Artemis Fowl trailer has some book fans up in arms over boy-genius portrayal

Ferdia Shaw stars in Artemis Fowl, the long-awaited adaptation of Eoin Colfer's best-selling series of fantasy novels.

Nearly a year after its originally scheduled release, Artemis Fowl-a Kenneth Branagh-directed film adapted from the popular series by Irish author Eoin Colfer-is finally coming to theaters this spring. And the latest trailer has, thus far, not been well-received by hardcore fans of the book, who are loudly decrying what appears to be a significant departure from the evil boy genius of the novels in favor of a more "Disney-fied" heroic figure.

There are eight books in the Artemis Fowl series, detailing the extensive exploits of the titular character. The debut novel received generally positive reviews and a few comparisons to J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, although Colfer's books have never achieved the same stratospheric commercial success. Still, Disney is betting there's an equally strong appetite for the Artemis Fowl series on the big screen.

That said, the comparison irritates Colfer, who describes his novels as being more like "Die Hard with fairies." As I wrote when the first teaser dropped way back in November 2018, "That's a fairly accurate description. Artemis is the anti-Harry Potter. He's a thief and a kidnapper, among other misdeeds, and he is largely untroubled by remorse. That's part of his charm."

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