#shadowhunters filming location

[kasirose]

Shadowhunters filming locations: Part 1/2

A year ago, I decided to try my hand at a bit of photography and went around to a couple filming locations in Toronto. I've seen a couple photographers take photos in this style and it looked fun!

Location: Toronto Distillery District

Part 2

[ladyhindsight]

hey, I came across your blog and I wanted to rant how much the shadowhunters series is focused so much on English speaking institutes and the heroes both current and historical are all English speaking people. I'm tired of reading about Herondales and Lightwoods and having to read about 'oh how perfect Herondales are and how strong they are' and I'm growing tired of seeing Magnus in every series I wish we saw another warlock, reading about Malcolm was a breath of fresh air. It's disappointing that twp will take place in New York this was the opportunity to read about other shadowhunter cultures like Cairo, Vatican, Jerusalem, Madrid, Rome, Barcelona, Mexico city etc but no we have to read about New York and oh how perfect Herondales are the former cities have more richer history and are more ancient. Jerusalem is the centre of Judeo Christian culture but not even a word of Jerusalem in the series considering the first batch of shadowhunters were crusaders. My sister wrote a shadowhunters short story around Bavarian shadowhunter culture and her world building is incredible and I really enjoyed reading about Bavarian shadowhunter heroes and you could even sense that shadowhunters were distinct to mundanes and they were a powerful angel race was better than how Cassandra clare writes shadowhunter race.

Hello and welcome!

Yeah, I’m tired too. It’s convenient that every Herondale, Lightwood, Fairchild, Carstairs and Blackthorn is always located in the same place. First in Great Britain, then (when the story skips over events) in Idris and whatnot, and later in the United States. These people always come together in the end. Somehow. Additionally the same Downworlders circle the series in the same places when there was plenty opportunities to just invent new characters. Because what are the chances that Lily, Hypatia, Magnus, Malcolm, that one vampire guy are always somehow around when the Nephilim protagonist go on their heroic journeys?

I liked reading about Malcolm too. He was such a light and goofy character but alas, it was a façade. The Last Hours relies a lot on The Dark Artifices as to Malcolm story in TDA and uses it as a plot device to coerce his help in the story. It’s a nice tie-in but also heavy-handed, like great many things in the series, and doesn’t really, probably (since I haven’t finished CoT yet), finish his story because it just can’t. I think the series should stand on their own merit without relying too much on the earlier writing. But at the same time, like with Marvel films, if you begin reading here and don’t get everything, it’s probably a wrong place to start.

I wouldn’t have had any hope for Clare’s ability to write distinguished Shadowhunter cultures even if the story location was different, because the current ones are absolutely undistinguishable from one another. But it sure would’ve been a nice change, again an opportunity, since many old European cities have greater ties to Judeo Christian history and culture than London or New York. By far.

It’s a great observation that none of the holy cities really have any place in the Shadowhunter mythos or worth a proper mention in the series when the very history and beginning of the Shadowhunters are deeply tied to those places. But again—Clare.

And please do link me to your sister’s story if it’s published online. I’d love to read it :)

[streettealee]

Wasting Beats In This Heart Of Mine

The Last Hours fan fiction. James Herondale x Cordelia Carstairs x Original Character with a side of platonic Matthew Fairchild, served chilled as the winter of London, 1903.

“If you could do it all over again, what would you change?” “Everything.”

How do you say goodbye to the love of your life? What do you do when you can't say goodbye? If you had one more chance, would you risk the entire universe to spend the last hours of its existence with them?

Lila Raftis is lonely. James Herondale is tired. Cordelia Carstairs is missing. Matthew Fairchild is drinking too much. Somehow, they have to trust each other in order to save the world. Every world. Someone has created a tear in reality, and the clocks are counting down until the universe's collapse. Lila must impersonate Cordelia to help James repair this tear and prevent doomsday. Matthew's just trying to stay out of trouble. When Lila falls in love along the way, she must decide which is more important: love or the universe?

or, it's alternate title: A Gentleman's Guide to Conversing with Teasing Young Ladies (with Possible Violent Intentions) of Suspicious Circumstances from an Alternate Dimension Where One Does Not Exist, published in 1904 by James M.H. Herondale.

Read on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/42234207/chapters/106041132

Below are some art pieces I feel fit the vibe of the fanfic (I have done my best to credit. If anyone has an issue, please feel free to let me know and I will act as soon as possible) as well as some quotes.

