{"id":467816,"date":"2026-05-04T11:30:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T11:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/467816\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T11:30:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T11:30:11","slug":"lord-of-the-flies-gives-the-boys-a-backstory-but-tragedy-remains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/467816\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Lord of the Flies’ gives the boys a backstory but tragedy remains"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This article contains some spoilers for \u201cLord of the Flies\u201d on Netflix.<\/p>\n

It was the middle of the night. Plagued by insomnia, the 11-year-old British boy pulled a slender book off his mother\u2019s shelf, one she had swiped from school where she taught.<\/p>\n

\u201cLord of the Flies.\u201d<\/p>\n

The novel had a visceral impact on the young boy and stayed with him as he later explored the lives of tweens and teens while co-writing the play \u201cHarry Potter and the Cursed Child<\/a>\u201d and the film \u201cWonder\u201d and writing the TV series \u201cHis Dark Materials\u201d and \u201cAdolescence<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Lord of the Flies\u2019 is the foundation stone of my understanding of the world,\u201d says Jack Thorne, who now has brought the book to life in a miniseries<\/a> premiering in the U.S. on Netflix Monday. \u201cI\u2019ve lived with this book for 36 years, re-reading it throughout and the kids have lived in me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thorne\u2019s adaptation is largely faithful to William Golding\u2019s 1954 novel. A plane carrying British schoolboys during a wartime evacuation crashes on a remote tropical island; no adults survive, but 30 kids do, a mix of \u201clittle \u2018uns,\u201d ranging in age from 5 to 6, and the main characters, all approaching their teens: Ralph, charming and openhearted, is quickly elected \u201cchief\u201d; Piggy, the smartest and nerdiest of the older boys, has the right ideas about how to survive but becomes an immediate target of the bullies; Jack, a choir singer who names himself \u201chead hunter\u201d and foments a rebellion against Ralph and Piggy; and Simon, a vulnerable introvert, who is out of sync with the more rambunctious choir boys turned hunters.<\/p>\n

Under Piggy and Ralph, the boys start off by building shelters, creating a signal fire, and gathering food and water. But the hunters soon set themselves apart: They are careless, reckless and ultimately deadly violent, tearing their mini-society asunder.<\/p>\n

\"Jack <\/p>\n

Jack (Lox Pratt), center, is a choir boy who declares himself \u201chead hunter.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Lisa Tomasetti \/ Eleven \/ Sony Pictures Television)<\/p>\n

Thorne initially related to the character of Simon, \u201cthe outsider who tries to communicate but can\u2019t quite work out how to do it, who can\u2019t quite work out why the other boys treat him the way they do.\u201d<\/p>\n

He remembers reading the passage where Golding killed Simon \u201cas clearly as I remember any moment in my childhood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thorne felt TV was the perfect format for adding depth to the story. \u201cThe main thing I\u2019ve added to Golding\u2019s story is telling each episode from a different character\u2019s perspective in a relay race so you know there are four different ways of seeing how this island operates and so you\u2019ll understand how this tragedy happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thorne and director Marc Munden made other changes, devoting extra time to a destructive fire caused by the boys\u2019 poor decision-making (and refusal to listen to Piggy). \u201cIt shows that they have no control over nature and the elements, which is obviously really important,\u201d Thorne says.<\/p>\n

Thorne created \u201cvast\u201d backstories for each kid, even if only snippets \u2014 like Piggy\u2019s love of the Marx Brothers \u2014 appear on screen. He fleshed out Jack the most. \u201cAs a kid, I hated Jack,\u201d he says. \u201cI knew kids like Jack on the playground. But the more I read it, the more I felt there was a tenderness that Golding was looking for in Jack.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thorne wrote new scenes like one where Jack\u2019s bravado fades while climbing a rock and a conversation about fathers and anxiety between Simon and Jack; Munden added close-ups on Jack in crucial moments to show that unlike his riled up followers, he sensed how far astray he\u2019d led everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere aren\u2019t easy answers \u2014 \u2018Jack has a bad father, therefore Jack is bad\u2019 \u2014 because Simon also has a troubled relationship with his father,\u201d Thorne says. \u201cBut you get to understand why these micro decisions go wrong, why they take Jack in the wrong direction and ultimately destroy the island.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Two <\/p>\n

Thorne wrote new scenes involving Simon (Isaac Talbut), left, and Jack (Lox Pratt). Viewers get to \u201cunderstand why these micro decisions go wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

(J Redza \/ Eleven \/ Sony Pictures Television)<\/p>\n

Thorne also rewrote Piggy\u2019s last scene, although his fate remains the same. \u201cI wanted to give Piggy his moment,\u201d says Thorne, adding that it occurs during Ralph\u2019s episode. \u201cPiggy\u2019s ending is about Ralph\u2019s journey. People think Ralph is perfect but he gave up Piggy\u2019s nickname quickly because he wants to impress Jack. But by the end we see him appreciate Piggy as a soulful, beautiful friend. It\u2019s one of the saving graces of the whole story; Ralph is not broken at the end, he\u2019s horrified by what happened but he has learned his humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thorne also entrusted Munden, a frequent collaborator, to interpret the script his own way. Munden, who saw Peter Brook\u2019s 1963 film adaptation before reading the book, asked Thorne to strip out some dialogue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are non-verbal scenes in the book, like when one boy Roger is silently testing the boundaries of what he can do, scaring two young boys by throwing stones into the water, and so I asked Jack to write that in,\u201d Munden says. He also spent more time on the hunters\u2019 painting each other\u2019s faces as the boys descended into tribalism.<\/p>\n

Some scenes in the miniseries will recall \u201cApocalypse Now,\u201d including one blatant \u201ctongue in cheek\u201d homage, but Munden says Francis Ford Coppola spent time with Brook in the 1960s so Brook\u2019s \u201cFlies\u201d may have influenced Coppola\u2019s masterpiece.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, Munden added his own visual flair, with color saturation, distorted close-ups to show the characters\u2019 disorientation, and mesmerizing shots of nature writ large (raging fires, roiling ocean waves, torrential storms) and small (ants devouring a bug).<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to show the fragile ecosystem of the rainforest and how it reflects the boys\u2019 fragile ecosystem,\u201d he says. \u201cSome of the life there is symbiotic and some is parasitic.\u201d<\/p>\n

The director also grabbed images on the fly, using his iPhone during location scouting to get close-ups of the insects and on set during forest chases.<\/p>\n

But all those writerly and directorial flourishes only work because of the inexperienced actors who fully inhabit their characters, led by Winston Sawyers (Ralph), David McKenna (Piggy), Ike Talbut (Simon) and Lox Pratt (Jack).<\/p>\n

It was \u201cdaunting\u201d building a sprawling cast of 30 young newcomers, says casting director Nina Gold, \u201cbut they gave us loads of time.\u201d She and partner Martin Ware cast a wide net throughout the UK, seeing thousands of kids in their initial search before bringing in scores of boys to read.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

Casting director Nina Gold said it was \u201cdaunting\u201d building a sprawling cast of 30 young newcomers.<\/p>\n

(Lisa Tomasetti \/ Eleven \/ Sony Pictures Television)<\/p>\n

Gold, Ware and Munden remained flexible in their search. \u201cWhile we had a few markers of how Piggy needed to look, we were open-minded about what the others would look like,\u201d Gold says, noting that most of the stars read for different roles as they experimented with different permutations.<\/p>\n

Ware says they brought kids in for six to eight meetings. \u201cWe needed to see if they had the talent but also the right personality to be part of a team and the stamina to go all day without collapsing.\u201d<\/p>\n

They not only watched how the kids handled scene readings but also acting exercises and the time in between work. \u201cWhen they were just hanging out eating sandwiches that was also part of the process,\u201d Gold says.<\/p>\n

Munden then spent five weeks on rehearsals in Malaysia before shooting began. Shooting on location meant dealing with typhoons, scorpions and snakes, and working with kids meant shorter work days. Munden shot most scenes documentary-style, usually with just one camera \u201cso we could grab stuff as it happened with the boys.\u201d<\/p>\n

While \u201cLord of the Flies\u201d remains a tragic and cautionary tale, Thorne, who first tried adapting it 15 years ago, sees glimpses of hope in it. \u201cWe are in an incredibly difficult situation as a planet right now,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I do believe in the inner light and I think that while Golding was writing about destruction, he was writing about our ability to regenerate as humans, which I think is a remarkable thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Munden says the story feels timely now because of the dark side of humanity that Golding explored.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are two factions here, one led by a dutiful democrat, Ralph, and the other by an egotistical bully with a fragile ego, who you might call a narcissist,\u201d he says. \u201cThis series is an opportunity to show the breakdown of society.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article contains some spoilers for \u201cLord of the Flies\u201d on Netflix. It was the middle of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[64785,8774,18,117,205429,17898,205430,19,17,132476,19536,43319,327,205426,205431,205425,205427,130509,205428,159203],"class_list":{"0":"post-467816","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-boy","9":"tag-character","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-extra-time","13":"tag-flies","14":"tag-head-hunter","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-jack-thorne","18":"tag-kid","19":"tag-lord","20":"tag-movies","21":"tag-munden","22":"tag-peter-brook","23":"tag-piggy","24":"tag-ralph","25":"tag-simon","26":"tag-slender-book","27":"tag-william-golding"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116516083203862347","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}