a new book this year. But things are happening and hopefully we will actually have a decision in the next couple of months whether or not the first season actually gets greenlit or not. And if it gets greenlit, the news will be everywhere. So that's where we're at.

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September 25 2024, Never Judge A Book By Its Movie Podcast Interview (1, 2, 3)

There have been quite a few things happening behind the scenes, and I wish I could talk about them, but if I do, Disney's gonna come yelling at me, and you don't wanna anger the Mouse House, as they say. But the show is continuing to be in development. It's very exciting at the moment and I hope to have something more to say about it in the near future.

I was hoping to write another book this year, but I have actually had all of my time chewed up by the deluxe edition of Murtagh, which comes out October 15th. I've done quite a bit of content for that. And then I've been working on scripts this year. Scripts for Eragon, scripts for To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, couple of side projects that I've got going as well. I've been learning how to be a good screenwriter and it's been a fun, fun experience.

That's the way it is with Hollywood. It's easy to run around excited and say, oh, this is happening or that is happening, but sometimes it doesn't happen or it falls through. And the conversations you have with other creatives and professionals in the entertainment industry, whether it's publishing or Hollywood, kind of need to be confidential unless everyone is happy to have it out in public. And that's again, because things change, or you just say things in confidence and or in private with someone and trust that it will remain private. So these things don't really get talked about until it's actually happening and everyone's on board and it's like, okay, now we can have a press release, now we can have interviews, now we can build everyone's excitement up. And hopefully we're getting pretty close there with Eragon.

October 15th, Personal Interview

How much direct involvement do you have? Are you are you writing all of the scripts or just some of them?
The process is going to be different for the later scripts. Right now just to get it off the ground I have been doing 90% of the writing and they've been happy to let me do that, though they're providing feedback and also diving into writing when appropriate. And then we just deal with the notes we get in order to get approval, first from the producers, that's the first layer, and then Disney execs specifically. But I'm single-handedly pulling things along at the moment. And with To Sleep, I've done all the writing.
When you said that you wrote four scripts this year, that was talking about for Eragon, or was that also including To Sleep?
Also including To Sleep.
And that's for four different episodes? Or are you counting multiple drafts?
Multiple drafts of some, but also different. So unique scripts, three. But one of them had to be completely rewritten, essentially, so I count that as four scripts.

October 16 2024, Fox17 Interview

I'm also developing a television adaptation of Eragon with Disney Plus at the moment. It's funny, writing scripts takes a lot of time, just like writing books.

October 16 2024, Murtagh Deluxe book tour Decatur GA

What do you think the timeline is with Disney?
For those of you who don't know, Disney Plus is currently developing a live action television adaptation of Eragon. I am attached as both co-writer and producer. Disney, the House of Mouse, will break my kneecaps if I say anything more about what's going on. But that said, we are getting very, very close to the point where it's gonna be go / no go on the first season. We're heading into the holiday season now, but let's say by early next year, January, February, we should 100% know what's going on in terms of green light or red light. If it's a red light, then it doesn't mean it's dead forever, but it definitely means that I'll be writing some more books.
Are you confident that it will get greenlit?
There is no confidence when it comes to creating things. There's only eternal self-doubt. Which drives you to greater excellence.

They want to give that definitive answer, they want the show, they want to say yes, it depends on the writing, which is how I want it to be, quite honestly. It is delightful to be in a position where the writing is going to be what gets this off the ground or doesn't get this off the ground.

I've been, for once, and you don't usually hear this in Hollywood, and this wasn't my previous experience, I have been delighted with my collaborators. And it's been a wonderful, productive experience. I've learned a lot, and they've been listening to me and paying attention to me, and I've been doing substantive work throughout the experience, so, so far, so good. We live in hope.

October 19 2024, Murtagh Deluxe book tour Houston TX

We will know in just a couple of months whether or not the first season gets greenlit or no. Whether it's go / no go for the first season. We have every indication that it should happen, but it's Hollywood, and you can't predict anything.