Piccadilly Circus at night, Albert Henry Fullwood (1863-1930)

Image description: a watercolour painting of the location Piccadilly Circus on a wet and grey London night. There are people milling the streets and lamps alight, causing reflections on the pavement. There is a dark shadow of a fountain statue. The buildings in the background are also filled with lights. This is not a modern scene, but of the painter’s view of the space sometime between 1863 and 1930.

Cordelia Carstairs, cami @skyllowarts​ (April 2023)

Image description: a stunning art piece of the half-Persian character Cordelia Carstairs from Cassandra Clare’s The Last Hours Shadowhunter series. Cordelia has dark red hair, often associated with rose petals in the books or fire (as you do when describing red hair, apparently) and lovely brown skin. Her dark eyes are focused somewhere in the distance as she holds her legendary sword, Cortana, in front of her. The glow of the sword softly highlights her hair and face. A small globe necklace shines brightly at her collarbones above the neckline of her deep blue dress.

Memento Mori, Iren Horrors (September 2021)

Image description: a pale and dainty woman in a large, almost drowning red dress is walking by a mirror where her only reflection is a skeleton (her skeleton, quite possibly). Grey moths fly all about the room, and spiderwebs hang by the mirror. On either side of the mirror are red candles burning white. The woman is holding a key and looking ahead at something the viewer cannot see. Her dark hair is cut short and it is decorated with a skull-in-a-rose pin, while similar skull decorations adorn her ears and dress. 

Are you sure the only you is you?, @creature-from-the-mud​ (unknown)

Image description: distorted film tape of something dark with the white text outlined in black stating: “Are you sure the only you is you?”

credit unknown.

Image description: a black, white, and gold illustration of the primary The Last Hours characters assembled. Gathered from left to right are James Herondale, Lucie Herondale, Thomas Lightwood, Anna Lightwood, Alastair Carstairs, Grace Blackthorn, Christopher Lightwood, Matthew Fairchild, and Cordelia Carstairs. 

[autisticdru]

The entirety of Scotland and Northern England is served by two institutes (stated in TID: York & Edinburgh). All of Scotland answers to Edinburgh, which means if a shadowhunter is needed in Inverness, that's a three hour drive on a good day- what did they do pre cars? If there's no portal, it's not like it's an easy horse journey. Getting attacked in Orkney must be hell. Imagine ur chilling in Stornoway and call for help, they arrive on the ferry after ur dead.

[cinevoyageuses]

🎥 During the shooting of season 3, Shadowhunters came to shoot in Paris. Jonathan takes Clary to several places in the city and their passage through the capital ends on the Bir-Hakeim bridge.

Jace and Clary reunite, with help from Alec and Luke, after scaring Jonathan away.

📙 The series is an adaptation of one of our favorite literary series ❤️ "The Mortal Instruments" by Cassandra Clare.

-

🎥 Lors du tournage de la saison 3, Shadowhunters est venu tourné à Paris. Jonathan emmène Clary dans plusieurs endroits de la ville et leur passage dans la capitale s'arrête sur le pont de Bir-Hakeim.

Jace et Clary se retrouvent, avec l'aide d'Alec et Luke, après avoir fait fuir Jonathan.

📙 La série est une adaptation d'une de nos séries littéraires préférées ❤️ "La Cité des Ténèbres" de Cassandra Clare.

[hiddlesgirl]

Locations in All Good Things... (2|2)

[anthony-kate]

I find it so hilarious how they spent all this budget on filming in Paris but nobody giving a fuck about that. The scenes in Paris in 3x12 were not just total cliches but not even needed for the story to work. Let alone how Matt and Isaiah were green screened into the ep.

All fandom talked about though: Malec training scene. In a studio.

Same with 3x20. Cool, they filmed the C.lace and Jonathan part for the Alicante scene in Paris, too.

Did anybody care about that? No, because... Malec got engaged in front of a way more impressive green screen.

