Artemis Fowl II

This article is about the character. For the second book in the series, see Artemis Fowl and the Arctic Incident. For the series itself, see Artemis Fowl (series).

Artemis Fowl II
Artemis Fowl character
Artemis Fowl II, as depicted in Artemis Fowl: The Graphic Novel.
First appearanceArtemis Fowl
Last appearanceThe Fowl Twins
Created byEoin Colfer
Portrayed byFerdia Shaw
Inspired by
In-universe information
Alias
  • Artemis the Hunter
  • Artemis Fowl, Jr.
  • F. Roy Dean Schlippe
  • Stefan Bashkir
  • Emmsey Squire
  • Dr. C. Niall DeMencha
  • Sir E. Brum
  • Malachy Pasteur
  • Violet Tsirblou
  • Alfonse Lee
Species
  • Human (originally)
  • Human-elf hybrid
    (from The Lost Colony onward)
  • Human clone
    (from The Last Guardian onward)
GenderMale
TitleDoctor
Occupation
Family
Significant others
ChildrenNANNI (artificial intelligence)
NationalityIrish
BirthSeptember 1, 1988

Dr. Artemis Fowl II is the eponymous character of the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer. Colfer has said that he based Artemis on his younger brother Donal, who as a child was "a mischievous mastermind who could get out of any trouble he got into." A childhood picture of his brother in his first communion suit caused Colfer to think of how much Colfer's brother resembled "a little James Bond villain" and "how funny...a twelve-year-old James Bond villain" would be, inspiring Colfer's creation of Artemis.[1]

Colfer planned for Artemis to have been called Archimedes but changed the name due to an interest in using a "classic Greek name" and trepidation that "people would think [the series] was about [the historical figure] Archimedes". Artemis is a notable choice for a name because while it is traditionally a female name, it "was [historically] sometimes… given to boys as a kind of honorific if their fathers were great hunters", though the male equivalent of the name is usually spelled as Artimus instead of Artemis.[2] Fowl was derived from the Irish name Fowler as a play on words to convey the characterisation that Artemis was a nasty or foul individual at the beginning of the series. The character additionally takes the place of Hans Gruber in Colfer's description of the first book of the series as "Die Hard with fairies".[3]

  1. ^ Eoin Colfer interview on NBC's The Today Show on MSN Video Archived 25 September 2019 at the Wayback Machine(HTML) Retrieved 2 August 2008.
  2. ^ "Artimus name meaning." SheKnows Retrieved March 6, 2018
  3. ^ Karen Springen. "Keeping Swashbuckling Alive." Newsweek January 10, 2008, Page 2. Retrieved June 16, 2009.