A Completely Underrated Fantasy Film That Unfairly Killed a Franchise Is Now Free to Stream

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Turning books into movies is always tricky. What works well in a book doesn’t always translate to the screen, and fans often have specific expectations. When adapting a book that’s part of a series, there’s also hope it will become a successful movie franchise. Sometimes that gamble pays off, but often it doesn’t. In the case of one overlooked fantasy film, the movie wasn’t well-received, and unfortunately, it ended any chance of sequels – but now you can watch it for free.

You can now watch The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones on Tubi. This movie, based on the first book in Cassandra Clare’s popular series, follows Clary Fray, a teenager from New York City, as she uncovers a hidden family history. After her mother disappears, Clary meets the Shadowhunters, a group of warriors descended from angels. She soon learns she’s one of them and joins their fight to protect the world from evil, all while searching for an ancient artifact that holds the key to her mother’s fate. When it came out in 2013, the movie received mostly negative reviews and wasn’t a box office success.

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones Had A Sequel in Development Before It Bombed

When The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones came out, the studio hoped it would launch a major film series. They had already begun working on a sequel, City of Ashes, and even cast Sigourney Weaver for it. Unfortunately, City of Bones didn’t do well in theaters, so the sequel was canceled – which was a real shame, as the series never got a chance to succeed. The movie had a fantastic cast, including Jamie Campbell Bower (later of Stranger Things), Robert Sheehan, Lena Headey, and many other talented actors. The problem definitely wasn’t the acting.

One reason the City of Bones movie wasn’t a complete success was its struggle to blend all the different parts of the novels. Interestingly, the books themselves weren’t always praised for having a perfectly streamlined story. It turned out the story could work better with some adjustments, and that was proven a few years later with the television adaptation, Shadowhunters, which premiered in 2016. Starring Kat McNamara and Dominic Sherwood, Shadowhunters did make changes to the books, but these changes ultimately improved the story. The series ran for three seasons on Freeform.

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2026-02-02 02:10