SCIFI AND TV TALK: Making Magic: Interview with Merlin's Julian Murphy and Johnny Capps
by Steve Eramo
02/13/2012
In a land of myth and a time of magic, the destiny of a great kingdom rests on the shoulders of a young boy, his name ... Merlin.
Every week, fans of the hit BBC fantasy TV series Merlin look forward to hearing those opening words and the start of a new episode. Using the Arthurian legends as a jumping-off point, the show is based on Prince Arthur’s friendship with the wizard Merlin and eventual succession to the throne of Camelot following the death of his father, King Uther Pendragon. From the very beginning, series co-creators and current executive producers Johnny Capps and Julian Murphy knew the story they wanted to tell and how they wanted to do it.
“We’ve always enjoyed making high-concept shows,” notes Capps. “Before Merlin we worked on a show called Hex, and one of the problems we had with that is that we created the mythology ourselves. So when we began work on our next project, we thought instead of creating an entire mythology, let’s find one, and at the time, Merlin was ripe for reinvention. We felt that the Arthurian legend and the story of Merlin were fascinating as well as a rich pot in which to explore."
Adds Murphy, “I think the main thing for us is that if we were going to do this, we wanted to do it our way and, I guess, a slightly different way rather than just telling a straightforward version of the story, albeit a terrific one. We’ve always been fascinated by coming of age stories and I think that type of drama and the established legends met in our minds and the result is the take on the Arthur/Merlin legend that we’ve come up with...”
Merlin airs Friday at 10/9C on Syfy.
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