The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones was billed as the beginning of the next big YA movie franchise, but will its sequel City Of Ashes ever happen?
The Mortal Instruments was heralded as the next big YA movie franchise, but will sequel City Of Ashes ever happen? Writer Cassandra Clare began publishing her urban fantasy series The Mortal Instruments in 2007 and ended the saga with its sixth and final book City Of Heavenly Fire in 2014. The books in Clare’s Mortal Instruments series spent a combined total of 102 weeks on the New York Times Best-Seller List, which made it a property ripe for a big-screen adaptation.
German production company Constantin Films secured the rights to the series and partnered with Screen Gems to bring the first novel – The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones – to the big screen in 2013. The film starred Lily Collins as protagonist Clary Fray, a New York teen who discovers she is descended from a long line of half-human, half-angel demon slayers known as Shadowhunters. Future Game of Thrones prequel star Jamie Campbell Bower co-starred as Shadowhunter Jace, while big names like Lena Headey and Jonathan Rhys Myers padded out the rest of the cast.
A second film titled The Mortal Instruments: City Of Ashes and based on the next book in the series was set to go into production shortly after the release of City Of Bones, but six years later the sequel is nowhere to be seen. Unfortunately, the Mortal Instruments movie sequel isn’t happening – here’s why.
The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones Was A Box Office Flop
Following its August 2013 release, The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones made just $95.4 million worldwide against its $60 million production budget. Add to that the $60 million Constantin Film spent marketing the movie overseas and the undisclosed sum Screen Gems stumped up to cover stateside marketing costs and it’s safe to say City Of Bones was a box office bomb.
The Mortal Instruments Sequel Was Canceled
Despite the first film’s poor box office performance and a general panning from critics, the plan was to plod ahead with The Mortal Instruments: City Of Ashes nonetheless. Lily Collins, Jamie Campbell Bower, Lena Headey, and Jonathan Rhys Meyers were all set to reprise their roles and Sigourney Weaver was in talks to join the cast.
After several delays in the production, however, it was eventually announced in October 2014 that Constantin Film had decided to cancel The Mortal Instruments movie sequel.
Mortal Instruments Got A TV Show Instead Of A Sequel
The Mortal Instruments: City Of Ashes may have been canceled, but the franchise wasn’t entirely over. Rather than push ahead with the intended sequel, Constantin Film decided to produce a TV show based on The Mortal Instruments book series instead.
Shadowhunters premiered on Freeform in early 2016 and starred Arrow’s Katherine McNamara and Dominic Sherwood of Penny Dreadful fame, running for three seasons before it was canceled. So, while the movie sequel didn’t happen, at least The Mortal Instruments fandom got to see the story continue in TV form.
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