I am sorry but it is just so freaking hilarious. Like, you really could have spent that money on something more important. lmao

[tmi-tv-show-news]

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BTS of the season 2 finale (x)

[ninacarstairss]

PARABATAI WEEK — day 6, underrated/fanon parabatai @carstairgray

i’m broken, torn apart, shattered and a couple more adjectives because of tftsa and it falls perfectly on the parabatai week so here are some simon x george parabatai headcanon

they place their parabatai runes on the back of their shoulders to symbolize they’ll always have each other’s back.

after the ceremony they go back to the new york institute and the rest of the gang surprises them with a party to celebrate.

simon places a stuffed rat on george’s bed before he shows him his new room, in memory of their days at the academy. the rat also has a tiny collar with “jon cartwright xxxv” engraved on it.

george jumps on the nearest chair when he sees it and his academy nightmares come back to him as simon is doubled over laughing near the door.

once the initial fear of having to deal with rats even at the institute passes, george keeps the stuffed animal and he adores it, it reminds him of their time at the academy, how he and simon met and became the brothers they are now.

they start having training sessions with jace and alec and they always end up on the ground with jace and alec triumphant over them but they put up quite a fight when fighting together.

they also like to train a lot with izzy and clary but that works way less for their skills because izzy and simon end up making out somewhere when one of them pins the other on the floor and clary and george just leave the room and go get a coffee before they can see something they won’t be able to forget. alec still talks about his nightmares regarding the time he walked in on simon and izzy in idris.

george gets to know the gang better and they all love him, but simon is especially happy when he notices him bonding a lot with izzy and clary and when he sees alec starting to trust him fully. jace ends up telling george so many stories about the first time he met simon and how he was when he first entered the shadow world, including the being-turned-into-a-rat part — george’s favorite ever since the academy — and that’s when simon knows jace really likes him too.

simon keeps schooling george in pop culture, movies, comics and the history of his band when he was a mundane and he drags george around the city in all the best places to find comics and the best film. soon enough george is making star wars references on a daily basis. though, he’ll never stop mocking simon about all the names his band went through, especially when he reveals the ones he though about during the academy that had to do with rats and other weird creatures, or grey eggs.

george often leaves to visit his family in scotland and he always takes simon with him. his parents love him and they always welcome him as a son. george couldn’t be happier and simon feels at home. he misses seeing his family every day, but he learned that for every loss there’s something to gain and this new part of a home is his own new piece of happiness.

once, though, the whole gang tagged along. george talked about the green fields and the sheep of scotland so much that they wanted to see for themselves. it’s a wild vacation and, between a hike and a tour of the nearby cities, jace gets not-so-gracefully swept off his feet by a running sheep and it’s a sight they’ll never forget or let him live down.

they have annual dinners with the group for the academy. no matter how far they’re all located from each other, they get a portal and meet in idris at least once a year and visit the muddy fields where scarsbury had them running and doing push-ups for as long as it took to kill them. beatriz and julie have also become a great pair of parabatai and jon manages not to be too obnoxious for one night a year.

simon also schooled george in the art of eating take out every day for basically all meals and told him to gently refuse every single thing that leaves the pan when it’s izzy cooking as soon as he stepped foot into the institute. surprisingly enough izzy and george find in each other some really horrible cooks who get along a lot and think they cook fantastic food while burning half the kitchen every single time they get close to a burner. simon’s desperate and he’s most likely going to loose his eyebrows in a kitchen fire soon enough. or worse, he might actually have to eat the stuff they cook one of these days. (credits to @icycoolslushie for the idea on this one)

when sizzy get married simon chooses george to be his suggenes and george cries his eyes out because his brother is so grown up and he’s getting married

once clary and simon convince the gang to celebrate halloween and they organize a halloween party at the institute for all their friends. george is the first to agree and he’s so excited. he and simon are planning matching costumes and decide to go as avatar characters — but with more covering clothes on, simon is stoic about this and george agrees it’s probably best not to risk finding themselves in the middle of a fight with a halloween night demon wearing only that little cloth around their hips — and they also kick it up a notch by dying their hair blue. except that they buy the wrong kind of dye and when the next day they wash their hair to get the colour off, it doesn’t go away. izzy and clary have to fix their mess with brown dye.

they are those friend that always do the craziest things you see on the internet and end up with the most aesthetic photos, like george in the middle of a parking lot with flashing lights surrounding him, sitting in a shopping cart and laughing, or simon naturally posing with his bow and arrow in front of a fantastic landscape and they become snapchat famous for these pics. izzy, alec and jace are pretty confused by this snapchat famous thing.

when simon moved in at the institute after the academy he installed a playstation in his room and most nights george is there with him, playing at 3am with snacks of all kinds surrounding them. izzy joins too sometimes but she’s not great at those games and has smashed a couple of joysticks after loosing multiple times, while clary kicks both their asses when she pops in for a game.

