Adaptation Title Change

In some cases, the name change eclipses the source so much that it has to get a trend cover down the road so people know what it is.

"'Edge of Tomorrow' but really 'All You Need is Kill', and it's like, why change the title like that, you know?"

— Josh, The Magicians

When an adaptation of a work has a different title than the source material. This often happens because the original title was deemed unsuitable for the medium it was adapted into – a title that sounds fine for a book may sound awkward for a film, and possibly difficult to understand if the original work has a premise that may not be familiar to mainstream audiences. The title may also be changed because it sounded too similar to an unrelated work. Or perhaps the producers simply wanted a better name.

Depending on how different the title and/or story are, this can lead the work to be seen less as an adaptation and more as a work influenced by the original, since now the title can't tie the two together. Taken to the extreme, the work ends up as a Divorced Installment, erasing all association with whatever it was based on.

A Market-Based Title, where the name is changed in international versions, may involve this, or it may reverse the trope and use the original work's title. This depends on how well the original story is known abroad.

Adaptation Displacement is a very frequent symptom of this trope if the original story is unknown to a wider audience.

See also Adaptation Name Change (when something in-story has its name changed), Appropriated Title (when a franchise that began with a work of a particular title is better known by the name of a later installment in said franchise) and compare In Name Only (when the name is (usually) kept, but most or all of the content is different).

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• 18if is based on the game 18.
• Basilisk is based on the 1958 novel The Kouga Ninja Scrolls.
• DEVILMAN crybaby is a Setting Update of Devilman.
• Erin, known in Japan as The Beast Player Erin, is based on the novel The Beast Player.
• Fullmetal Alchemist: The first anime is simply called Fullmetal Alchemist (2003), though it's given a Gecko Ending and ultimately has a very different storyline. The second anime is called Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, likely to differentiate it from the first anime despite following the plot from the manga. In Japan, the first anime is called Hagane no Renkinjutsushi (literally "Alchemist of Steel"), while the second is called Hagane no Renkinjutsushi: Fullmetal Alchemist, combining both titles.
• The Hellsing manga got the same treatment as FMA. The manga was given an anime adaptation with the same name, but with a different story. Years later, it would adapt into an OVA called Hellsing: Ultimate, which would be a direct adaptation to the manga's original story.
• Hero Bank: The manga and anime adaptations are both based on the games of the original duology.
• The Mysterious Cities of Gold is a very loose adaptation of the novel The King's Fifth by Scott O'Dell.
• Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water is extremely loosely based on Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
• Pani Poni Dash! is the anime adaptation of the manga Pani Poni.
• Parasyte -the maxim- is an adaptation of Parasyte.
• Tweeny Witches: The manga adaptation is subtitled Lessons for Apprentice Witches.
• Vagabond is a manga adaptation of the novel Musashi.
• Common to World Masterpiece Theater adaptations:
  • 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother was adapted from a chapter of the novel Cuore.
  • Heidi, Girl of the Alps is an adaptation of Heidi.
  • Ie Naki Ko Remi is adapted from the novel Sans Famille.
  • Rascal the Raccoon was adapted from Rascal: A Memoir of a Better Era.

Comic Books

• "Baby, It's Cold Inside" in Vault of Horror #17 (February 1951) from EC Comics is an adaptation of the H. P. Lovecraft story Cool Air.
• Steed and Mrs. Peel was a Grant Morrison-penned miniseries derived from ITV's show The Avengers (1960s), but Marvel Comics obviously owned the rights to The Avengers as a comic book title.
• IDW Publishing's Comic-Book Adaptation of The Transformers: The Movie was titled Transformers: The Animated Movie to avoid confusion with the 2007 live-action film, which was less than a year away from release when the miniseries began publication.
• Dynamite Comics' adaptation of the Hitman video game series is titled Agent 47: The Birth of the Hitman in order to avoid confusion with the DC Comics title of the same name.
• The Milestone Returns reboots of the Milestone Comics series Xombi and Icon are respectively retitled DUO and Icon and Rocket.

Fairy Tales

• The original title of Asbjørnsen and Moe's tale "The Old Dame and her Hen" was Høna tripper i berget (Norwegian: The Hen is Tripping in the Mountain). However, it was changed by George Dasent when he translated the tale into English to include it in his Popular Tales from the Norse book.