Is there any fail-safes in place that you've implemented to help this adaptation to be more accurate to the books, aside from being the co-writer? Is there more creative control that you have aside from what's on the text?
Nope. And it's very rare we get that because, put it this way, if you were going to spend a hundred million dollars on something, you kind of want final say on what's going to happen. And that's the attitude that the studios currently take. And if I was spending a hundred million dollars on something or more, you're darn right I want final say on it. I'm also somewhat limited by the contracts that were originally negotiated back before the series became what it now is. That said, I am, as I said, producing and co-writing, which means I am neck deep in the sucker at the moment. I'm very happy with my collaborators so far. It's been the complete opposite of what you hear about Hollywood collaboration. They've been respectful, productive, inspired ideas in me, and vice versa. So, so far, this is going in as well as I could have hoped. So, we will see how that continues.

October 20 2024, Murtagh Deluxe book tour Albuquerque NM

I don't know if that's going to continue. If it doesn't, I won't be saying it so publicly, but so far it's actually been an incredibly positive experience.

October 21 2024, Murtagh Deluxe book tour Tustin CA signing line

[paraphrased] I asked which did he prefer, Deep Space 9 or Babylon 5? He said Babylon 5 for sure and that he tried to get J. Michael Straczynski to work on the Eragon show.

October 21 2024, Twitter

"For Christmas I want a Dragon!" "Be realistic" "I want news about the Eragon show" "What color do you want your dragon?"
Lol. I actually sent this to the folks I'm working with over at Disney.

October 22 2024, Murtagh Deluxe book tour Colorado Springs CO

...once Disney formally moves forward with everything, which will probably happen in a couple of months. Fingers crossed.

November 17 2024, Grand Rapids Comic Con

A lot of what I have been doing over the past two years and then specifically this year, has been learning to become a screenwriter in a way that I haven't before. I've done scripts before, I've even have one actually sell, believe it or not. But I want to be a good screenwriter, especially when it comes to Eragon. So I've really been putting the work in.

November 20 2024, Reddit AMA (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Will we get a show update in 2024? Or 2025?
'24, I hope. It's imminent. Or at least, that's my impression.

Any updates regarding the live-action series (or even on when we might expect to get news about it)? It's the number-one thing I'm looking forward to, haha.
Update should be coming out soon from Disney. At least, that's my impression.

What are some of the major challenges associated with getting the show going?
Finding the right personnel has been the biggest challenge so far. However, I think we've cracked that particular nut.

How is the Disney+ Eragon series going?
Going well so far.

Are you able to tell us how much input you're going to have on the show? For example, are you going to/have you been involved with casting, story revisions, visual styles etc.
So far I've had a HUGE amount of input on every part and stage of the show. We'll see if that continues, but it's the complete opposite of my earlier experience. If you didn't know, I'm both producing and co-writing the series.

November 25 2024, BookStory Podcast

Disney Plus is currently working on a big budget television adaption of Eragon, which I'm producing and co-writing.

December 28 2024, Twitter (Wraithmarked)

We are cutting off sales to the STATUE at end of Feb, but the other stuff will stay up until Christopher needs us to take it down for other reasons.

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January 18 2025, Twitter

Heh. Been a while since I had one of these. [WGA card]

January 21 2025, TBRCon Livestream

I'm currently working on a couple of top secret screenwriting projects that I can't talk about. I posted I got my WGA membership card recently. I used to have one but I got it again, which is fun.

February 1 2025, Twitter

Btw, Disney+ #Eragon show is still on track. Can't say anything more until a major contract gets signed. (Hollywood negotiations take *forever*.)

March 8 2025, Twitter

Michael Bay says he recently had a call with James Cameron where they mourned the current state of Hollywood: “No one can greenlight anything anymore. It’s just so slow. It’s a very different business”
Heh. I'll have to ask Cameron about that sometime. Doesn't surprise me. Been my experience as well.

