Thanks to the landscape-shifting success of properties like Game of Thrones and Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, we’ve entered a golden age of sci-fi and fantasy being developed for film and television. It seems that nearly every network and studio has snatched up the rights to old and new classics, with a bevy of projects in production or premiering in the coming months. To keep you on top of the latest news, we’ve updated our master list of every SFF adaptation currently in the works, from The Batman to Y: The Last Man.
Check out this list and get your DVRs and Netflix queues ready, because you’re going to be wonderfully busy for the foreseeable future.
COMING SOON
Harley Quinn (November 29, 2019)
Adapted from: Various Harley Quinn comics (character created by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm, 1992)
Optioned for: Television (DC Universe)
What it’s about: Harley Quinn (Kaley Cuoco) breaks up with the Joker and strikes out with her bestie/soulmate Poison Ivy (Lake Bell) in her quest to become the “queenpin” of Gotham.
Status: Harley Quinn is expected to premiere on November 29, 2019. Watch the trailer here!
V-Wars (December 5, 2019)
Adapted from: V-Wars by Jonathan Maberry (writer) and Alan Robinson (artist)
Originally published: 2012, IDW Publishing
Optioned for: Television (Netflix/IDW Entertainment)
What it’s about: “After a mysterious disease begins transforming people into vampires, Dr. Luther Swann (The Vampire Diaries’ Ian Somerhalder) is pitted against his best friend, now a powerful vampire leader.”
Status: The cast includes Ian Somerhalder, Adrian Holmes, Jacky Lai, Peter Outerbridge, Laura Vandervoort, Kyle Breitkopf, and Kimberly-Sue Murray. Watch the trailer here.
The Witcher (December 20, 2019)
Adapted from: The Witcher Saga by Andrzej Sapkowski
Originally published: 2008, Orbit Books
Optioned for: Television (Netflix)
What it’s about: From Netflix: “Based on the best-selling fantasy series, The Witcher is an epic tale of fate and family. Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill), a solitary monster hunter, struggles to find his place in a world where people often prove more wicked than beasts. But when destiny hurtles him toward a powerful sorceress, and a young princess with a dangerous secret, the three must learn to navigate the increasingly volatile Continent together.” The series also stars Anya Chalotra as enigmatic sorceress Yennefer and Freya Allan as pivotal princess Ciri.
Status: Sapkowski is a creative consultant on the TV series, along with executive producers Jason Brown and Sean Daniel. Lauren Schmidt Hissrich (Daredevil, The Defenders, The West Wing) is serving as showrunner/EP. Netflix announced the show will premiere on December 20th—watch the trailer here and ponder the meaning of the episode titles. Season 2 has already received a green light.
The Outsider (January 12, 2020)
Adapted from: The Outsider by Stephen King
Originally published: 2018, Scribner
Optioned for: Television (HBO)
What it’s about: When a young boy’s corpse is found, beloved Little League coach/teacher/husband/father Terry Maitland is the immediate suspect. Is this a grave mistake, Detective Ralph Anderson must find out, or is Terry hiding a secret darkness?
Status: Executive producer Jason Bateman will direct the first two episodes and star as Terry Maitland, alongside Ben Mendelsohn as Detective Ralph Anderson and Cynthia Erivo as Holly Gibney. You can watch a teaser here!
The Turning (January 24, 2020)
Adapted from: The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
Originally published: 1898, Collier’s Weekly Magazine; 1898, Macmillan
Optioned for: Film (Universal Pictures)
What it’s about: The Turn of the Screw was published in 1898, and follows a governess who takes an assignment to care for a pair of orphans at a large countr estate. She soon comes to believe that either the manor is haunted, or humans (possibly the children) are playing some severe psychological tricks. The novella has been adapted several times, most notably by Truman Capote and William Archibald into the 1961 film The Innocents, which won an Edgar Award for Best Screenplay. In this update, the setting has been moved to 1990s Maine, and, at least given the trailers, the kids seem much more aggressive than in previous iterations? We’re hoping someone calls the nanny a “slacker” at least once.