one night george entered simon’s room for a 3am game and instead found him with izzy, both of them half naked and in the middle of some sort of role play where izzy was calling simon “lord montgomery”. he never lets simon live that down and brings the name up in the most inappropriate moments — such as clave meetings — making simon choke on air every time. after that, though, george is very careful to knock.

simon’s pansexual and he’s a little afraid to come out to george at first, but he soon realizes he knows george and he wouldn’t turn his back on him, he wouldn’t leave. so when he does tell him he’s shaking slightly but he’s also happy and george clearly is too, he scoops simon into a tight hug and tells him he’s incredibly proud of him and reassures him he loves him no matter what, they’re brothers no matter what.

they’re not big on celebrations of birthdays or mundane holidays in general, but they do like to keep the traditions alive. both of them have been raised with no knowledge of the shadow world and they were observant of some religious and mundane holidays that shadowhunter don’t celebrate. so they like getting christmas gifts for everyone or organize parties for new year’s. they celebrate hanukah too and share other little traditions from their childhoods, like george’s family tradition of sheep’s wool-covered sweets and chocolates to find instead of eggs for easter or simon’s family tradition of taking a two day trip around spring to see the changing season and enjoy some free time, even if the trip is to the nearest town. they’re small traditions sometimes, but they like to keep the memories alive.

george becomes really good with max after that first encounter and the offer of raising him in his and simon’s drawer. he and simon often volunteer to babysit him, and rafe too afterwards, and they obviously use as bedtime stories the plot of star wars or comics, which the kids absolutely love.

sometimes when he’s stressed or tired george goes full on scottish and also switches to gaelic at times and simon is just there looking at him, torn between wanting to giggle at his usually contained behavior now unchecked and wanting to hug him and confort him. he always goes with the second, but he does love to hear george speak gaelic.

after the time at the academy when george was leading the mission to go after the faerie fruit vendors where simon got sucked into faerie he’s incredibly protective of simon in battle — or just all the time, actually. he’s thrown himself in front of simon more times than simon can count and he loves this kind of care, because of course he does the same whenever george is in danger, but it also makes him sad a lot because he knows george still feels guilty about that mission, even if nothing bad really happened, and he would do anything to make sure nothing similar ever happened again.

tag list @cordaisya @im-not-ruined-im-ruination @surrounded-by-exquisite-clutter @stxr-thxif @icycoolslushie @writeforjordelia @gabtapia @fair-childd @clarys-heosphoros @shadowhuntingdemigod (let me know if you want to be added or removed)

[kasirose]

Shadowhunters filming locations: Part 2/2

More locations! Yes, I went out during the winter for two of these, it was very cold but worth it XD

pls ignore that the institute is completely misaligned, I couldn't find a straight on screenshot 🥲

Locations: Allan Gardens, Various streets of downtown Toronto XD

Part 1

[workingonmoviemaps]

Popular Locations Wednesday

Etobicoke’s Marie Curtis Park

Marie Curtis Park was created after the destruction of all of the homes at the site by Hurricane Hazel in 1954. The park was named after the mayor of Long Branch, the village where the park was constructed.

The beach can be seen above in Room, A Simple Favor, Shadowhunters, and The Expanse.

[updatesherwood]

DOMINIC AT #SHADOWCONATHOME [PT. 1]

Q: Did Jace's friendship with Simon helped Jace? D: Jace had a particular view on the downworlders and having a friend as Simon really helped him with the humanity.

Q: What did playing Jace meant to you? D: The key thing about playing Jace is about the balance relating to the relationships.

Q: Which moment was the hardest to do and which one you loved the most? D: One of my favourite moments was the scene with the parabatai oath because it was a very pure and honest scene. The hardest was the scene inside Jace’s mind.

Q: What did you learn from Jace ans what did Jace learn from you? D: Jace learned that he should stay off for a day and chill out, I learned that I have to let people being part of my life.

Q: How have you being keeping up lately being in LA? D: People usually think actors have a lot of parties but in reality we invest a lot of time in finding new parts.

Q: How do you recover from a day of work? D: It truly is a recovery because after a full day at work we're exhausted. I used to go out to dinner with Matt when we finished filming together.

Q: What's your favourite (British) dish and what do you miss the most from the UK? D: My favourite dish is the Sunday roast, my mum does the best one, and of course I miss my family the most.