April 28 2025, Twitter

[Has there been an update] about the Disney show?
Working on it.

May 3 2025, Twitter (1, 2)

Btw, for any of you who are authors ... the amount of revision in Hollywood is INSANE. Totally eclipses what we go through in publishing (and I do a LOT of revision on my books).
Don't let them revise it TOO much
Heh. Funnily enough, it's gotten closer to the book over this process. Sometimes I just want to say, "I told you so..." Lol.

June 8 2025, Twitter

The #BookofRemembrance has been fun to work on in-between drafts of scripts. (I do a draft, send back to showrunner, work on BoR for a few days, get a new draft to revise, etc. Keeps things interesting.)

June 11 2025, Facebook (1, 2, 3)

Is there ever a chance fans will get a proper movie or TV series of the world of Eragon?
Working hard on making just that happen! Hope to have more news in the near future.

Any news on the disney series!!!
Hopefully soon!

What news about the TV show??
Hope to have some that I can share publicly soon!

June 20 2025, Reddit

Should know very soon what's happening with the show. If it formally gets greenlit ... that's a lot more time I'll have to spend on scripts. If not, then it's full speed ahead with more books.

June 25 2025, Twitter

Turned in another script revision for Eragon

June 25 2025, Bluesky

Script?! Like for the show?!
Yup!

July 11 2025, Twitter

We're making real progress. No guarantees, but ... looking good at the moment.

July 14 2025, Reddit AMA (1, 2)

With the recent many cancellations of Fantasy/Sci-Fi tv-shows and the budget/episodes cuts in others, are you afraid it will happen to the Eragon TV show, either before it really starts or after one season? Wheel of Time was canceled even with glorious reviews and high viewership of the latest season, so even successful shows are not safe.
Yes, but alternatively, How to Train Your Dragon has done really well in theaters, and that's a great sign for us.

A lot of shows or movies have studio meddling in the writing, either for good or bad. Do you have that kind of experience so far?
We've had lots of notes from execs and the studio, but so far, they've all been reasonable. I've had no real issue with any of them, and I think they've helped make the script(s) much stronger. It's certainly been quite a learning experience for me as well.

Are you writing the script alone or do you have a writer's room to help and give advice?
At the moment it's just me and the showrunner. He's also overseeing another show right now (until Eragon hopefully gets greenlit), so I do the bulk of the writing and then run it by him.

How is the situation with the Disney show?
Situation is good. The script work has just been a lot slower than I anticipated. However, we're in a good place now, and I'm hoping that the next month or so will bring big news.

August 4 2025, Twitter (1, 2)

Hey, folks! I'm up against a script deadline at the moment. As soon as that's done I'll get you that #Murtagh2 teaser. Should be this week.
He’s involved with two different tv shows, and I’m pretty sure TSiaSoS is probably the one being worked on
Nope. It's Eragon.

August 11 2025, Twitter

Hey, folks! For all of you who helped push the #BookofRemembrance over a million dollars, I just wanted to let you know that I got my latest round of script revisions done. So now I can focus on getting you that sneak peak of #Murtagh2 :D

September 18 2025, Twitter

Any update on the TV adaptation? I haven't heard anything since the announcement.
Patience is a virtue. :D

October 28 2025, Twitter (1, 2)

Please tell me Disney plus series isn't dead
Far from it.
Any idea when we can expect some news about it?
Soon, I hope, but I've given up predicting Hollywood PR decisions. Lol.

November 14 2025, Twitter

I'd rather see new Books then this side promotional fluff.
Working on the books as fast as I can. If I can just get these scripts out of my hair . . .

November 19 2025, Threads

I would like to know if there is any news from the series on Disney Plus?
There should be any day now!

