Finally the Harry Potter movie series has finished. Twilight Saga’s Breaking Dawn Part 1 will soon be out. The second part is set for 2012. What would be the next big thing after these two? What young adult novel do you think would be made into a movie and be able to raise itself to the popularity Harry Potter and Twilight received?
I think the Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins has a good chance. It got all the romance, angst, action, and twist that teenagers love. I believe it will also be entertaining for adult audience. I have read the three novels and I’m expecting for a film which I’ve heard is also set for 2012.
I don’t know what the next big thing will be, but for those who don’t want to say goodbye to the Potterverse yet, I recommend the free fanfic online Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality.
I enjoyed the hell out of it.
Both Harry Potter and Twilight were huge popular phenomena well before they were made into movies. The movies did not make the franchises successful, the books made the movies (none of which are are all that remarkable purely as film-making) successful. AFAIK there is no more recent children’s or young adult book series that comes anywhere close to the popularity that these two enjoyed whilst still merely in book form
So my answer is, “Who knows?” There is nothing like either Potter or Twilight on the horizon at the moment, and in fact, hugely successful book series like these are rare phenomena that often occur years apart. It is unusual that Twilight’s popularity followed so hard on the heels of Potter’s, and, most likely, the next huge thing in children’s/young adult’s literature is many years away.
Of course, other current young adult books will get made into movies, and may have some success in that form, but there is no reason to expect that any of them will become phenomena comparable to Potter or Twilight.
I haven’t read the Hunger Games books (mentioned in the OP), but I’ve read that it’s what Hollywood is hoping will capture some of the Harry Potter magic. Although from what I’ve read of the plot description, it seems awfully dark for young adult fiction.
Interesting timing – just yesterday, I saw something on TV recommending Lev Grossman’s The Magicians, and its sequel The Magician King, as the logical next series for Harry Potter fans feeling nostalgia for the Potterverse.
I have no idea (yet) whether the books are well-regarded – I remember that the execrable Sword of Shannara rip-off was advertised as “for fans of J.R.R. Tolkien.” And thumbnail description of The Magicians does sound reminiscent of the Potter books – I hope it’s not a Shannara-like near-plagiarism.
That’s the difference right there, though. The Twilight books were popular with the kids (especially the tweener girls, God help me). The Harry Potter books managed to break that line and sell to wildly across most demographics. That alone indicates that the Twilight books were no where near as successful as the Potter books.
An article I dug up from The Guardian showed that the HP books have moved more than 400 million copies in 2008. God knows where they are now.
Another article from USA Today (dates 2009) shows US sales for the series at
HP: 143MM
TW: 40MM
Even if you divide by the number of books that’s still over 20MM per HP book to 10MM per TW book.
I don’t mean in terms of sales. When Harry Potter came out, the typical reaction from parents/teachers seemed to be, “It’s nice that so many kids are getting into reading.” With Twilight, it was more “Ugh, why do kids have such bad taste in books?” Twilight might have been more popular, but it wasn’t as respectable. Teen boys all hated Twilight too.
The Magicians is NOT targeting the same audience as the Harry Potter books - it’s MUCH more adult - sex, drugs, gory deaths galore. It’s a good read - I am just rereading it now, getting ready for the new book which comes out today - but there’s no way it will become as big as HP or even Twilight.
It does present a very interesting take on how magic could work in a world like ours. And it obviously has a heavy debt to the Narnia books, as well.
Reading the plot description from that link, it does sound like Harry Potter for grown ups. It describes the protagonist as an ordinary high school senior. But then: “Everything changes when Quentin finds himself unexpectedly admitted to a very secret, very exclusive college of magic in upstate New York, where he receives a thorough and rigorous education in the practice of modern sorcery. He also discovers all the other things people learn in college: friendship, love, sex, booze, and boredom.”
The Lightning Thief also has that element of the ordinary person who suddenly learns of his parentage and abilities.
I’m sure that book agents and publishers have been looking for the next J.K. Rowling for the last fifteen years.
When the Harry Potter book series ended, it left a massive, sucking hole in the YA fantasy market that had to be filled. I honestly believe that Stephanie Myers was lucky enough to be in the right genre at the right time. Had she written those festering piles six years ago, they’d have never escaped the bottom of the obscurity barrel, where they belong.
Now that one of the worst cultural phenomenons of our generation is over (no, that’s not hyperbole, I really believe that), it will be interesting to see if something decent can take its place, but I don’t think anything will. Twilight wont leave the same kind of vacuum in YA fantasy - it was neither good enough, or important enough, and I think that by the time the fans read about Edward
ripping his baby out of Bella’s stomach with his teeth,
even most of them were aware of how dreadful the series had become.
Believe it or not, that’s completely untrue. All four Twilight books received practically glowing reviews from critics. They only started to “suck” after they jumped into the mainstream. Mostly because people who don’t read a lot of kids/teen fiction decided they did without reading it.
Basically, anytime one of these “phenomenons” comes around, the mainstream media talks about how wonderful it is that kids/teens are finally reading again, like they used to do back in the day. But of course, the media has completely forgotten that the last phenomenon was just a year ago. They don’t all penetrate the mainstream, but The Hunger Games, the Eragon series, the Series of Unfortunate Events and the Percy Jackson series were (and are) hugely popular.
Sadly, the Series of Unfortunate Events film died by being turned into a Jim Carry project. Everything about the film was decent except for Carry who pretty much ruined it. I enjoyed the Percy Jackson film, and it looks like there will be a sequel.
I enjoyed The Golden Compass, but was disappointed that the anti-religion message got pretty much removed, and the end result pleased neither side of the debate.
As for series, do we have to confine ourselves to stuff intended for kids and teens?
Yeah the story is quite dark. But it’s a great read and I hope it will be a great watch. I just hope it does not turn out like the City of Ember series.