Q: What's your favourite brand of tea? D: I like the tea very sweet and with milk. I don't really miss it because I can find it here too.

Q: Which character would you have liked Jace to have more interactions with? D: Meliorn. I really liked the scenes with him and Jade is amazing.

Q: What prompted Jace to be Alec’s parabatai? D: I see parabatai as soulmates, like a missing piece of you. So when they realised that, being parabatai is the next step.

Q: What was it like playing Christian Ozera? And are there any similiarities with Jace? D: I adored Vampire Academy and we had a lot of fun.

Q: If you could work with your cast mates, what project would it be? D: Matt and I want to do space cowboys. 

Q: What is your favorite location among the places you have filmed in? D: When I filmed Take Down we were in Wales, in the coast, and it was amazing. I'd love to work back home.

Q: Since it's suicidal awareness month, what was your experience in Shadowhunters and has it made you more aware of your mental health? D: It made me more profoundly aware about it, because suicide was a concept for Jace for a couple of times. On Shadowhunters the resolution was always the same, relying on your friends and family.

[redstreakrps]

redstreakrps presents: fc suggestions!

i don’t know about you guys, but i am sick of seeing matthew daddario used as the fc for alec lightwood. yes, he played alec in shadowhunters, but keep in mind that matt is 32 years old and alec is supposed to be between 19-23 in the books/show/film, which is a big difference. now, if you’re playing alec post-mortal instruments, using matt would work because alec lightwood canonically was born in 1989. but if you are playing alec during the events that take place in mortal instruments/shadowhunters, he’s most likely in his early 20s. if you’re looking to play alec lightwood for a rpg or an indie, but don’t want to use matt and would rather use a younger fc, i’m gonna list some suggestions for you guys! keep in mind, these are based purely on the kind of personality the character has and the vibe/previous roles of the fcs:

ehren kassam, b. 1997, best known for degrassi: next class (tanzanian)

alex fitzalan, b. 1996, best known for the society (white/australian)

aubrey joseph, b. 1997, best known for cloak and dagger (african american)

booboo stewart, b. 1994, best known for twilight and descendants (scottish, english, japanese, chinese, korean, possibly russian)

eli goree, b. 1994, best known for the 100, ballers, and riverdale (unspecified black)

froy gutierrez, b. 1998, best known for teen wolf and light as a feather (mexican/caxcan, european)

mason gooding, b. 1996, best known for love victor (african american, african barbadian, european)

gavin leatherwood, b. 1996, best known for chilling adventures of sabrina (irish, english, welsh, german, spanish, unspecified native american)

rudy pankow, b. 1997, best known for outer banks (unspecified white)

bonus fcs (not pictured):

dylan sprayberry, b. 1998, best known for teen wolf (english, german, some belgian/flemish)

jason genao, b. 1996, best known for on my block (dominican) 

spence moore ii, b. 1997, best known for a.p. bio and all american (unspecified black)

kedar williams-stirling, b. 1994, best known for sex education (unspecified black)

noah centineo, b. 1996, best known for the fosters and to all the boys i’ve loved before (german, italian)

jake t. austin, b. 1994, best known for wizards of waverly place and the fosters (polish, english, irish, spanish, puerto rican, argentinian)

if you need help locating some resources for any of the fcs listed above, please let me know and i can help direct you to some!

[charlotteisnotthechosenone]

Star Wars Ramblings #4 - Thank You Rogue One

Ashamedly Rogue One was a film that had slipped under my radar slightly. I always intended to watch it but when you say Star Wars it is far from the first thing that comes to mind. Prior to my decision to finally get my backside in gear and watch these films I couldn’t have even told you where it fit within the universe. Going into it I kept that lack of knowledge, being aware only that it took place right before the events of A New Hope. I unfortunately found myself being accidentally spoiled for a lot of the other films (I say accidental, I could have kept myself off the internet!) so it was nice to dive into one that was a complete unknown for me. 

I have to admit that for the first 20/30 minutes or so I was not a fan of this film. We were getting to grips with new locations and a new cast of characters and I did find all the jumping around at the start very confusing. As the story progressed however I became absolutely hooked. While I didn’t find myself massively connecting with the characters I was absolutely entranced by the story and what Rogue One was able to do so fantastically was to highlight to me the reason I have fallen so absolutely in love with the universe of Star Wars. Up until this point Star Wars had for me been very much about the characters and it will still continue to be, but what this film showed was the power of the stories within this universe and that spoke to a part of me that I didn’t really know was listening. 