Status: This gothic fantasia is being directed by Floria Sigismondi, late of The Runaways and episodes of American Gods and The Handmaid’s Tale. It stars Mackenzie Davis (from Halt and Catch Fire and Terminator: Dark Fate), Finn Wolfhard (who is rapidly becoming the next generation’s Jamie Lee Curtis), and The Florida Project’s Brooklynn Prince.
Color Out of Space (January 24, 2020)
Adapted from: “The Color Out of Space” by H.P. Lovecraft
Originally published: 1927, Amazing Stories
Optioned for: Film (SpectreVision)
What it’s about: Nicolas Cage plays the father of a family that moves to rural New England for a slower life. But after a meteorite crashes into their front yard, bringing a strange alien force, they “discover that this alien force is gradually mutating every life form that it touches… including them.”
Status: Visionary director Richard Stanley (The Island of Dr. Moreau) returns at last, with much of the Mandy production team in tow. The cast includes Cage, Joely Richardson, Q’orianka Kilcher, Tommy Chong, Elliot Knight, and Julian Hilliard. RLJE Films bought the film in a seven figure deal shortly before its debut at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2019. You can watch a trailer here! And while you wait for madness to descend upon you, contemplate the fact that the actor/producer who gave us Frodo also wants to give us a Lovecraft Cinematic Universe.
Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (February 7, 2020)
Adapted from: Birds of Prey created by Chuck Dixon (writer), Jordan B. Gorfinkel (writer), and Gary Frank (artist)
Originally published: 1995, DC Comics
Optioned for: Film (DC Films/Warner Bros.)
What it’s about: The name for several comic book series (one written by Gail Simone) since its creation in 1995, Birds of Prey was originally built on the premise of Barbara Gordon and Black Canary teaming up. Later iterations have included Harley Quinn, which seems to be the direction this adaptation is heading in. It is currently unclear which arc or specific series is being adapted.
Status: Birds of Prey beat out Margot Robbie’s other DCEU girl gang project Gotham City Sirens, which now appears to be not be happening. Cathy Yan (Dead Pigs) is Warner Bros’ top choice to direct, from a screenplay by Christina Hodson, who is also scripting the Batgirl movie. Cast includes Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Huntress) and Jurnee Smollett-Bell (Black Canary), and you can check out a trailer here!
Bloodshot (February 21, 2020)
Adapted from: Bloodshot by Kevin VanHook (writer), Don Perlin (writer/artist), and Bob Layton (artist)
Originally published: 1992, Valiant Comics
Optioned for: Film (Sony Pictures)
What its’ about: A former soldier is given the power to regenerate. After having his memory wiped multiple times, he sets out to enact vengeance on the people who did this to him.
Status: The film stars Vin Diesel, Michael Sheen, Sam Heughan, and more, and it’ll hit theater February 21, 2020. Check out the first trailer!
The New Mutants (April 3, 2020)
Adapted from: New Mutants by Chris Claremont (writer) and Bob McLeod (artist)
Originally published: 1982, Marvel Comics
Optioned for: Film (20th Century Fox)
What it’s about: We don’t know much, but judging from the title, it’s likely about a team of young mutants fighting to protect themselves in a world that hates them.
Status: Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars) will direct from a script by him and writing partner Knate Lee. Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones, Doctor Who) will play Wolfsbane, while Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch, Split) will play Magik; Alice Braga has replaced Rosario Dawson in the role of Dr. Cecilia Reyes. Also, it’s going to be a “full-fledged horror movie”! Watch the first trailer. With the Disney/Fox merger, according to THR, the movie’s fate is somewhat up in the air, with the possibility that it could be released on Disney+ or Hulu instead of in theaters.
Black Widow (May 1, 2020)
Adapted from: Various Black Widow comics (character created by Stan Lee, Don Rico, and Don Heck, 1964)
Optioned for: Film (Marvel Studios)
What it’s about: The film will deal with the aftermath of Captain America: Civil War.