Films — Animation

• Bayonetta: Bloody Fate is based on the game Bayonetta.
• DC Universe Animated Original Movies:
  • Superman: Doomsday is based on The Death of Superman.
  • Justice League: The New Frontier is adapted from DC: The New Frontier.
  • Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths is based on Grant Morrison's JLA: Earth-2.
  • When the "Under the Hood" arc was adapted into a movie, they added the word 'red' in the title, and thus we got Batman: Under the Red Hood.
  • Superman/Batman: Apocalypse is based on the The Supergirl from Krypton (2004) arc (which was also simply called Supergirl when collected).
  • Justice League: Doom is based on Justice League of America: Tower of Babel.
  • Superman vs. the Elite is an adaptation of What's So Funny About Truth, Justice & the American Way?.
  • Superman Unbound is an adaptation of Superman: Brainiac.
  • The adaptation of Flashpoint is titled Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox.
  • Constantine: City of Demons is based on the graphic novel John Constantine, Hellblazer: All His Engines
• Disney Animated Canon:
  • Bambi's title is shortened from its source material, the 1923 novel Bambi, a Life in the Woods.
  • Frozen is a very loose adaptation of The Snow Queen, but the story ended up being changed so much that the title was changed along with it. Some translations still call it The Snow Queen.
  • The Great Mouse Detective was based on a book called Basil of Baker Street, which had a Protagonist Title. In the United Kingdom, the film was renamed to Basil the Great Mouse Detective.
  • The Princess and the Frog is inspired by the novel The Frog Princess.
  • Tangled was based on the fairy tale "Rapunzel". Similarly to Frozen, some international versions let Rapunzel's name be the title.
• The Deer King: The animated film adaptation is subtitled The Promised Journey With Yuna.
• Farewell, My Dear Cramer The Movie: First Touch is an adaptation of Sayonara Football, named because it was meant to be released alongside the Farewell, My Dear Cramer TV series.
• The Grinch is an adaptation of How the Grinch Stole Christmas!.
• Heroic Times (original title: Daliás idők) adapts all three Toldi books. Daliás idők was the Working Title of the third Toldi book (Toldi's Love), which takes up most of the movie's plot.
• Mary and The Witch's Flower is based on the novel The Little Broomstick.
• Perfect Blue: Downplayed. The movie keeps the original novel's name but it omits the subtitle "Complete Metamorphosis".
• The Prince of Egypt is a retelling of the biblical story of Exodus.
• Princess Arete is based on the novel The Clever Princess by Diana Coles.
• Quest for Camelot is a loose adaptation of the novel The King's Damosel.
• The Tale of the Princess Kaguya is based on the fairy tale The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter.
• The Secret of NIMH was based on a novel called Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH.
• The Trolls franchise's title is a shortening of the "Troll Dolls" toyline it was based on. Justified in that the title species of the toyline are actual living beings in the franchise.
• The Ultimates was adapted into the Ultimate Avengers duology. This was likely done since, between the newspaper seen at the end of the first and Bruce's shrink in the second, the Adaptation Name Change from Ultimate Marvel was undone and the team is called the traditional name of "The Avengers".