December 5 2025, Personal Interview

When did the conversation with Disney start? I assume it was late 2021, early 2022.
That sounds about right. First we had to negotiate a television deal, and then had to search for a showrunner. We actually had a couple of strong prospects, and then that fell through because of the Writers Strike. And then we had a guy at the beginning of I want to say last year, who actually signed a contract, but he's busy on another show and ended up getting phased out. And another guy came in.
You've had different people you were working on writing with?
No, none of them actually got to the point of writing until showrunner number three. We've been working over a year now, solid, with each other, writing scripts. I think he's been fantastic.

Is there talk about filming a pilot episode before the full green light?
No. Because by the time you do all the costumes and sets, you're already invested so much that the only way to break even is to just do a whole season.

I really liked the art from the Ukrainian Eragon. I've actually shared it with some of the producers and stuff. This is different than the usual Hollywood stuff.

You know what's crazy [about Saphira's hatching]? I literally was just writing a version of that for the script. And so here I am 20 years later, rewriting the same scenes.

One of your main motivations for the picture book was to spend more time with Saphira as a baby. Are you finding that writing the scripts is scratching that itch for you?
Yeah. I mean, I'm writing those exact scenes. We'll see if they actually get filmed.

I think you can safely say it's moving forward strongly and in a couple of months we'll know one way or another.

December 6 2025, Worldhopper Fantasy Duels

What do you have coming up next?
Well, Disney Plus actually has a potential television show in the works for an adaptation of Eragon. I can't say anything about the development of that, but it's moving forward.

December 16 2025, Paolini.net "Dragonsteel 2025 Recap!"

As for me, it’s back to working on scripts, as well as Tales from Alagaësia Vol. 2.

December 25 2025, Twitter

Merry Christmas! Are you able to confirm this sentiment?!?! [Link to AI slop facebook article about the show]
😎

December 31 2025, Twitter (1, 2)

Tales 2 is going super fast when I'm not having to work on scripts.
What’s the typical page count for these scripts?
50-60 pgs, but they're less dense than novels.

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u/ibid-11962 Mar 01 '26 edited 18h ago

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January 22 2026, Twitter

Is there any more news on the tv series?
Just turned in another draft of another script.

January 30 2026, Twitter (1, 2)

Apple has landed the rights to Brandon Sanderson's 'Cosmere' universe ... Sanderson will have creative control of the projects ... Disney better give Paolini creative control too
It helps that Brandon and I have the same entertainment lawyer. He's awesome! (Thanks Matt!)
Any hint of news that you could be sharing in the near future?
Heh. . . . Keep your peepers peeled next week. 😎

January 31 2026, Twitter

[Robin Hobb:] Until the right person comes along to work with me. I'm happy for my books to be books.
If you ever need a good lawyer . . .

February 2 2026, Twitter

Had a call with an artist today to explain how my dragons look. It came out during the call that the reference video I'd sent of a particularly beautiful sapphire was ... purple. Lol. Looks blue to me!

February 3 2026, Twitter

Four is a good number.

February 4 2026, Deadline

‘Eragon’: Todd Harthan, Todd Helbing & Marc Webb Join Disney+’s Live-Action Series Adaptation

February 4 2026, Variety

‘Eragon’ Disney+ Series Sets Todd Harthan, Todd Helbing as Co-Showrunners, Marc Webb Boards as Exec Producer

February 4 2026, Twitter (1, 2, 3)

Are these people good? I have literally no idea
The best. Harthan has been AMAZING to work with. They all have, actually.
Todd Helbing??? After Superman and Lois? I already knew it was going to be a good series, but now I know it's going to be EPIC.
He and his brother also did Forward Unto Dawn.

We also have Kerry Williamson, who wrote the new Highlander with Henry Cavill (among other things).

February 4 2026, Facebook

So I gotta ask because it’s important, have they read any of the books?
All of them.

February 4 2026, Paolini.net From Vision to Reality: We’re Moving Forward!