Status: In July 2019 it was announced that award-winning Australian filmmaker Cate Shortland (Somersault, Lore and Berlin Syndrome) would direct the long-anticipated film, working from a script by Jac Schaeffer and Ned Benson. Scarlett Johansson will reprise her role as Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow, with David Harbour, Florence Pugh, O-T Fagbenle, and Rachel Weisz rounding out the cast.
Artemis Fowl (May 29, 2020)
Adapted from: Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
Originally published: 2001, Viking Press
Optioned for: Film (Walt Disney Company)
What it’s about: Colfer’s beloved series follows teenage genius Artemis Fowl, who in the first book kidnaps LEPrecon (Lower Elements Police Recon) captain Holly Short in order to ransom her to the Fairy People.
Status: Kenneth Branagh directs the film, which wrapped production in 2018. Check out the first trailer!
Wonder Woman 1984 (June 5, 2020)
By now you’ve heard: WB isn’t going to Hall H this year. We’re so sad to miss you there! And waiting until Dec. to start our official #WW84 campaign in full– But the truth is… we can just… barely… wait… pic.twitter.com/QllFzhYRA6
— Patty Jenkins (@PattyJenks) June 5, 2019
Adapted from: various Wonder Woman comics (character created by William Moulton Marston and Harry G. Peter, 1941)
Optioned for: Film (Warner Bros/DC Films)
What it’s about: Set during the Cold War, Wonder Woman comes into conflict with a new villain, Cheetah (Kristen Wiig).
Status: Originally slated for a November 2019 release, the film was pushed back to June 2020. Director Patty Jenkins returns to helm the sequel. Gal Gadot returns as Diana Prince / Wonder Woman, and Chris Pine as Steve Trevor (somehow). Kristen Wiig plays new villain Cheetah, and Pedro Pascal has joined the cast as Maxwell Lord.
Morbius (July 31, 2020)
Adapted from: Morbius by Roy Thomas (writer) and Gil Kane (artist)
Originally published: 1971, Marvel Comics
Optioned for: Film (Sony Pictures)
What it’s about: A scientist (Jared Leto) who attempts to cure himself of a blood disease winds up transforming himself into a vampiric creature, with fangs and bloodlust. It’s unclear what iteration of the comics the movie might adapt.
Status: The film is being directed by Daniel Espinosa, with Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama penning the script. Leto will be joined by Tyrese Gibson, Adria Arjona, former Doctor Matt Smith (!!!) and Jared Harris (!!!!!).
Death on the Nile (October 9, 2020)
Adapted from: Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
Originally published: 1937, Collins Crime Club
Optioned for: Film (20th Century Fox)
What it’s about: On a tranquil cruise down the Nile River, Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) must determine who shot a beautiful young passenger.
Status: 20th Century Fox announced the sequel to Murder on the Orient Express in late 2017. Screenwriter Michael Green will adapt this novel, as he did the prior, with director Kenneth Branagh expected to return. As of October 2019, the cast is officially BONKERS, and includes Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer, Rose Leslie, Emma Mackey, Sophie Okonedo, Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French, Annette Bening, Russell Brand, Ali Fazal, and Letitia Wright with Tom Bateman back as Bouc, baby. Plus Branagh is planning to shoot in 65 mm!
The Witches (October 9, 2020)
Adapted from: The Witches by Roald Dahl
Originally published: 1983, Jonathan Cape
Optioned for: Film (ImageMovers)
What it’s about: “Would you know a real witch if you saw one? They don’t ride on broomsticks. They don’t wear black capes or pointy hats. In fact, they don’t look like witches at all. But one thing is certain: A real witch is the most dangerous of all living creatures. So you’d better learn to know one when you see one! The young hero of this award-winning story learns that lesson in a hurry when he encounters a whole gruesome gang of them. He’ll need all his wits about him to foil their wicked scheme—a dastardly plot to rid the world of children forever!” The latest version will take place in 1960s Alabama rather than 1980s England, and the main character will be a Black American child instead of a white British boy.