Films — Live-Action

• 10 Things I Hate About You is a modernised adaptation of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew.
• 12 Monkeys is an feature-length remake of the French short film La Jetée.
• All About Eve is based on the short story "The Wisdom of Eve".
• Antlers is based on Nick Antosca's short story "The Quiet Boy".
• A.I.: Artificial Intelligence is inspired by the short story "Supertoys Last All Summer Long" by Brian W. Aldiss.
• Apocalypse Now is based on Joseph Conrad's book Heart of Darkness.
• Apollo 13 is based on the book Lost Moon, Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell's account of said mission. (However, paperback editions of the book were released as Apollo 13.)
• Asterix live-action films:
  • Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra instead of Asterix and Cleopatra.
  • Ditto Asterix & Obelix: God Save Britannia (Asterix & Obelix: On Her Majesty's Service in French) instead of Asterix in Britain.
• Atomic Blonde is based on the graphic novel The Coldest City.
• Downplayed with Avengers: Infinity War. It's an adaptation of The Infinity Gauntlet and Infinity but named after the comic's sequel (which the movie has nothing to do with).
• Bad Moon is based on the novel Thor (not to be confused with the Norse mythological god or the 2011 movie of the same name).
• The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms is loosely based on the Ray Bradbury short story "The Foghorn".
• The Birdcage americanizes the French farce La Cage aux folles, roughly translated into English to mean "The Cage of Mad Women".
• The Birth of a Nation (1915) was adapted from Thomas Dixon's novel The Clansman.
• Blade Runner was based on the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?.
• Another downplayed example is The Blind Side. The film kept the nonfiction book's original title but omitted the subtitle Evolution of a Game.
• Body Snatchers is a remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956).
• The Box is adapted from a The Twilight Zone (1985) episode, which was in turn adapted from the Richard Matheson short story "Button, Button".
• Brian's Song is based on Gale Sayers' account of his friendship with Brian Piccolo in his autobiography I Am Third.
• Brief Encounter was adapted from Noël Coward's play Still Life.
• Candyman is based on Clive Barker's short story "The Forbidden".
• Cape Fear is based on the novel The Executioners by John D. MacDonald.
• Carol is based on Patricia Highsmith's book The Price of Salt.
• Casablanca was based on the unproduced play Everybody Comes to Rick's by Murray Burnett and Joan Allison.
• Both Castle Freak (1995) and Castle Freak (2020) are based on the H.P. Lovecraft novel The Outsider (1926).
• Chaos Walking (2021) is largely based upon the book The Knife of Never Letting Go; the Chaos Walking title comes from the overarching name of the trilogy.
• Clueless is loosely based on Emma by Jane Austen.
• Come and See is loosely based on I Am From the Fiery Village.
• Constantine (2005) is based on the Vertigo comic Hellblazer.
• Also downplayed: The book that The Damned United was based on was titled The Damned Utd.
• The Departed is a Western remake of the Hong Kong-produced Infernal Affairs Trilogy
• Desert Hearts is based on Jane Rule's autobiographical novel Desert of the Heart.
• Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is a remake of the film Bedtime Story, which was also a short story. It was later remade as The Hustle.
• The Dreamers is based on the novel The Holy Innocents.
• Dr. Strangelove was based on the novel Red Alert.
• Die Hard is loosely based on a novel titled Nothing Lasts Forever.
• Subverted with The Disaster Artist. Its title was originally changed to The Masterpiece before it went with the book's title.
• The Eagle (2011) is based on the Rosemary Sutcliff novel The Eagle of the Ninth.
• Edge of Tomorrow is the film adaptation of the light novel All You Need is Kill.^note The changed title was then eclipsed, in a fair portion of the poster and cover art, by the Tagline "Live. Die. Repeat.", which is arguably a better alternate title.
• El Dorado is based on the novel The Stars in Their Courses by Henry Brown.
• Fatal Attraction is based on the short story "Diversion" by James Dearden.
• Family Plot was adapted from Victor Canning's novel The Rainbird Pattern.
• Field of Dreams is based on the novel Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella.
• A Fistful of Dollars is based on the Japanese samurai movie Yojimbo.
• Flubber is based on the 1961 film The Absent-Minded Professor.
• Frankie & Johnny is based on Terrence McNally's play Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune.
• Freaks is very loosely based on Tod Robbins' short story "Spurs".
• Also downplayed: Both the film and TV versions of Friday Night Lights kept the book's original title but omitted the subtitle A Town, a Team, a Dream.
• The Front Page was adapted into His Girl Friday and Switching Channels.
• The Fugitive Kind is based on Tennessee Williams' play Orpheus Descending.
• Fort Apache was based on the short story Massacre.
• Get Carter was based on the novel Jack's Return Home.
• GoodFellas was based on Nicholas Pileggi's Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family. The film's title was changed to avoid confusion with the NBC series of the same name.
• Greed is based on the novel McTeague.
• The Handmaiden is based on Sarah Waters' book Fingersmith.
• Roger Corman's film The Haunted Palace is an adaption of the H. P. Lovecraft work The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.
• A Haunting in Venice is based on Agatha Christie's Hallowe'en Party.
• Hellraiser is based off the novella The Hellbound Heart.
• Likely the most downplayed example: Hellzapoppin' (with apostrophe) was based on the 1938 stage revue Hellzapoppin (no apostrophe).
• Here Comes Mr. Jordan has been remade twice as Heaven Can Wait (1978) and Down To Earth (2001).