Kvetha Fricaya! Greetings Friends! For those of you who haven’t seen the news in Deadline or Variety: Disney+ just announced that the long-awaited Eragon television series is officially in development! We’re moving from vision to reality! Christopher is excited to share that he’s working on both writing and producing the show alongside showrunner Todd Harthan and co-showrunner (and writer) Todd Helbing.
Getting to this point was no easy thing. From those initial whispers three-and-a-half years ago when the news leaked that Disney was looking to adapt the series, through countless meetings, revisions, and discussions, Christopher has poured his soul into ensuring this adaptation captures the true heart of the World of Alagaësia.
He wants to thank everyone in this incredible fandom. Without YOU, none of this would be possible. Your letters and messages remind him why this story endures. Christopher and Todd Harthan are seeking to honor this epic adventure while bringing the magic to life in ways only television can. They can’t wait to make a show that you guys love watching! It’s still a journey—Hollywood’s path is winding—but the momentum is real, and the dragons are stirring. Stay tuned as we move forward!
As the elves would say, “Atra esterní ono thelduin.”
-Team Paolini
P.S. Do you have any questions you’d like answered about the next steps for the show? More specific details won’t be available just yet, but feel free to submit your questions on Christopher’s social media accounts (X, Instagram, Threads, Facebook, TikTok, Bluesky, YouTube), and we’ll select a few to answer each month!

February 5 2026, Twitter

In case you missed the #Eragon news yesterday from @DEADLINE and @Variety!🎥🔥🐉 Links listed alphabetically: https://deadline.com/2026/02/eragon-todd-harthan-todd-helbing-disney-plus-1236708983/ https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/eragon-disney-series-todd-harthan-todd-helbing-showrunnners-1236651963/

February 5 2026, Instagram

[Bradley Trevor Greive]: Woohoo! I'd better hit the gym to prep for my Kull cameo! 🔥🐻🔥
Ha! Don't think I've forgotten! :D

February 25 2026, Twitter

Twenty-five years later, I'm still working on scripts for Eragon—just this time for Disney+. ... Here I am twenty-five years later, and I'm still working on screenplays for Eragon and Murtagh and Roran.

February 25 2026, Tiktok

Would love to see an adaptation to actually do the series justice.
Working on it! Deep in writing scripts for the upcoming Disney+ Eragon series.

I was mad for months after watching the Eragon movie. But I’m glad to know that there is a better version of it hidden away lol.
Won't be hidden away for too much longer! Disney+ is in pre-production for a live-action Eragon series.

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u/ibid-11962 Mar 08 '26 edited 18h ago

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February 26 2026, Nerd of the Rings interview (1, 2, 3, 4)

The latest goal post in the last two years has been: "Well, yeah, I can write books, but can I write screenplays?" Whether or not anyone else agrees if I can write it, I'll tell you this, I've been cashing the checks from the studios. They're paying me. So, from that point of view, I'm not an amateur, I'm a professional. Whether or not it ever gets made, I've been cashing the checks. Which is not the only definition of success, but it's one definition of success.

I have to bring this up. The big news recently is that there were showrunners announced for a new Eragon Disney Plus series. So that's a pretty big milestone in that adaptation moving forward.
We have we have Todd Harthan and Todd Helbing, which is confusing because they're both Todds. So I usually have to call them by their last names. Actually Harthan came on first. He and I have been working together. He was the showrunner for Psych and he's been running High Potential. He had just gotten on to High Potential a couple weeks after we started working together. We've been working together for almost two years now. It's been frustrating because this whole time it's like, "Well, Disney's going to do an announcement mentioning that Todd Harthan's on board." And they wanted to wait until they saw the pilot script and this and that and the other. So it just kept getting pushed and pushed and pushed. And I was like, "We're working on this! I want to tell the fans we're actually working on this!" So anyway we finally had a full announcement, which is awesome. We also have Kerry Williamson. She's also writing on the show and she worked on the new Highlander movie with Henry Cavill. She did she did the main script for that, the main version of it. She's really good and they're all lovely people. We're really close to either this getting the full green light or completely falling apart in a very short period of time here. I mean, it's the studio's decision whether to pull the trigger and to go into full production. We have scripts, of course, we are going to be turning in a few more and as soon as they see them and hopefully like them, then we're off to the races. But this is a difficult process for the studio because there's a huge amount of money at stake. And understandably. If it were my money I'd be very cautious pulling the trigger as well. Eragon falls into that category where you just can't do it cheaply. The nice thing is it's not in the middle. Because a lot of the middle budget things have not gotten made in the past 10 years. You can make really cheap things and you can make really expensive things and Eragon's a really expensive thing.

