Talking to journalists, including CultBox, at the Merlin Series 5 press launch last week, the fantasy drama’s executive producers revealed how the show’s family audience restricts their interpretation of Arthurian legend.

“We’ve not done the Morgana/Arthur/Mordred incest story!” laughed Johnny Capps. “Arthurian legend is full of incest, so that’s where the line is drawn.”

“The interesting story of that is Gwaine and the Green Knight,” said Julian Murphy, “which we’ve talked about doing probably every single series, but we’ve never done it, because in the end, deep down, it’s about sexuality and things you just can’t tackle head-on. Film’s not like a literary medium where you can sort of skirt round it and play with it, so we’ve never done that story.”

Asked whether that could be tackled in a 15-rated Merlin film, Murphy felt it wasn’t “the right thing to do with the show. I think if there was a big-screen version of Merlin, it should be playing on the level of Pirates of the Caribbean.”

Capps added that there was an innocence at the show’s heart he would not want to risk destroying. “If you go too dark, too violent, too sexual, you lose that innocence,” he explained. “I think at the centre of this is an extraordinary friendship between Merlin and Arthur, and if you push it too far then you’ll lose the beauty of that innocence, the friendship… which to us is the emotional core of the show.”

What untouched aspects of the legend would you like to see Merlin tackle? Let us know below…

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