• High and Low (1963) is based on the Ed McBain novel King's Ransom.
• High Noon was based on the short story "The Tin Star".
• High Society is a musical remake of The Philadelphia Story, with even the same character names.
• Hugo is based on the Brian Selznick children's novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret.
• I Am Legend was adapted into The Last Man on Earth and The Ωmega Man. Averted with its third adaptation, 2007's I Am Legend.
• The Illusionist (2006) is based on the Steven Millhauser story "Eisenheim The Illusionist".
• Invasion of the Body Snatchers is based off a novel called The Body Snatchers.
• The Insider is based on the Vanity Fair article "The Man Who Knew Too Much" (likely changed to avoid confusion with the Alfred Hitchcock film.
• Invictus is based on John Carlin's nonfiction book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Made a Nation.
• The Irishman is based on the novel I Heard You Paint Houses: Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran and Closing the Case on Jimmy Hoffa. However, the film's alternate title does use the book's name.
• Jackie Brown was based on Elmore Leonard's novel Rum Punch.
• Jojo Rabbit is loosely based on the novel Caging Skies.
• Kanojo (Ride Or Die in English territories) is based on the manga Gunjo.
• Killing Them Softly is based on the novel Cogan's Trade by George V. Higgins.
• The King is a loose adaptation of William Shakespeare's "Henriad" plays (Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2 and Henry V).
• King Ralph is loosely based on the Emlyn Williams novel Headlong.
• Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was loosely inspired by an all-but-forgotten 1959 pulp mystery novel called Bodies Are Where You Find Them by Brett Halliday.
• Knock at the Cabin is adapted from the novel The Cabin at the End of the World.
• The Last Airbender is adapted from Avatar: The Last Airbender; the name change was likely due to avoid confusion with James Cameron's Avatar, released only a year prior.
• Let It Ride is based on the Jay Cronley novel Good Vibes.
• Lifeforce is an adaptation of the Colin Wilson novel The Space Vampires. Part of the reason for the change was a title like "The Space Vampires" was completely at odds with the dead-serious tone of the film.
• Limitless is an adaptation of a novel originally titled The Dark Fields.
• Lord of Illusions is Clive Barker's adaptation of his own short story "The Last Illusion".
• Love and Friendship is based on Jane Austen's novella Lady Susan (and has no connection to another work of Austen's).
• Love, Simon is based on Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda.
• The Madness of King George was based on the play The Madness of George III. According to the director, they wanted to get the word "king" in there so American audiences would understand the movie was about royalty—but there was also at least a little concern that Americans would think The Madness of George III was the third movie in a trilogy.
• The very first adaptation of Red Dragon was called Manhunter, done to prevent audiences from mistaking it for a martial arts movie. Averted with the second adaptation.
• The Mark of the Angels - Miserere is an adaptation of a Jean-Christophe Grangé novel called Miserere.
• Maximum Overdrive is an adaptation of a Stephen King short story called "Trucks".
• Mercy, a 2014 film starring Chandler Riggs, is an adaptation of the Stephen King short story "Gramma".
• Like The Blind Side, Moneyball kept the book's original title but omitted the subtitle The Art of Winning an Unfair Game.
• Mothra is an adaptation of the Takehiko Fukunaga novel The Luminous Fairies and Mothra.
• The Magnificent Seven is a Western remake of the Japanese film The Seven Samurai.
• McCabe & Mrs. Miller is based on the novel McCabe.
• Mean Girls is loosely based on the non-fiction novel Queen Bees and Wannabes.
• Mr. Holmes is based on Mitch Cullins' book A Slight Trick of the Mind.
• Mrs. Doubtfire is an American adaptation of the British novel Madame Doubtfire by Anne Fine (retitled Alias Madame Doubtfire in the U.S.).
• My Foolish Heart was adapted from J. D. Salinger's short story Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut.
• Nanny McPhee was based on a series of books called Nurse Matilda.
• National Lampoon's Vacation is based on a John Hughes short story called "Vacation 58", about his own childhood vacation. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation was based on "Christmas 59".
• Night at the Museum is based on the picture book The Night at the Museum.
• Nightbreed: Clive Barker, who seems to like doing this to his own works, adapted it from his novel "Cabal".
• Nocturnal Animals is based on the novel Tony and Susan by Austin Wright.
• Downplayed with North. The film keeps the novel's original title but omits the overly long subtitle "The Tale of a 9-Year-Old Boy Who Becomes a Free Agent and Travels the World in Search of the Perfect Parents".
• October Sky is adapted from Homer Hickam's autobiography Rocket Boys. Ultimately averted in that all editions of the book published since the film's release have been titled October Sky.
• Once Upon a Time in America is loosely based on the novel The Hoods.
• One-Eyed Jacks was based on the novel The Authentic Death of Hendry Jones.
• Our Ladies (2019) was based on the novel The Sopranos (Warner). This change was made to avoid confusion with the HBO series of the same name.
• The Outlaw Josey Wales was based on the novel The Rebel Outlaw: Josey Wales, aka Gone to Texas.
• Paper Moon is based on the novel Addison Pray.
• The 1961 and 1998 versions of The Parent Trap are based on the novel Lottie and Lisa, otherwise known as Das doppelte Lottchen.
• La piel que habito, titled The Skin I Live In in English, is adapted from a French novel titled Mygale (published in English under the title Tarantula).