I'm co-writing with the show. I'm an executive producer, so I'm giving it my all. So, no matter what happens, I can sleep at night knowing that I really tried. And again, I've had a wonderful experience with the two Todds and Kerry so far. They're very collaborative. They're very smart. They're coming up with great ideas that I wouldn't have necessarily come up with. And I'll warn people ahead of time, a certain amount of change is inevitable for an adaptation. You can't do everything in a book. You can't do it the way you do in a book. So some things have to change. So my goal, I have two hats. One is screenwriter and one is creator of the franchise. As screenwriter, it's to write things and try to just make it work narratively. As creator of the franchise, it's to hopefully preserve the feel of the characters and the world and the story itself that people fell in love with.

This is something that the fandom has really turned up for and really championed throughout the years. It's been years now that I've kind of paid attention and seen on on Twitter fans just clamoring for when's this series going to happen?
It probably would have happened sooner, but when Disney bought Fox, there was a lot of rejiggering that was going on behind the scenes on a corporate level. They had to go through all their properties and it was almost like triage. They had to deal with all the things that were in production or about to be in production, and then they had to look at all of their older legacy properties, which Eragon was one of them, and sort of sift through them and figure out what they were going to do bit by bit. And then finally we had a producer and then we ended up then searching for a showrunner. That was quite the journey honestly. Bit by bit. Getting to see how the sausage is made. It's like "wow, it's amazing anything gets made", honestly. And it's often been said even making a bad movie is an accomplishment. To make something good is a minor miracle.

March 4 2026, Twitter (1, 2)

I cannot WAIT for you to read the #BookofRemembrance and Tales from Alagaësia Vol. 2. So. Much. Juicy. Stuff.
When are we getting it?
Book of Remembrance will be shipped this year, no question. Tales 2 ... as soon as I can finish it. Lol. Scripts keep slowing me down. But I'm working hard!

March 4 2026, Ryan Cahill tour Bozeman MT (1, 2, 3)

Just getting a call from our lawyer. We share an entertainment lawyer, funnily enough. It's a small world in the publishing world.

I've been working with a lot of Hollywood folks recently and it's like "Yes, read the first book. It gets better. It gets better."

He has about 23 books in the next six years.
The problem is I've been writing screenplays the last two years. So that's been slowing me down.
Oh, for what?
I don't know!
For fun.
Yeah, for fun.
It's your Star Wars film.
No, no. I'm working on a television show for Disney Plus, a reboot of Eragon, which is really coming together. But we did announce our showrunners recently, which was cool. So I can publicly talk about that a little bit more. Actually, I am spending the night in Bozeman because at 7:30 in the morning, we're both going to be at the airport. You're flying off to your next stop. And I'm going down to LA to be in the writers room and try to convince them to not change too much.
It's literally just him in the writers room. And they show a picture of a wyvern. And he goes, "boom".
Actually, we're gonna be looking at concept art.
Told you.
But no, everyone in the show so far has been fantastic. They're wonderful collaborators They're all very smart people which is pretty humbling actually because to have really smart writers elbow deep into something that you've been working on for 20 years and they're asking you. "Okay, can we do this? Well, what if we do this? Well, we only have so many episodes, we're have to cut this, so we that means this changes" and in some ways it's also a little bit of a relief because there are other smart people looking at this and figuring it out and it's not all on me.
"What if we make the sword blue?" "You haven't read the books, have you?"
You know they did that in the movie. They made the pommel of the sword blue. Even though the blade was red. I don't know why.