Firstly I want to add that I thought the plot for this film was incredible. It was amazing to finally get some background to events that we have, up until this point, just accepted have happened. It was also incredibly interesting to see how the actions of these characters were the ones to kickstart the events of episodes 4, 5, and 6, and to an extent the new trilogy that follows. This film also had one of the best endings I think I have ever seen in any story ever - book, film or TV show. I will also admit that that glimpse of Leia we get at the very end of the film made me incredibly emotional. 

I feel I will always have a strong connection to this film. While I cannot see it shooting straight to the top of my ratings when it comes to the Star Wars films I can see it holding a special place in my heart for a very long time. Rogue One allowed me to articulate and form coherent thoughts about why Star Wars has consumed me so much. This film had a much greater effect on me than I could ever have imagined. 

Everything has a story. Star Wars doesn’t stop when we reach the end of a film or series - I feel that it lives on beyond the end of the credits. George Lucas created something that was much much bigger than the small glimpses we get on screen. Every event has a history, every character a past and a story that is solely theirs and is begging to be told. Every single character seen on screen, however minor, even if we only glimpse them as part of a crowd, will have their reasons for being where they are. They have a life within this crazy world that has somehow ended up in them being interwoven into the story of a relatively small bunch of significant characters. Doesn’t that have parallels with life? Every person we glimpse on the street or are stood behind in a queue will have their own background, their own story and when you make this comparison doesn’t this highlight the fact that yes Star Wars is an epic space adventure but it is also life. Admittedly it is a little detached from what we would consider as day to day events but it is still life. George Lucas did not just create a series of stories about a group of heroes and villains he has opened the door into a whole new universe. I have engaged with series my whole life: Harry Potter, the Shadowhunter Novels, Throne of Glass to name just a few but never have I felt so compelled to seek out every single detail, every single story I can besides what is on the page. Every single character within the world of Star Wars feels so unique to me, each one of them will have gone through their own series of events to bring them to exactly the same place at exactly the same time and that is fascinating to me. I could hear hundreds of them being told and I would actively listen to every single one, there is so much diversity and vibrancy in this universe that I would never get bored and isn’t this the same with life? Each person is so unique and different with stories to tell that belong truly to them and them alone and George Lucas has managed to parallel this so excellently, with an added dash of space thrown in! While we may follow in detail the stories of a remarkable set of characters they represent only a snapshot of a universe which is so much more than they are. The story doesn’t end with them and I think it is a true testament to the impact of this series that so many, myself included, find their minds constantly wandering to a galaxy far far away even after the screen has gone dark and the lights have come up. 

[hiddlesgirl]

Locations in All Good Things... (1|2)

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

We all know a tv show would be preferable to a movie (or do we?), but if Animorphs were to be adapted in to a movie series, how would you break up the books? Which ones would become films, would any be combined, would you make any composite characters?

I’d vote for a show over a movie series, but if I had to have a movie series, it’d ideally go something like this:

Animorphs: The Invasion

Goes through the events of the first book, with a handful of additions:

Have one scene or sequence with the Animorphs each saying goodbye to their families before leaving to fight the first battle (similar to AniTV)

Establish both major romances of the series right off the bat, maybe through having Jake and Cassie be a couple already and then building Rachel and Tobias up to a pre-battle kiss

Briefly go through the events of #3 and #4 in the last few scenes by showing some kind of montage of Tobias adjusting to hawk life and then, at the very end, have him go discuss weird dreams with Cassie

Last shot of the movie: pan down to Dome ship at the bottom of the ocean, show Ax using mirrorwave whatsits to call for help

But-wait-there’s-more: a post-credits scene establishes that Visser Three is getting Ax’s messages too

Animorphs: The Message

Goes through the events of #4 and #13, with flashbacks to The Andalite Chronicles:

Open mid-battle (possibly the water truck battle from #3) to establish that it’s been a few weeks since the first movie

Have Cassie talk the other Animorphs into “one more attempt” to go rescue Ax, followed by the (somewhat abridged) events of #4, probably sans talking whales because that just won’t translate well

Ax and Tobias almost immediately begin their attempt to have “E.T. phone home” from #8, and in the process discover andalite tech that contains Elfangor’s hirac dilest

