Why was The Mortal Instruments Cancelled?

Following the events of the prior film, City of Ashes would have followed Jace Wayland believing he is the son of Valentine Morgenstern. Valentine has stolen the Mortal Sword from the Silent Brothers as part of his plan to destroy the Clave who he believes to be corrupt. Meanwhile, the Inquisitor, played by Sigourney Weaver, wants to prove that Jace has been working for Valentine all along.

• Lily Collins as Clarissa Fray/Clarissa Morgenstern
• Jamie Campbell Bower as Jace Wayland
• Robert Sheehan as Simon Lewis
• Kevin Zegers as Alec Lightwood
• Jemima West as Isabelle Lightwood
• Lena Headey as Jocelyn Fray/Jocelyn Fairchild
• Aidan Turner as Luke Garroway
• Godfrey Gao as Magnus Bane
• Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Valentine Morgenstern
• Sigourney Weaver as Imogen Herondale[1]

The film was announced on May 8, 2013 by Constantin Films, three months prior to the first installment of The Mortal Instruments films to even hit theaters.[4] It was reported that Lily Collins would be returning as Clary Fray, in addition to Jamie Campbell Bower, and Kevin Zegers in their respective roles. In this initial announcement it was also reported that director Harald Zwart would be returning as well. In July 2013, The Hollywood Reporter announced that actress Sigourney Weaver would be joining the cast for The Mortal Instruments: City of Ashes.[5] In an August 2013 interview, Bower revealed that the City of Ashes film was set to film in "Europe, and then Mexico, Hong Kong, back to London for two days, out here for five days, Toronto, back to England for Christmas..."[6] In August 2013, after the film opened below expectations, Robert Kulzer, Constantin's co-president, explained that a sequel was still warranted given increasing book sales and soundtrack revenues.[7]

Filming was set to start September 23, 2013 in Toronto Canada, but was announced to be halted September 10.[1] The Hollywood Reporter was the first to announce on October 23, 2013 that production on The Mortal Instruments: City of Ashes would resume. Constantin Films was said to have reviewed what went wrong with the first film searching for an answer as to why it performed lower than projections estimated. Martin Moszkowicz, Constantin Film’s head of film and TV said “That [the under-performance] may have been one issue in our marketing, that we focused too much on a very young audience segment."[8][9]

Scott Mendelson of Forbes magazine expressed surprise that a sequel was in production: "The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones received neither positive reviews nor box office large enough to justify its production and marketing expenses. Yet, against all odds and arguably against all logic, ... it's getting a sequel!"[10]

In December 2013, author Cassandra Clare took to the internet to voice her thoughts on the City of Ashes delay, “I really think fans wouldn’t have been happy with the screenplay as it was,” Clare said.[11]

On March 20, 2014, Yahoo! reported that actor and model Godfrey Gao would be reprising his role as Magnus Bane, when production started on City of Ashes.[12]

On May 20, 2014, Harald Zwart revealed that the studio still had intentions to make the sequel, but explained that he would not direct it, so that he could focus on other projects, although he complimented the first film as "a good window [for him] to show off".[13]

Cassandra Clare, in September 2014 at a fan meet and greet in Brazil was asked about the film and about the rewriting of the script. Clare said, "They’re re-writing, well, after the first Mortal Instruments movie came out, they got a lot of people complaining it wasn’t like the books. And so, they had a second screenplay for City of Ashes and it was even less like the books, like it was NOTHING, NOTHING like the books… Valentine had a submarine? And Magnus ran for Mayor of New York. It was very weird. So, they kinda looked at the screenplay and they looked at the fan response and they were like “We can’t do this, we have to throw the screenplay away and do a completely new screenplay that’s more like the books”. So that’s what they’ve been working on, it’s complicated cause usually if you’re doing a series of movies, you have the screenplay ready by the time the first movie has come out, you have the screenplay for the second movie so you can go right into filming it, and they didn’t have one. Takes a year to do a screenplay so I was hoping the next couple of weeks I would get to see the new screenplay for City of Ashes."[14]

But rather than having a new screenplay ready like Clare hoped, in October 2014, it was announced that The Mortal Instruments: City of Ashes would be shelved in favor of making Shadowhunters a television series for Freeform based on The Mortal Instruments novels.[15]

1. ^ a b c "Future of 'Mortal Instruments' Sequel in Jeopardy (Exclusive)". TheWrap. September 10, 2013. Archived from the original on June 26, 2019. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
2. ^ a b "Chroniken der Unterwelt - City of Bones". Filmportal.de (in German and English). Archived from the original on September 19, 2013. Retrieved May 7, 2014.
3. ^ "The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones". American Film Institute. Retrieved 10 April 2017.
4. ^ Rosenfield, Kat (May 8, 2013). "'City Of Bones' Sequel: 'Mortal Instruments: City Of Ashes' Sequel In The Works!". MTV. Viacom. Archived from the original on October 29, 2013. Retrieved August 16, 2013.
5. ^ "Sigourney Weaver in Talks to Join 'Mortal Instruments: City of Ashes' (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. July 29, 2013. Archived from the original on June 26, 2019.
6. ^ "Jamie Campbell Bower Talks THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS: CITY OF BONES and Sequel, Staying in Touch with TWILIGHT Friends, and OVERDRIVE". Collider. August 22, 2013. Archived from the original on June 26, 2019.
7. ^ Nicole Sperling (August 21, 2013). "Building a foundation on 'City of Bones'". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on August 26, 2013.
8. ^ "Constantin to Restart Production on 'Mortal Instruments' Sequel in 2014 (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. October 23, 2013. Archived from the original on June 26, 2019.
9. ^ "'Mortal Instruments' sequel moving forward". Entertainment Weekly. October 23, 2013. Archived from the original on June 26, 2019.
10. ^ Scott Mendelson (October 23, 2013). "'The Mortal Instruments' Is Getting A Sequel Despite Critical, Box Office Failure". Forbes. Archived from the original on October 25, 2013.
11. ^ "Cassandra Clare on initial 'City of Ashes' script: It was 'totally unrecognizable' from the book (Exclusive)". TMI Source. December 1, 2013. Archived from the original on June 26, 2019.
12. ^ "Godfrey Gao reprises role as Magnus Bane". Yahoo!. March 20, 2014. Archived from the original on June 26, 2019.
13. ^ Stuart Conover. "Director Of 'The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones' Is No Longer Attached To The Sequel". ScienceFiction. Archived from the original on June 2, 2014. Retrieved June 1, 2014.
14. ^ "Cassandra Clare talks 'City Of Ashes' movie script". September 5, 2014. Archived from the original on June 26, 2019.
15. ^ "'The Mortal Instruments' to Return as TV Series". October 12, 2014. Archived from the original on June 26, 2019.