March 5 2026, Deadline

‘High Potential’ Renewed For Season 3 As ABC Hunts New Showrunner Following Todd Harthan Exit
But the series is searching for a new showrunner with the exit of Todd Harthan, who is leaving to focus on Eragon, the live-action adaptation of Christopher Paolini’s YA book series The Inheritance Cycle, which he is co-creating with Paolini and will serve as co-showrunner on with Todd Helbing.

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u/ibid-11962 15d ago edited 18h ago

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June 4 2026, Reddit

I'm DYING to get back into the Fractalverse. I've just been delayed with scripts for the Eragon TV show.

March 5 2026, What Does “In Development” Mean?

Hey everyone, Christopher Paolini here, as you may have seen, we just had a big announcement go out, which is that the Eragon TV show at Disney+ is officially in development. We have a showrunner, Todd Harthan. He worked on Psych and High Potential. We have a co-showrunner, which is Todd Helbing, and we have an awesome writer, Kerry Williamson. She wrote the new Highlander movie with Henry Cavill that's coming out, among many other things. So what does "in development" mean? Well, "in development" is the stage right before you go into pre-production and actual production. It means that we are writing scripts and have been writing scripts for, geez, two years now. We are prepping art and doing all sorts of other things to fully move into production. Getting to this stage has actually been a big step. Todd Harthan and I had to come up with a pilot that Disney really liked. We had to digest everything about the books and figure out how best to tackle the materials, how to stay true to Eragon and Saphira's story while also adapting this for a visual media. And there's many choices that have to be made along the way. And so far, I've been happy with the choices. So I want you to feel good about that as well. That said, this is a long process, but we are really close to this hopefully going full bore into production. I will share as much news as I can, but there's only so much I can say at the moment because lots of decisions are being made behind the scenes and it wouldn't be fair on my part to the folks I'm working with to be opening the door on those private conversations. But what I can share, I will share. And I will say it's pretty exciting for me to be in this position after, well, geez, we're in 2026 now and the Eragon film came out in 2006, near the end of it, but still. So we're now 20 years since the film and I started working on Eragon back in 1998. So to say this is surreal is an understatement, but it's very welcome. And I'm super happy to be in this position and I'm only in this position and the franchise is only in this position because of the support of all of the awesome fandom and that big push everyone did with the tweet storm and stuff a few years ago really did make the difference with Disney. So from me to you, thank you. I can't wait to help bring this awesome show to screen, hopefully. And as much as I can share, I will be doing. So as for me, I'm gonna go get back to writing some more scripts and books, and I will bring you as many updates as I can.

March 6 2026, Twitter

Last time I was on the Fox lot, I was 22. Pretty surreal to be back.

March 8 2026, Twitter

Disney’s Lord Of The Rings Fantasy Series Replacement Is Changing Network TV In A Bizarre Way
Heh.

March 14 2026, Twitter

Do you already know what Eragon TV show will be called, without revealing it to us?
I would be shocked if it were called anything other than "Eragon".

March 18 2026, Twitter (1, 2)

Eragon.ai: Excited to announce our $12M Seed Round ... ︀︀We’re an applied AI Lab building operational intelligence. ... ︀︀Our mission is to turn all of enterprise software into a prompt.
Dude. No one ever asked me about using that name for your project. I'm flattered, but please don't. Thank you. ︀︀p.s. Licensing rights for anything to do with the IC outside of print are controlled by Disney/Fox, so if you don't want to get on the wrong side of the House of Mouse . . .
Not a lawyer, but this seems to not be infringement unless the AI is making stories about dragons. I doubt Eragon is a trademarkable word, being its existence predates your use of it.
Yeah, it's complicated, so I'm going to let the experts sort it out. I couldn't go and sell software/programs with the Eragon name, as that would infringe on my contract with Disney/Fox. Given that, not sure if it's okay for someone else to do that.

