MTV have released cast photos of their upcoming “The Shannara Chronicles” series that will be based primarily on Terry Brooks’s The Elfstones of Shannara (book 2 in the Shannara series and hailed as one of Brooks’s best works). MTV describe the series as ‘a story of three young teens destined to complete a heroic quest thousands of years after the end of civilization’. Despite this description, MTV are keen to show it’s not going to be another show with a primarily teen-cast (such as Teen Wolf, The Vampire Diaries, The 100, etc), but rather that there will be an extensive list of diverse characters, more akin to a show like Game of Thrones.

Below you will see cast photos that include elves, humans and druids who, for the most part, people familiar with the books will easily recognise for who they are:

The cast look very good and well suited and it certainly looks like MTV have invested heavily in this series. In fact, it’s not just MTV… We’re due no less than five television series based on books that we’d categorise in the Fantasy genre, including MTV’s “The Shannara Chronicles (that we’ve just discussed),” Syfy’s “The Magicians,” ABC Family’s “Shadowhunters,” NBC’s “Emerald City” and Starz’s “American Gods.” Of course, we’re all nervous that half of these shows will be low-budget productions or not do some of our favourite titles justice, but we’re going to remain positive and say that bringing trolls, magic, elves, heroic quests and sword fights to television has been a long time coming and we’re happy that producers have finally decided to jump on the bandwagon.

We’re expecting the first full-length trailer around the end of August and the show kicks off in January, but we do have access to a behind the scenes video in the meantime. Check it out: