To get an idea as to why fans of Llyod Alexander’s novel might have been displeased with “The Black Cauldron,” consider that the Disney film takes its name and much of its plot from the second book in Alexander’s “The Chronicles of Prydain” series. Again, that’s the second book, not the first. Can you imagine if that was the same treatment that the fantasy epics from the 2000s received? Fundamentally, it’s a horrible plan, almost as horrible as stretching a single novel into three blockbuster films. Hypothetically speaking, of course.

It’s no secret that Disney is in the business of building franchises. Following the success of its Marvel Cinematic Universe, the studio applied that same forever-branching model to “Star Wars” and anything else that could be stretched into the infinite. Why not offer a modicum of that same energy to “The Chronicles of Prydain?” Back in 2016, Variety reported that Disney was planning to do this very thing, but we’re now in the mid-2020s and obviously nothing has come out of that yet. 

If it ever comes to fruition, though,here’s what you should expect. The first book in Alexander’s pentalogy is “The Book of Three.” A solid chunk of it was included and condensed in Disney’s “The Black Cauldron,” like how Taran is saved from imprisonment by Eilonwy. So, fans of the animated film might experience some déjà vu, but that’ll quickly fall away to a different reaction because “The Chronicles of Prydain” series takes the “dark” part of its “dark fantasy” label very, very seriously.