There’s no such thing as an original story. We’ve told them all so many times, we’ve developed archetypal arcs and structural beats. We know when a story isn’t right. And everyone and their mother has a modern retelling of some ancient myth they just have to share.

But are we prioritising this rightness of a good story over the historical and mythological facts? As my dad always says when I go off on a tangent during a period drama, “it’s just fiction, it doesn’t have to be accurate.”

Does it? Does it really?

Well, he’s not here right now. So let’s pick apart five modern-ish retellings and what they got wrong while updating the original myths to the times.
1) Disney’s Sword in the Stone vs Arthurian Legend
2) Marvel’s Thor vs Norse Mythology
3) Percy Jackson and the Olympians vs Greek Mythology
4) La Belle et La Bête vs Eros and Psyche
5) 2004 film King Arthur vs Arthurian Legend