• Pirates of Silicon Valley is based on the book Fire in the Valley: The Making of The Personal Computer.
• Precious, which is based on the novel Push.
• Predestination is based on the Robert A. Heinlein story —All You Zombies—.
• Princess From the Moon is based on the fairy tale The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter.
• The Public Enemy (1931) was based on the novel Beer And Blood.
• Quarantine (2008) is an American remake of Spanish horror film [REC].
• Ramona and Beezus is based on Ramona Quimby.
• Re-Animator is based on the HP Lovecraft short story titled Herbert West-Reanimator.
• Real Steel, is based on the Richard Matheson short story simply called "Steel" in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and The Twilight Zone (1959) episode of the same name.
• Red River was based on the novel The Blazing Guns of the Chisholm Trail by Borden Chase.
• The Roaring '20s was based on the short story "The World Moves On".
• The Rocky Horror Picture Show is based on the stage musical called The Rocky Horror Show.
• The films Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto, Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple and Samurai III Duel At Ganryu Island are based on the aforementioned Musashi (see Anime and Manga section above).
• Say a Little Prayer (1993) is adapted from Came Back to Show You I Could Fly; the filmmakers couldn't get the rights to the song which plays a role in the story, and had to substitute a different one.
• Schindler's List is an adaptation of Schindler's Ark, itself based on the actions of Oskar Schindler.
• La Scoumoune is a film adaptation of the novel L'Excommunié by the writer himself, José Giovanni.
• The Scott Pilgrim comic book series was adapted as Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, named after the second volume of the comics.
• Scrooge (1935), Scrooge (1951) and Scrooge (1970) are adaptations of A Christmas Carol. Sir Seymour Hicks, the star of the 1935 version, also starred in a 1913 silent version titled Old Scrooge.
• The Searchers is based on the novel The Search by Alan LeMay.
• The Secret of Roan Inish is based on the novel Child of the Western Isles by Rosalie K. Fry.
• The Seeker is very loosely based on The Dark is Rising.
• The Seventh Seal was adapted from Ingmar Bergman's play Wood Painting.
• Seventh Son (2015) is the adaptation of The Wardstone Chronicles book series (also known as The Last Apprentice in America)
• The Shawshank Redemption is adapted from Stephen King's novella Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption.
• She-Devil is loosely based on the novel The Life and Loves of a She-Devil.
• Silver Bullet is based on the Stephen King graphic novel "Cycle of the Werewolf".
• Single White Female is an adaptation of the novel SWF Seeks Same.
• Sleepy Hollow is loosely based on the Washington Irving story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
• Slumdog Millionaire is an adaptation of the novel Q & A.
• The Social Network was adapted from The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal by Ben Mezrich.
• Song of the South is loosely based on two of the Uncle Remus books by Joel Chandler Harris: Uncle Remus and His Friends (1892) and Told by Uncle Remus: New Stories of the Old Plantation (1905).
• Soylent Green is a loose adaptation of the novel Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison.
• Stand by Me is an adaptation of the Stephen King novella "The Body".
• They Live! is based on the 1963 Ray Nelson short story "Eight O'Clock in the Morning" and inspired by its comic book adaptation "Nada."
• John Carpenter's The Thing is a remake of The Thing from Another World, in turn an adaptation of John W. Campbell's 1938 novella Who Goes There?. The comic sequel to the Carpenter film reverted the title to The Thing from Another World, presumably to avoid confusion with The Thing of the Fantastic Four.
• Tom Jones is an adaptation of The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling.
• Total Recall (1990) is loosely based on Philip K. Dick's short story "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale". Later print runs of the collection that feature the short story add on a trend cover based on Total Recall, complete with a legally distinct Arnold Schwarzenegger lookalike.
• The Tourist is an American remake of the French film Anthony Zimmer.
• The Town is based on the novel Prince of Thieves by Chuck Hogan.
• True Lies is a Foreign Remake of the French film La Totale.
• Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is based on the French-Belgian comic book series Valérian.
• Vertigo is based on French novel D'entre les morts (literally "From Among the Dead" but localized as "The Living and the Dead").
• La Vie d'Adèle – Chapitres 1 & 2 (The Life of Adele, Chapter 1 & 2) is based on a graphic novel titled Le Bleu est une couleur chaude(Blue Is the Warmest Color). Averted with the english title that is the same as the original comic.
• Village of the Damned is a pretty faithful adaptation of the novel The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham.
• We Were Soldiers was based on a book titled We Were Soldiers Once...and Young.
• What's Your Number? is based on the novel 20 Times A Lady by Karyn Bosnak.
• Who Framed Roger Rabbit is loosely based on Gary K Wolf's 1981 novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?.
• Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory is an adaptation of the Roald Dahl novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
• One of the most famous examples of this trope is The Wizard of Oz, an adaptation of the 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
• Ultimately averted with Wuthering Heights (1939), but during production several alternative titles were considered, such as Gypsy Love, He Died for Her, Bring Me the World, and even Fun on the Farm.
• Yojimbo is loosely based on the Dashiell Hammett novel Red Harvest. The book was later adapted as Last Man Standing.

Literature

• Sol Yurick's 1965 novel The Warriors (and its 1979 film counterpart of the same name) are a modernized retelling of the ancient Greek text the Anabasis by Xenophon.

Live-Action TV

• Arrow is based on the Green Arrow comics.
• The Assassination of Gianni Versace is an adaptation of Vulgar Favors: Andrew Cunanan, Gianni Versace, and the Largest Failed Manhunt in U.S. History.
• Big Sky is based on the novel 'The Highway by C. J. Box.
• Blood Ties is based on the Blood Books series.
• As with the 2005 film, Constantine is based on the comic Hellblazer.
• The book series that Game of Thrones is based on is actually called A Song of Ice and Fire; it's only the first book that's called A Game of Thrones.
  • House of the Dragon mostly adapts Fire & Blood (the title of which is the Targaryen motto).
• The Haunting of Bly Manor is a loose adaptation of The Turn of the Screw; the name change is partly to tie it to The Haunting of Hill House, of which it is part of the same anthology series. It also serves as an adaptation of another Henry James story, The Romance of Certain Old Clothes, which is reworked here to fit into the Bly Manor narrative.
• Haven is a loose adaptation of the Stephen King novel The Colorado Kid.
• Homicide: Life on the Street was based on David Simon's non-fiction book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets.
• Jessica Jones is based on the comic Alias. The change in title was made to avoid being confused with the unrelated spy drama of the same name.
• Killing Eve is based on the Codename Villanelle books.
• Kingdom (2019) is loosely based on the webcomic The Kingdom of the Gods
• The Last Kingdom is named after the first book in The Saxon Stories novels.
• Legend of the Seeker is based loosely on the Sword of Truth novels.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is adapted from the the Appendices written at the of The Return of the King, but the name of the show is inspired from Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age chapter of the The Silmarillion.
• The Magicians: Lampshaded by Josh, who notes that Edge of Tomorrow changed the title of its source material All You Need is Kill.
• Masters of Science Fiction is an anthology series based on short stories by famous science fiction authors. All but one of the episodes keep the name of the original story. That one episode is "The Awakening", which is based on the story "The General Zapped an Angel".
• Mayfair Witches is based on Anne Rice's Lives of the Mayfair Witches.
• Moribito is based on the novel series of the same name, but it has the same original Japanese title as the first novel, Guardian of the Spirit.
• Obsession (2023) is based on the novel Damage by Josephine Hart. This was not the case for the 1992 film adaptation.
• Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams is an anthology series that is based on Philip K. Dick's work. Some of the episodes have a different title than the short stories they're based on:
  • "Crazy Diamond" is based on "Sales Pitch".
  • "Real Life" is based on "Exhibit Piece".
  • "Safe and Sound" is based on "Foster, You're Dead!"
  • "Kill All Others" is based on "The Hanging Stranger".
• Sex/Life is based on a novel titled 44 Chapters About 4 Men.
• Shadowhunters is an adaptation of The Mortal Instruments
• Sherlock Holmes: The series adaptation of the Holmes' story, "The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor" is instead titled "The Eligible Bachelor".
• Smallville is based loosely on the Superboy comics that focused on Clark Kent.
• Two Star Trek episodes' titles were changed when James Blish adapted them as short stories: "The Man Trap" became "The Unreal McCoy" (which may have been a working title from a draft script), and "Charlie X" became "Charlie's Law."
• True Blood is based on The Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries aka the Southern Vampire Series.
• Warrior Nun is based on Warrior Nun Areala.

Theatre

• A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder is adapted from the film Kind Hearts and Coronets, itself an adaption of the 1907 Roy Horniman novel Israel Rank.
• My Fair Lady is an update of the play Pygmalion.
• Oklahoma! is based on the 1931 play Green Grow the Lilacs.
• The 1937 Hungarian play Parfumerie was famously adapted four times, each iteration with a different title:
  • In 1940 as The Shop Around the Corner
  • In 1949 as In the Good Old Summertime
  • In 1963 as She Loves Me
  • In 1998 as You've Got Mail
• Oliver Twist was adapted into the musical Oliver!.
• Prince Kaguya is based on the fairy tale The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter.
• The Front Page was adapted into the musical Wind City.

Video Games

• The Game Boy port of the NES Battletoads was titled Battletoads in Ragnarok's World in order to avoid confusion with the first Battletoads game on the Game Boy, which was a completely different game sharing nothing except the title.
• Vampire Savior: World of Darkness was ported to the PlayStation under the title of Darkstalkers 3 in order to make it clear that it was the third game in the series.
• The Nintendo-published Famicom RPG Ginga no Sannin (The Galatic Trio) is a port of the Enix game Rayieza: The Earth Fighter originally released on the NEC PC-8801. The name change was due to trademark issues with the way the name Rayieza was written in kana.
• Magical Slot Mahō Shōjo Tai Arusu is based on Tweeny Witches.
• The NES game The Last Starfighter is a port of the C-64 game Uridium with the movie license slapped on.
• The SNK arcade game Victory Road was retitled Ikari Warriors II: Victory Road on the NES in order to make the connection with the first game clearer.

Western Animation

• The Avengers:
  • At least two adaptations have added a sub-title; 1999-2000's The Avengers: United They Stand and 2010-2012's The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
  • The 2013-2019 cartoon taking inspiration from both the comics and the live-action film was titled Avengers Assemble. Averted in the UK, where the film's Market-Based Title was the same as the cartoon that succeeded it.
• The Nickelodeon cartoon Catscratch is a loose adaptation of Doug TenNapel's comic book Gear.
• Generator Rex is inspired by an obscure comic called M. Rex that lasted only two issues.
• Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids had some episodes go by different titles from the stories in the original book series they're adapted from.
  • "The Dumb Clucks" is retitled "The Dumb Klutzes", presumably because of how close the original title was to referencing an obscenity.
  • "A Lesson in History" is retitled "The History Lesson".
  • "The Death Rattle" is renamed "The Spelling Bee".
  • "Fatal Attraction" is renamed "Nerves of Steel".
• The episodes of Love, Death & Robots share the same titles with the short stories they're based on but there are two notable exceptions. The long title "Three Robots Experience Objects Left Behind from the Era of Humans for the First Time" and "On the Use of Shape-shifters in Warfare" are shortened to "Three Robots" and "Shape-shifters" respectively.
• Masters of the Universe toyline was adapted as He-Man and the Masters of the Universe first in 1983 and later a reboot in 2002. The only media that adapted the same name as the original toyline is the 1987 movie.
• She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is an adaptation of the original She-Ra: Princess of Power. The title change reflects how Adora isn't or doesn't know she's a princess in the reboot as she never finds her biological family in this version, and the "princess(es) of power" instead refers to her princess allies now rather than herself.
• Static Shock is based on Static.
• Thomas & Friends:
  • When The Railway Series got adapted to television, the title was changed to Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends (later shortened to Thomas & Friends), placing much more emphasis on Thomas compared to the novels. Later rereleases of the novels would end up using the Thomas the Tank Engine title alongside the original title.
  • In an interesting case of this trope being combined with Market-Based Title, the US airings of the first 4 seasons (which were largely adaptations of the stories in The Railway Series) often go by different titles than the UK airings, which mostly stuck to the original titles in the novels (bar some exceptions). For one example, the UK title of the first episode (and the title of the story it's based on), "Thomas and Gordon", was retitled entirely to "Thomas Gets Tricked" in the US.

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