Dream Team Cast for The Jade Legacy TV Series
I don't know any author who hasn't fantasised about seeing their work made into a film or TV series. Anyone who denies it is probably lying or has no blood in his veins. Personally, in these ten years of my journey with my readers, there have been many occasions when the subject has come up. Leaving aside how difficult it really is for this to happen, it is quite permissible to let one's imagination run wild and to recreate, especially, the ideal cast.
On a completely serious note, when I have been asked about what format would be the most suitable for me to bring this saga to the screen, I usually answer with no hesitation that the ideal format for Jade Legacy would be that of a series. A saga of six books (certainly seven in physical form) is too much content to be reduced to a single film or even a trilogy. Exploring a serialised format would even give room to tell plots not included in the source text, creating narrative threads that do not exist but can be deduced from the original text, such as being able to focus on The Dar Mouths , Balkarii or Belhedor itself long before these locations were part of the saga's storyline. Having clarified this point for my part, I usually add that to ensure fidelity especially of appearance and character descriptions, the format should be 100% digital. Anyone who, like me, is a fan of console or PC games will be aware of the very high level of realism and detail that can be achieved in a cinematic today. Developed by computer, characters could fit the descriptions perfectly and we would achieve unattainable goals without the limits imposed by biology. Not only could races such as felids, orcs or bulls be recreated to perfection, but we could reproduce without trauma, for example, the hulking size of Legion or the exact height differences of the various characters.
Even so, the idea of a human cast in a production like the ones we've become accustomed to lately from the giant production companies like HBO, Starz or Netflix is usually the subject of interesting debates and fruitful fantasies. In my case, as I will tell you, they have not been a rarity at all. Many of my readers have let me know their preferences as to which actors or actresses they saw in many of the most relevant roles and characters of this saga, and I have also shared some of my impressions on the matter. That is why I have decided to let you in this web corner the author's proposal: that ideal cast that I would choose if it were feasible to have a series inspired by The Jade Legacy saga books and I were part of the casting management team.
I have decided to take it seriously and not to assign names simply on the basis of a certain physical resemblance to the character, but on the basis of many other variables, many of which I would like to highlight. It is only a game and a deeply personal proposal that will inevitably contradict that of many of you. Adjusting the human recreation of a literary character has some areas that are easy to solve and others that are impossible to agree on. The colour of a character's hair does not present many doubts... but what happens when the reference, for example, is to their physical attractiveness, their level of projection of emotional intensity, or some peculiar feature? well, things vary for almost every reader involved. When a character is described to us as attractive, invariably our mind recreates traits that we find attractive and that do not have to resemble what someone else finds attractive. This happens even with specific traits... How much muscular bulk does a character need to have to be considered truly corpulent? How slender does an elf need to be to be physically distinguishable from a human? How long does an elven ear need to be to fit in harmoniously with the rest of the features? Well, there is no consensus answer because everyone places this description in their own concept of beauty, elegance or proportion. It is therefore utopian to reach a consensus on a human cast inspired by fictional characters that satisfies everyone.
Far from seeking that point of consensus, I have decided to share with all my readers this game that normally remains private; and I say that I have taken it seriously as I have thought carefully about what my choice would be if the chance of having a series inspired by Jade Legacy on screen with the current cast of actors from the most relevant series in the current television panorama were really possible.
To this end, I have established some important premises:
Contrary to what is usual in these choices, physical resemblance or physical similarities to the character take second place to the actor's acting abilities. I have trained as an actor and when deciding who would play a character born in my head it is indisputable that for me it is more important their resolution on screen than their closeness to the physical description of the character. In other words, the actor's level of performance is hierarchically superior to his or her hypothetical physical resemblance, which can always be adjusted in a make-up session. Even so, I have tried to bring the two concepts closer together and choose actors and actresses of recognised competence, who also provide me with the physical resemblance. As the level of physical resemblance to the literary description of the character is secondary in my choice, it is necessary that the actors and actresses are recognisable to you. For this reason, I have chosen actors and actresses who have stood out in prime-time series in recent years. I couldn't help myself and many of them come from my own list of outstanding series.
Jade Legacy is a choral opera so I will stick to the most relevant group of characters. I will include in the list all the books, the whole saga, although I will exclude, in principle, with exceptions, characters whose level of characterisation makes their performer unrecognisable. There is little point in casting an actor for Xixor if underneath all the make-up or digital texturing the actor is lost to us. However, I would like to warn that even for me (I would add "especially for me") the choice of a single candidate is really difficult. Not infrequently I have had more than one shared candidacy or one candidate in more than one possibility. Don't take it as a real and definitive casting process. I myself would reformulate my own choices on more than one occasion in the face of new proposals that were not contemplated.
So, I will dedicate a post to each one of them, so that we can play for a while and at the same time allow us to focus on each one of them without getting scattered. I want you to feel free to comment and even contribute with your own suggestions, either here or in any other social network where these posts are shared. I will sequence them, more or less, in order of appearance in the saga.
My intention is to go into the reasons for my choice simply to share my criteria with you in a global and public way in what has normally been the focus of private and specific comments and interactions, with no greater pretension. To play a little, to know your impressions, your contributions and to build this Dream Team with which to let ourselves be seduced by the always appealing idea of fantasy being real. I can already tell you that it would probably be the most expensive casting in the history of TV, but what the hell, let's dream big.
In a little while, I'll reveal the first one.
Do you want to play?
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