Eric Heisserer is the Oscar-nominated writer of “Arrival,” but he’s also someone that is deeply familiar with the topic of world-building in cinema and TV. Now, he shows off those skills as the writer and showrunner of the new Netflix fantasy series, “Shadow & Bone.”
In this episode of The Playlist Podcast, we got a chance to speak with Eric Heisserer, the man behind “Shadow & Bone,” as well as someone that has had his hands in a number of cinematic universes, including the failed Dark Universe and the current Valiant superhero film universe. And he has some thoughts on what goes into quality world-building.
“Shadow and Bone” is based on the Grishaverse novels by author Leigh Bardugo and tells the story of a Russian-influenced fictional country that is split down the middle by a dark energy called The Fold. The series follows a group of disparate characters that all come together when someone is revealed to be a Sun Summoner and could bring an end to The Fold.
Of course, whenever you have an expansive, large-scale fantasy series, the question of the endgame has to come up. And fans of the Grishaverse will be happy to know that Heisserer has a plan for how this series will grow over the years.
“I definitely have a plan,” he said. “I think it’s really important to have a plan. It’s equally important to amend that plan as you go, when you find out what works better than other things. It’s always important to be able to adapt or shift or course-correct.
Heisserer added that his plan also includes the possibility of spinoffs, if warranted, “There are plenty of side-paths you can take, other avenues you can follow, and characters that end up being their own stories and their own series. So, there’s room for that, absolutely.”
Having a plan is very important, clearly. But that’s not something Heisserer apparently experienced while working with Universal for the Dark Universe film, “Van Helsing.” If you remember, Universal’s Dark Universe was aiming to be the MCU of horror characters, beginning with Tom Cruise’s “The Mummy.” Of course, that film bombed and the studio quickly changed course. But Heisserer admits that he already saw the writing on the wall well before then.
“It was a very strange experience,” he said about working on the Dark Universe. “There was certainly a big brain trust of writers around the table. You had a lot of voices and none of them could agree on much. Much like when I’d visit my relatives for Thanksgiving and everyone’s arguing with each other…You had some people saying, ‘Should our monsters all be villains in these movies or can they all be heroes?’ And someone else would say, ‘We can build the plane when we fly it.’ And it’s me and Jon Spaihts at the table going, ‘That’s a terrible analogy. We don’t want to be on that plane. What are we doing here?’”
READ MORE: Jason Blum Has “No Plans” To Restart The Dark Universe Despite ‘Invisible Man’ Success
Heisserer’s concern about the future of the Dark Universe actually influenced why he and writer Jon Spaihts chose “Van Helsing” as their entry in the franchise.
He explained, “This is sort of a terrible motivation, but we were also like, ‘You know? I don’t think some of these movies are going to work at all. So what if we create the character that kills the monsters in the movies that don’t work?’ [Laughs]”
Another universe Heisserer is deeply connected to is the Valiant superhero film universe, having written the Vin Diesel film, “Bloodshot.” But he’s unsure if there will be future expansion of that universe.
“I think it got mired in a producorial divorce,” he said. “Some of the properties are at Sony and some are at Paramount. And that makes for a difficult cinematic universe construction. It’s not impossible, but it makes it a little more of burdensome, and I don’t know if they know a way through with that.”
READ MORE: Valiant Boss: If Martin Scorsese Made Comic Book Movies, “He Would Make A Valiant Movie”
Ultimately when it comes to cinematic universes, Heisserer thinks you need to start with one good movie and hope for the best. You shouldn’t try to pre-package a full franchise before people even watch a film.
“To try and assume you are building something that is already pre-packaged as a cinematic universe, there’s a kind of hubris that I think audiences pick up on right away,” Heisserer said. “They know you’re selling them a trailer to a bigger movie and assuming they’re going to show up. I don’t think that’s the right approach.”
You can hear our full discussion with Eric Heisserer below:
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