The Alex Rider book franchise by Anthony Horowitz has so far run to 13 novels. However, rather than pretend that the Stormbreaker film never happened, the series, which is streaming now in the U.K. and coming soon in the U.S., will start things from the plot of Point Blanc, with some elements of the debut novel added in to give some back story to the orphan spy.
Speaking to Radio Times, Horowitz said of this: “This series, we very carefully stuck to Point Blanc; we obviously have to go into the origins of what happens, which we’ve slightly changed from sort of the books and from past stories, but it is still the same beats, it is still Ian Rider, it is still – the most important thing is, no he [Ian] wasn’t a bank manager, he was a spy.”
However, the majority of the series is set in the French Alps, where Alex is investigating high-profile murders in the elite Point Blanc school. In the book, this is a sort of reform school for the sons of billionaires, but in the show the school is more co-ed, with a new female character called Kyra (played by Marli Siu) one of the pupils.
The synopsis for the second book in the Alex Rider series reads: “Investigations into the ‘accidental’ deaths of two of the world’s most powerful men have revealed just one link: both had a son attending Point Blanc Academy - an exclusive school for rebellious rich kids, run by the sinister Dr. Grief [played by Haluk Bilginer in the show] and set high on an isolated mountain peak in the French Alps. Armed only with a false ID and a new collection of brilliantly disguised gadgets, Alex must infiltrate the academy as a pupil and establish the truth about what is really happening there.”
Update 6/8/20: This article was updated with information on streaming availability.
