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For every good movie, there are dozens of those that could have been even better. Sometimes the material just ended up in the wrong hands, but another common scenario is when the creators take on too big a challenge. That usually happens when they try to stuff a lot of content in a relatively short movie.
That's when the audience wonders whether the story would have worked better if it was adapted as a TV series instead. In some cases, the answer is yes. While the original movies might have had their charm, they didn't become huge hits but could have turned into a wildly successful TV series had the circumstances been different.
5 Underworld (2003)
The first Underworld movie introduced a brand new, dark world in which vampires waged a war against lycans. And the vampire Selene, portrayed by Kate Beckinsale, stood right at the center of it. Thanks to many characters, potential plot points, and background stories to explore, Underworld could have made a wonderful vampire/werewolf series. As the fans of this genre will know, there have been multiple shows dealing with the same topic and a lot of them ran for multiple seasons, becoming huge hits.
As such, Underworld would have had a strong potential to succeed too. It would also provide a welcome alternative to more teenage-oriented vampire shows that spent a lot of time establishing the romances between the characters. And as a TV series, Underworld could have gotten better reviews from the critics too since it would have more time to fully flesh out the characters and the mythology surrounding them than the movie series did.
4 Percy Jackson (2010, 2013)
The movies didn't become huge enough hits to lead to a long-running movie series. However, as a TV series, Percy Jackson's adventure could work better, with each season adapting a different book. There are never enough good fantasy series aimed at the younger audience and Percy could grow up alongside the audience such as the characters from Game of Thrones did.
Plus, the series would be different from a majority of today's fantasy shows considering how heavily the books rely on mythology. The good news is that unlike with other movies, the fans of the novels will actually get the chance to see a TV adaptation of Percy Jackson since the series is currently in development on Disney+!
3 Dredd (2012)
When a movie tries to introduce both a complex world and a story in one run, it doesn't always come across the best. Dredd is a good example of that. With a runtime of well under two hours, the movie tried to do too much at the same time. So even though it had a compelling story, many brilliant action scenes, and Karl Urban excelled in the leading role, the movie didn't do so well financially and never got a sequel even though there would be a space for it.
If the movie was a series instead, the creators could have taken their time to establish the world in which the story takes place. What's more, since Judge Dredd solves multiple cases and faces many enemies, he could move from one to another, creating the potential for a long-running series. Karl Urban is currently busy starring in the successful superhero series The Boys but if anybody ever creates a Dredd TV show, Urban could very well reprise his role.
2 Warcraft (2016)
World of Warcraft or simply WoW is one of the most popular game series of all time. As such, people have had high expectations for the movie adaptation - ones, that the movie, unfortunately, failed to fulfill. The main problem was that Warcraft had too many characters and was overall confusing for everyone not familiar with the game series. Adapting the story into a TV series instead would allow the creators to take their time and make sure that every viewer would understand which character was who, how the world worked, and who fought who.
The series could also explore the world on a scale no movie adaptation could ever achieve. With its history starting in 1994, World of Warcraft could very well become one of the most successful TV series in the right hands and could rival other fantasy hits such as The Witcher or The Wheel of Time if it was released on streaming services.
1 Assassin's Creed (2016)
The year 2016 saw the creation of two adaptations of popular video game series that failed - and for a similar reason. Assassin's Creed has a lower IMDB rating than Warcraft, as many fans of the franchise didn't like the fact the story spent a lot of time in the present, not in the past. Considering the complexity of the world, the many heroes the game series worked with, the many historical periods it took a look in, and finally, the long-lasting conflict between the Assassins and the Templars, an adaptation of Assassin's Creed into a movie never made much sense.
The story would have worked much better in the form of a TV series that would have the chance to flesh out the world and draw in the viewers who aren't familiar with the game series. Just like with Warcraft, the TV version of Assassin's Creed could do well on streaming services since it contains a lot of action and epic fight scenes, as well as potential cliffhangers.