Have Ax learn the location of the morphing cube from Elfangor’s hirac dilest, along with some engineering knowledge that gives Tobias’s morphing power back (again, sort of like AniTV)

Have Ax and Tobias discover Jara and Ket mid-escape and try to help, leading to a simplified version of #13; leave out the Ellimist because he’s too dang complicated

All Animorphs help to get Jara and Ket to safety, after which Jara explains that the Yeerk Peace Movement helped them escape

Post-credits scene: Tobias flies to unknown neighborhood, sits on roof until an adult Loren comes out of the house across the way

Animorphs: The Answer pt. 1

Goes through the events of #41 - #50, extremely abridged:

Open with the sequence from #41 with the end of the battle followed by Jake going home, again to help establish that it’s been a while since the events of the last movie (and to remind us that Tom exists)

As Jake is checking in at his house, have Cassie checking in with the YPM, Tobias checking in with Loren at the hork-bajir valley, and Ax intercepting a yeerk transmission indicating that open war is imminent 

Finally, cut to Rachel and Marco showing up at a hospital, where they recruit James et al.

At the school for the blind, Tobias spots a Sharing Relief Services van out front; he warns the others in time, but they end up leaving the cube with one of the blind kids they came to recruit in their haste to retreat

Jake sees Tom getting in the van with the morphing cube, grabs a dracon beam and is about to shoot him; Cassie yells Jake’s name in an effort to stop him, and Tom turns around and sees them both as humans

There’s a big final battle, a random YPM member saves Jake from Visser Three, but the yeerks get the morphing cube anyway

Throughout the battle, it’s extremely obvious the whole time that the Animorphs’ cover is blown

Post-credits scene: Tom’s yeerk is watching Jake’s parents infested, and then walks out of the room, morphs a bird, and flies away

Animorphs: The Answer pt. 2

Covers (some of) the events of #52 - #54:

Open on the scene with Jake and Tobias floating over their town looking at the destruction, including the mass infestations happening below

The Animorphs go through their plan to blow up the yeerk pool, only Jake/Rachel/Tobias are on a separate mission with the Auximorphs to attack the taxxons at the same time that Ax/Marco/Cassie are delivering the train car

Jake falls through a hole, everyone assumes he died, and they all go back to the hork-bajir valley where “war council” scene occurs and includes a discussion of James taking over as leader

Cut to the taxxon tunnels with the big reveal that Jake survived, and he’s currently negotiating with Arbron and Tom’s yeerk about how to take down Visser Three

The final battle plays out almost the same way, although with the YPM playing the role that the chee did in the books, including a rebel yeerk draining the Pool ship’s guns in revenge after finding out Jake dumped the yeerk pool

End on Cassie voiceover, starting with her talking at Rachel’s funeral and fading into her talking about what the other four survivors did over the next few years

Post-credits scene: Ax finds the Blade ship, gets sucked into some kind of eldritch abomination as Menderash watches on the viewscreen

A few notes on my thought process:

Many of the elements I’d leave out are those that would be difficult or impossible to convey quickly with the hyper-simplified format of movies.  These include: the Ellimist and Crayak, gedds, skrit na, Eva and Edriss, Erek and the other chee, most andalite politics, the Chapman family, most yeerk hosts, Aldrea and Dak, and Aftran.

Similarly, many of the elements I’d emphasize — romances, battle sequences, flashbacks, family dramas — are the ones that would probably translate well to film.

After all that, I’d make the movies YA and PG-13.

The higher rating would allow more of the books’ violence, gore, body horror, predation, and moral greyness to remain in the movies.

A YA movie would be allowed to have the complexity I’d want from the plot to avoid it becoming a good vs. evil story.

It’d ideally be marketed toward the Shadowhunters/ Hunger Games/ Divergent audience, not the Goosebumps/ Pokemon/ Spiderwick Chronicles audience.

It’s a better idea to cast actors in their late teens or early 20s (much as I hate this) to avoid continuity errors around one’s cast going through puberty between shoots.

Do the classic YA-film-series money grab gambit by having a four-movie trilogy, which is one extra movie.

Emphasize the YPM and rebel taxxons, because those elements help set Animorphs apart from being an oversimplified war movie with black-and-white morality.

Keep the spandex costumes, but make them deliberately ugly and dorky to avoid sexualizing the child protagonists.