From Books to Potential Screen: Imagining the 1632 Series as a Film or Television Series

Do you remember when people thought that Frank Herbert’s Dune was unfilmable? Well, it turned out that with just the right combination of cast performances and ingenious approach to directing, a big screen adaptation of an unwieldy source material was far from impossible. You can almost say the same thing to Eric Flint’s Ring of Fire novels, except that it might actually be too difficult to transform into a television series. Talks about it have been going for years with little of a follow-up news or exciting update at all. In this article, we will take a look at the possibility of a 1632 series as a film or TV series.

The Ring of Fire series, also known as the 1632 series, is a collection of alternate history novels set in 17th century Europe. It’s a mixture of time travel and parallel universe that begins with the first volume of the series: 1632 (hence the name), in which a small mining town in West Virginia, in the spring of 2000, is mysteriously taken through a cosmic peculiarity and arrives in Central Germany amid the Thirty Years’ War. What makes this even stranger than it seems is that the entire town, including the land, resources, and technology also come along, not just the people.

As far as a TV adaptation of the 1632 series is concerned, at this moment, the idea remains largely a concept. Official updates are scarce at best, but it doesn’t mean discussion has stopped entirely. Many fans admit it would be quite a monumental undertaking to create a TV series based on the novels in live-action format, mostly because of the time period where the story takes place. Getting all the sets and practical props to match the era is likely a logistical nightmare, regardless of where the show might be filmed. But there have been several popular series set in the same time period, like Jamestown and basically everything related to The Three Musketeers, so it could be done despite all the potential inconveniences. The show would also require quite an intensive amount of CGI to depict the environments just as how they’re described in the books.

Here’s an idea to simplify things: make it an animated format. An alternate history animated TV series doesn’t sound like a bad idea by any stretch. In fact, it could easily solve all the issues pertaining to costumes, sets, and CGI in the most practical manner. A hybrid style with a mix of live action mockumentary and animated sequences should look good on TV as well. Admittedly, some people look down on animated format because it appears like a medium for kids, but many popular adult-oriented series are animated; think of Futurama, Venture Bros, Clone High, Hazbin Hotel, and Inside Job, to name a few.

To differentiate it from all those adult animated shows, 1632 series could be hand drawn like what you typically see in Disney cartoons from the 1940s, but with a little more realism to the character designs. And to make sure that it’s accessible to a wider audience, a TV-14 rating (without sexual content and graphic violence) wouldn’t take away much from the storyline.

Some Challenges

Because of the sheer number of books in the novel series, the TV show might find it impossible to include all the side stories and subplots. Many of the plot lines drag out once you incorporate anything other than the main threads. There are only 7 books in the main thread, and each book can simply represent a season of the show. If it has to include some subplots, use only the consequential ones by integrating them into the main story. Otherwise, the show would easily lose focus because the entire 1632 universe is huge and likely far too complex for a screen adaptation. Many viewers are probably not familiar with the books, forcing the show creators to simplify the overall plot for the sake of understandability.

Another important thing to mention is the book series’ tendency to use “information dump” and lengthy dialogues to explain the current situation. While this isn’t much of an issue if you’re reading, the entire sequence might look awkward in an animated format, and that’s where the short live action mockumentary can come in handy. The dialogues among actual characters help present the story as a historical narrative and ease the burden of explaining things of the animated characters.

If there’s someone to handle an animated TV series of 1632, Larry Houston (the director of the X-Men animated show) would be a superb choice. As demonstrated in the X-Men series, Houston could translate the overarching themes of the entire franchise and let them play out over multiple episodes, while introducing some of the most iconic characters beyond the core cast at the same time. The long serialization seems perfect for 1632 given its immensely vast scope and lack of a single hero figure.

The cast (for voice over) would have to include a lot of European actors to depict the languages used in the novel series. As a matter of fact, multiple languages – with subtitles, of course – could be fun.

We think the main issue about making a TV series adaptation of the 1632 series is the lack of “Great Man Theory” approach, a notion in which there’s a sentiment that most of the history can be explained by the influence of one major male figure. Eric Flint has said that the novels were all written in such a way to avoid that notion by using an enormous number of storylines and characters to deliver the narrative. A TV series relies on the existence of a main character to drive the plot forward, as everything is happening around this powerful figure. A TV show format with a limited runtime can be a real hurdle; it’s going to be complicated, but not impossible given proper storyboarding and a capable director.

What is your favorite novel in the 1632 series? Do you think a screen adaptation of the series will be better as a live-action or animated show? We’d love to hear from you.

Other Things You Might Want to Know

What was the Thirty Years’ War?

It was a series of wars fought throughout Europe by various nations for a lot of different reasons, including but not limited to territories, religions, and economic rivalries. The war began when the future Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II attempted to impose Roman Catholic absolutism all across his domains. When the war ended with the Treaty of Westphalia in 1968, it had irrevocably changed the map of Europe as a whole.

How many books are there in the series?

1632 is an ongoing series, and currently has seven books in the “main thread” series, but there are dozens of other books and anthology series as parts of the subplots. According to Wikipedia, the series has over 90 books as of today; apparently, some of them are no longer available.

Other popular series by Eric Flint:

The 1632 series remains Eric Flint’s most popular creation, but Eric Flint also produced some other notable novel series, such as:

  • Belisarius series
  • Assiti Shards series
  • Queen of the Seas series
  • Heirs of Alexandria series
  • Trail of Glory series
  • Rats, Bats and Vats series

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