Sequel to Ender's Game

[Bean]

Ender's Game is going to rock!! I think we can all hope this to be true, let's just assume the movie does justice and conveys at least 75% of the coolness of the book.  When that happens, there will be a CLAMORING for a sequel. If the sequel is made from Speaker for the Dead, the whole series could find itself in trouble. Don't get me wrong, I loved Speaker for the Dead. I found it to be thought provoking, exciting, mysterious, and a superb example of how great science fiction can be done. However...it is so different from Ender's Game that it is almost in a different sub genre of sci-fi. It would confuse people and make audiences mad. Most Movie audiences who see a sequel just really want more of the same. They want the same actors to use the same catch phrases, and fight the same villains. Achilles de Flandres fills that role nicely.

[halfmike]

I agree that the Bean saga would probably make for better action movies post-Ender's Game. Plus, it would help explain the whole story in chronological order, which helps give some more background for Speaker. And I agree that Speaker has a whole different feel to it.

EG really personifies childhood in general to me in the sense that it's all about actions. Not a lot of us get the chance to stop and reflect on our actions when we're young, and neither does Ender, which is natural. EG is relatively fast paced story (my, how fast-paced childhood seems when you're done with it) and, like childhood, our character makes choices in that time that he only later fully understands. And Speaker has pretty much the opposite framework. By that time we know who our characters are, to me it's really about watching them struggle with their regrets, current and future decisions. Admittedly, it's harder to make an action movie about a plot line that puts more emphasis on a character's thoughts. But at that point, once the movie's come out. I think the audience will be clamoring for more Ender. It's hard to just stop caring about our favorite superhero/villian/xenocide, now isn't it?

[Ender]

Bean is right; Speaker for the Dead is my personal favorite of the series, but it's not conducive to a movie.  Ender's Shadow is much more of a film-worthy choice, not to mention more entertaining.  There's just too much philosophy and thought processes in Speaker to make a good transition from page to screen, but frankly, I'd be just as happy to see where they go with the Shadow Series.

[Dink Meeker]

I think it just makes a lot more sense to tackle it chronologically. You'd make the Shadow series while you still have the same actors at a young age and by the time that's done, Asa's aged a lot closer to where Ender is in Speaker. But then the question comes up about whether or not Achilles is going to be in Ender's Game. If so, yeah you can certainly start the sequels on Earth following the first book. If not, do you give Ender's Shadow it's own movie with the fear that a lot of the casual fans just see it as the same movie all over again and get bored.

Then you have possibility of bridging the gap with Ender in Exile, which has some great original stories and does an awesome job making connections between the two series.

 Really, you might be able to fit Speaker, Xenocide and Children into just two or three movies instead of giving each it's own 2-3 hours. Especially with Xenocide; that one's basically all thought and discussion. I say you just put half of it in with Speaker and the other half with Children.

What I'm looking forward to the most is the next novel Orson Scott Card is writing following up on Bean's departure from Earth, Ender's death and the saving of Lusitania. I'd like to see how that manages to tie everything together and bring closure to both roads of the story.

[Speaker for the Dead]

I suspect Asa is going to come out of this as THE star of any kind of movie franchise they are envisioning. As such he is going to have to be the go to guy for any kind of movie sequel. That leaves Ender's Shadow (which as was pointed out largely overlaps Ender's Game) and Ender in Exile. I think Exile makes more sense chronologically. And it opens up some intriguing possibilities for maybe time shift juxtaposition with Speaker. I'm betting a lot of elements from the various books are going to be compressed. So Game will have some Shadow in it, an Exile-based sequel might include aspects of both Hegemon and Speaker, etc. Will be cool to find out!

[enderwiggin]

Placing aspects of Ender's Shadow in the Ender's Game movie makes complete sense, and continuing with this storyline first would be ideal, of course. The Bean actor, Aramis Knight, would probably do a great job continuing the story of Hegemon, Puppets, Giant, and Flight.