Amazon’s The Atlas Six adaptation will put a dark and mature spin on magic school settings, and there’s one nine-year-old Syfy series that can serve as a blueprint. Based on Olivie Blake’s novel of the same name, The Atlas Six will offer fantasy lovers a tale with adult themes and a dark academia setting. Amazon announced its intentions to adapt Blake’s story for television back in 2021, and while there haven’t been many updates thus far, the show will make a promising addition to the current fantasy landscape.
The Atlas Six novel follows six deeply flawed main characters as they enroll in a prestigious educational facility to become members of a secret society dubbed the Alexandrian Society. Blake’s story doesn’t shy away from the darker aspects of this institution, using the characters’ ambitions to explore the more insidious side of knowledge and power. This is similar to another fantasy show that premiered back in 2015, and The Atlas Six can learn from its approach to these subjects.
Amazon’s The Atlas Six TV Show Will Fuse Dark Academia With Adult Fantasy
Most Magical School Settings Are Aimed At Younger Audiences
Although magic school settings are common in fantasy movies and shows, stories that take place in these environments tend to be aimed at younger audiences. There are several exceptions, and when it finally premieres on Prime Video, The Atlas Six will be one of them. Blake’s story raises conversations about the lengths people will go to in order to attain success and power. It’s different from a series like Harry Potter, which emphasizes themes of love and friendship against the backdrop of a magical school. It doesn’t offer an idealized version of magic; instead, it shows magicians plagued by the same societal issues that exist in the real world.
Due to this perspective, The Atlas Six is geared toward a more mature audience than stories like Harry Potter, Wednesday, or The School for Good and Evil. This sets it apart in the fantasy TV landscape, which doesn’t include as many adult shows under the dark-academia umbrella. In recent years, adult fantasy has leaned more toward high fantasy, with series like Game of Thrones, The Witcher, and The Rings of Power dominating the conversation. The Atlas Six will attempt to fuse the magic school story with mature themes, something another show has already successfully done.
The Magicians Successfully Pulled This Off Back In 2015
The Syfy Adaptation Took A Darker Approach To Fantasy
Given its focus on Fillory — a darker take on C.S. Lewis’ Narnia and worlds like it — The Magicians has a distinctly different premise than The Atlas Six. However, both stories feature similar settings and themes, with The Magicians starting out in a magic school that’s devoid of the charm and joy seen in places like Hogwarts. Lev Grossman’s book series and the Syfy show it spawned in 2015 present a bleaker, more realistic take on a magical education. The Magicians doesn’t shy away from difficult conversations about prestige and power, nor does it avoid depicting mature elements of growing up, including sexual exploration, substance use, and mental health issues.
With these elements, The Magicians has already set the stage for a series like The Atlas Six. Everything from its focus on educational hierarchy to its characters’ realistic coming-of-age behavior resembles The Atlas Six. And although The Magicians was canceled after season 5, it was a fairly popular show, enough so that it received several renewals and maintains a “fresh” 90% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. Given the success of its earlier seasons, The Magicians can teach Amazon’s upcoming series a lot when it comes to conveying its mature themes and settings. Such lessons can also inform the upcoming Ninth House TV show and any other dark-academia projects that follow.
What The Atlas Six Series Can Learn From Syfy’s Earlier Hit
The Amazon Series Can’t Shy Away From Its Maturity Or Complexity
The Magicians thrived for several reasons, one of which was its compelling and complex cast of characters. Like the leads of The Atlas Six, the characters in The Magicians were flawed and grappling with their own identities, ambitions, and societal shortcomings. The Syfy series portrayed their arcs in a way that made them likable enough to invest in, even if viewers weren’t always on their sides. The Amazon series will also need to strike this balance if it hopes to win audiences over with its ensemble cast of complicated characters.
The Atlas Six will also need to take an unflinching approach to its more mature subjects, making it clear that it isn’t offering an idealized version of magic or growing up. That was one of The Magicians‘ core strengths, and while it didn’t resonate with everyone, it helped the Syfy show stand out. The Atlas Six already features the same themes in its source material, and Amazon’s adaptation shouldn’t tone them down. Playing these elements up will set the show apart, filling a gap in the current fantasy TV lineup.
