“Artemis Fowl” Movie Releases New Trailer to Fan Backlash

The much-anticipated new trailer for Disney's upcoming adaptation of Artemis Fowl, which hits theaters on May 29, just dropped, and fans have some feelings about it. Artemis Fowl, which is based on the popular book series by Eoin Colfer, is about a young "criminal mastermind," but apparently many of those who were excited about the movie were disappointed by the trailer — and are even accusing the filmmakers of not doing their reading.

The trailer gives Artemis Fowl a more family-friendly feel, and some fans think it erased the whole young bad boy vibe of Artemis entirely. We see young Artemis training, studying, and working alongside his father, played by Colin Farrell, but the character seems to have taken a different path than the Artemis in the books. From the trailer, it looks like Disney and the team behind Artemis Fowl are giving the character a more traditional hero's journey and ignoring some of his less appealing characteristics — namely that he's a child villain and isn't exactly warm and fuzzy.

Suffice it to say, fans aren't necessarily thrilled about what they've been seeing so far with the trailer. "Unless the trailer frames the story in a completely different way (as some movies do), the Artemis Fowl adaptation doesn't look like it's going to give us the boy criminal mastermind protagonist from the books," tweeted one viewer. "This is all wrong. Artemis Fowl was a cold, calculating, genius villain. That’s what made the books unique, because he was the villain but you still cheered for him," another tweeted. "Then Disney comes along, throws pixie dust at Artemis and now he’s a good boy hero with a heart of gold."

As one upset fan tweeted, "THIS IS WRONG. THAT'S NOT ARTEMIS. THAT'S NOT BUTLER. THAT'S NOT HOLLY. HE'S NOT A HERO, HE'S AN ANTI-HERO AT BEST. WHY DID YOU NOT FOLLOW THE DAMN BOOK." "Respect the incredible source material you cowards," wrote another.

While these reactions are, um, strong given we still don't know how the film will turn out, the level of investment makes sense — especially because, as fans likely know, the Artemis Fowl adaptation has faced a series of delays. According to ScreenRant, there have been rumors of adaptations dating all the way back to 2001, with more serious talks about the movie finally happening in 2013. ScreenRant shared that the first trailer for the adaptation dropped in 2018, but then Disney pushed the movie's release back to May 29, 2020. What's going on with Artemis Fowl, and what does this mean for further installments after the first movie? We'll have to wait and see when the full film debuts in a few months.

Check out the trailer below:

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Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue