One of the challenges in any book-to-screen adaptation process is finding a way to juggle fan expectations with the need to tell a full and relevant story. But thanks to the relative global obscurity of The Letter for the King, the upcoming Netflix medieval-fantasy series has the genuine feeling of a classic epic while the story is unknown to most audiences.

During an exclusive interview, The Letter for the King showrunner Will Davies spoke with CBR about how he was introduced to the classic fantasy story and the process of modernizing it for today's streaming audience.

RELATED: Netflix Debuts Top 10 Movies and TV Shows Feature

The Letter for the King is based on the novel De brief voor de koning, which was released in the Netherlands by writer Tonke Dragt in 1962. It centers around the young Tiuri as he embarks across his world to bring a warning to the king before war can erupt across the land. The book was not well-known outside of its native country until this past decade when a new English translation helped the story spread more widely. But Davies actually learned about the book from someone with a more intimate connection to the original story, admitting that "I think like a lot of American audiences, I'd never heard of the story either.

"The story was incredibly well-known in Holland and not really at all anywhere else in the world. This Dutch producer named Paul Trijbits remembered the book from when he was a child. He sent it to me, and asked if I'd be interested in it. To be honest, it sat on my bedside table for a good time. Then I picked it up one day... I'd read all the Harry Potter books to my two daughters and I decided to do something different and read [Letter for the King] to them. "

Diving into the story, Davies was shocked to find a classic and authentic epic. "It was this experience that felt like reading a classic version of this well-known story, except none of us had heard of it before." But while the series created a compelling world, Davies also noted that reading it so long after it was first published meant he and his family were coming to the story from a new perspective. "It was a really interesting experience and we all loved it, but could see that while we loved the world and the characters, there were things we wanted to happen to make it feel [more current].. we imagined that when it came out, it must have had this real power when people read it. My daughters suggested ways to slightly alter or streamline the characters that Tonke Dragt came up with. Basically that world, the wonder of it and the jeopardy baked into it with these young characters, it just felt like such an opportunity to tell a fantastic story."

As Davies made his way through the book, they found elements of the story (particularly the arc surrounding Tiuri and his mother) that could reflect the modern politics of the real world. "I think when I did read the book in Europe that summer, it was the height of the Syrian refugee crisis," Davies revealed. "The news was filled with these horrendous images of people trying to get to Europe and making it to Europe and then seeing how all the European countries were conflicted about it. We adapted [the story] in the light of that whole thing."

This modern relevance became a core component of the show. Davies explained, "we always wanted [the show] to feel like it was real and dealing with things that were relevant to the viewers, to give it that spark that the original book had when it first came out. It needed to feel like it had things to say about the world that kids are living in now."

RELATED: Locke & Key Creators Discuss the Changes Made For Netflix Series

To help solidify the tone and style of the series, Davies revealed he worked with an element of the industry he hadn't in the past. "We had these amazing cultural consultants that came on. I'd never been familiar with that idea and how it works, and I was so worried that it was going to make it harder to tell the story. But instead, they kept asking us questions about how our world was constructed and they were really searching questions, so we kept having to go back to the drawing board... it ended up making the storytelling really easier once we thought of all those things and it made it feel more real.

"I really hope we managed to do that without seeming that we over-simplified it or that it's uncomfortable for a family audience because we wanted it to be both. Contemporary to younger audiences but with enough layers for the older viewers to feel real."

The Letter for the King, starring Amir Wilson, Islam Bouakkaz, Jack Barton, Ruby Ashbourne Serkis, Thaddea Graham, Jonah Lees, David Wenham, Tawfeek Barhom and Gijs Blom, comes to Netflix March 20.

KEEP READING: The Dragon Prince: Netflix's Animated Series to Get Three Novels