Artemis Fowl, the live-action adaptation of the popular series of books of the same name, is heading to Disney+ soon. With the hopes that the movie will spawn a franchise similar to that of another beloved book series, Harry Potter, director Kenneth Branagh has recently discussed his strategy of adapting these books, as well as some of the differences that fans can expect.

"Well, you know they're eight books, they get increasingly exotic. Amazing imagination Eoin Colfer has. Some of the twist and turns, and incidents are so out there. The first book has a relative simplicity, Eoin calls it "Diehard" with fairies. It's a siege movie and inside that, what fell to us to be inside all of that action would be the emotional backbone that you could get, would be if we could just take the minimum, just one basic incident from the second book, Artemis Fowl in the Arctic Incident, which is the kidnap of his father, and lace that into the first story, so that the emotional drive was there, that maybe allows our audience to connect to Artemis emotionally."

His approach sounds somewhat similar to what he achieved with the first Thor movie back in 2011. Whilst Kenneth Branagh may be moving away from the source material slightly in order to best adapt the story, by the sounds of it he will still adhere to some elements as accurately as he can.

"You keep the basic structure of a kid who, by the time he understands that magic is real, has created a siege from another world around Fowl Manor. So those were the two elements we tried to keep as close to the source as possible, of what Eoin had done, once we decided those things."

The world of Artemis Fowl has often been compared to Harry Potter with its dealing of young characters learning about magic and the intricacies and differences that these fantasy elements bring to the ever-expanding world. It is, therefore, possible that audiences will see Artemis Fowl star Ferdia Shaw grow up on the screen in much the same way that Daniel Radcliffe did.

"There is [a possibility], and, well, who knows? The audience decides, for sure, and I think there are lots of things that I think have immense potential."

Of course, this depends on the success of the first movie, but that has not stopped Branagh from planning for future installments and laying the groundwork in the upcoming Disney+ original movie.

"The rivalry, the adversarial quality, the friendship between Holly and Artemis, the double-act that is Artemis and Butler is a delicious component, and I think you've got all the promise and potential for Juliette, the crankiness of the Commander Root character, plus all the incidents you refer to, so I think the material's there. The difficulty with these things, particularly when you have the massive shadow of the gargantuan success that Potter is, is that they can be intimidating, so I think anything that follows is tricky, but we've given it our best shot. The material's there, the performers are great, and if the audience want it, we'll be coming back at them."

Artemis Fowl is set to be released on Disney+ on June 12, 2020. This comes to us from Comicbook.com.