katikat | Why Merlin actually ended

Why Merlin actually ended? Forget about the writers' great "We had a plan!" speech. It turns out that Bradley James wanted out.

"We were asked if we wanted to do a series six, but I'd always had in my mind that we'd kind of gone as far as we could - off the back of the five series - and I've always harped on about wanting to leave it on a high. I think that's what's been achieved this year."

(...)

"We could've stayed on and made a series six and made lots of money, but... I don't think that's what you need to be aiming to do in life," he said. "You need to be creating good things that entertain people and I'm not sure series six would've done that."

However, James added that he would "never say never" to reprising his role of King Arthur in a future Merlin movie.

"In a situation like that, if someone came along with a script that really excited me, it would be very difficult to say no," he admitted. "But it would have to be for the right reasons. If we were to do a film... it would have to be worth making."

Source (No longer available)

Honestly, I don't blame him. I will miss the show and I am sorry we will never get to see Merlin properly fight by Arthur's side, as his equal, not as the village doofus. But Bradley never made a secret of disliking the Arthur/Gwen pairing and that he preferred it when the show focused on Merlin and Arthur. Which is, IMHO, the reason why his response was a NO to S6 and only a MAYBE to a movie.

You know, this is one of the few shows where canon does not influence my fanon feeling. Maybe because the Gwen/Arthur pairing... I never felt it. I never felt their passion or love*. It's always been "I love you, Gwen. Bye, Gwen! *off with the knights and Merlin*" That's definitely not the stuff of legends.

(* Pretty much the way I felt about Keller/McKay in SGA - it always felt like McKay got together with her because he couldn't have Sheppard. One moment Rodney was telling her how much he loved her, in the next he was off and after another adventure with John. It also didn't help that the actors weren't into it at all and felt the whole thing was very awkward.)

ETA: LOL, it looks like DigitalSpy took the article down. Well, lucky me I copied and pasted the gist of it. So, here you have it... :P