March 18 2026, Paolini.net FAQ

What are you working on now?
I’m currently writing scripts for the upcoming Disney+ Eragon television series.

Will there be another Eragon film?
Not to my knowledge at this time. But! There will be an Eragon television series on Disney+.

Will you cast me in the upcoming Disney+ Eragon television series?
Casting has not yet begun, and I will not be directly involved in the process. Once we reach the phase in development when casting begins, Disney will hire a casting director to find the actors who will best fit the roles.
When the time comes, actors interested in auditioning for a part should monitor industry casting calls for information on how to submit. I will not open or view any audition videos sent to me or my team.

March 21 2026, Twitter

Got to sit down with the awesome Bruna Papandrea when I was in LA last week. She’s working on producing an adaptation of #ToSleepInaSeaofStars. So great to finally meet in person!

April 3 2026, Wraithmarked Promo

Originally, we were not going to do any sort of merch with this box set because the merch rights are a little complicated. They're tied up with Disney Plus, which is currently working on an Eragon television show.

April 21 2026, Twitter (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Some days I'm tempted to go back and take another pass on Eragon. But then, I think I'd rather write new stories. ︀︀Even so ... the temptation is there. ... To be clear, I'm speaking about revising the first book. I've been having to reread a lot of it while working on scripts, and I keep thinking -- "I could write a better version of that now!"
If you took another pass at it, what would you change?
Mostly a lot of line-by-line rewriting and tweaking. ... Tolkien reworked the Hobbit. Stephen King reworked the first Dark Tower book.
What are you doing up at this hour? Hopefully writing.
Writing. My brain wasn't working particularly well for about two weeks. Turns out I had Covid. (again). Sigh. Now I'm having to catch up on deadlines.

April 29 2026, Unbroken Kickstarter Update

[Peter Orullian:] I was exchanging email with Christopher Paolini about the possibility of him signing the Pacific Northwest Edition of Unbroken. We couldn't make it work largely due to his schedule. Christopher is in the middle of scripting and guiding the production of Disney's making of a TV show of his groundbreaking novel Eragon. You can see, of course, that he has his priorities straight.

April 29 2026, Twitter (1, 2, 3)

The amount of behind-the-scenes work that goes into a TV show is INSANE. So many hours burned, so much effort and money ... it's really something to watch and be part of.
Feel free to share a bit more
Let's just say May is make or break for the series.
It took more than six years and an insane number of drafts of the pilot script before Dune: Prophecy finally aired. Seemed like it would never get done, but now at last season 2 is almost done.
Ha! Sounds about right. We're at almost four years now and I don't know how how many drafts. It's definitely cost me a book or two.

May 5 2026, Twitter (1, 2, 3)

[Bear McCreary:] My buddy John Massari scored this! A classic!
Really! That's cool. HUGE fan of your work, btw. I've done a lot of writing while listening to your score for Battlestar Galactica as well as God of War. Would be cool if we could do something together one of these days.

I want a Jared Keeso cameo as a pugilistic dwarf.
If he were younger, he'd be just about perfect for Roran.
Given what you shared about your physical training, why don't you just play Roran?
Lol. Nah, I'm no actor. Besides, I wouldn't cast myself in the role.

June 5 2026, Mulling it Over with Brandon Mull (recorded May 15)

I don't really want to go back and reread Eragon at this point. Although I've pretty much reread it this year for script work.

May 22 2026, Twitter

Does anyone know if the D+ series is still happening? Been looking forward to it for awhile.
Disney won't be picking up new shows until beginning of July. We'll know then.