Status: The film will be directed by Robert Zemeckis, from a script by Zemeckis and Kenya Barris, and will star Anne Hathaway, Octavia Spencer, Stanley Tucci, and Chris Rock.
The Eternals (November 6, 2020)
Adapted from: The Eternals by Jack Kirby / Eternals by Neil Gaiman (writer) and John Romita (artist)
Originally published: 1976, Marvel Comics / 2006, Marvel Comics
Optioned for: Film (Marvel Studios)
What it’s about: The Eternals are a race of humans created through experimentation by the alien Celestials, intended to be defenders of Earth against the unstable Deviants (also experiments). Plot details for the film are unclear, but there is some suggestion it may follow the Gaiman miniseries.
Status: Chloe Zhao (The Rider) will direct a cast including Angelina Jolie, Kumail Nanjiani, Richard Madden, Salma Hayek, Lia McHugh, Lauren Ridloff, Brian Tyree Henry, Don Lee, Barry Keoghan, Gemma Chan and Kit Harington.
Dune (December 18, 2020)
Adapted from: Dune by Frank Herbert
Originally published: 1965, Chilton Books
Optioned for: Film and Television (Legendary Entertainment)
What it’s about: Dune tells the story of Paul Atreides, whose family accepts stewardship of the desert planet Arrakis, the only source of the coveted “spice” in the universe. After a betrayal, Paul leads a rebellion to restore his family’s control over Arrakis.
Status: Legendary Entertainment has reached an agreement with the Frank Herbert estate in which it has acquired the film and television rights to Dune. The agreement calls for the development and production of possible film and TV projects for a global audience. Brian Herbert has confirmed that Arrival and Blade Runner 2049 director Denis Villeneuve will helm the project. In an early 2018 interview, he said that he was planning at least two films, the first of which is scheduled for November, 2020. The cast is RIDICULOUS, and includes: Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides, Rebecca Ferguson as Lady Jessica, Oscar Isaac as Duke Leto Atreides, Josh Brolin as Gurney Halleck, Stellan Skarsgård as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, Dave Bautista as Glossu Rabban, Zendaya as Chani, David Dastmalchian as Piter De Vries, Charlotte Rampling as Gaius Helen Mohiam, Jason Momoa as Duncan Idaho, Javier Bardem as Stilgar, and Chang Chen as Dr. Wellington Yueh. Let’s just hope there’s a role left for Sting.
Chaos Walking (2020)
Adapted from: The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
Originally published: 2008, Walker Books
Optioned for: Film (Lionsgate)
What it’s about: In a dystopian future where all living creatures can hear each other’s thoughts, the sole boy in a town of men flees with his dog after discovering an awful secret, and comes upon a strangely silent girl.
Status: Doug Liman (Edge of Tomorrow) will direct; both Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and Jamie Linden (Money Monster) have taken stabs at adapting the book. The cast includes Tom Holland (Todd Hewitt), Daisy Ridley (Viola Eade), Nick Jonas (Davy Prentiss Jr.), and Mads Mikkelsen (Mayor Prentiss). The film’s release date has been pushed back from March 1, with the new date yet to be announced.
Cursed (2020)
Adapted from: Cursed by Thomas Wheeler (writer) and Frank Miller (artist)
Originally published: 2019, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Optioned for: Television (Netflix)
What it’s about: The YA fantasy reimagines the King Arthur legend from the perspective of 16-year-old Nimue, who originally wielded the sword Excalibur and would go on to become the Lady of the Lake.
Status: The novel was published in October, 2019, and 10-episode Netflix series, helmed by Zetna Fuentes (Jessica Jones) is expected to premiere sometime in 2020. 13 Reasons Why’s Katherine Langford will star as Nimue alongside Devon Terrell’s Arthur…and in the ever-expanding Skarsgård Extended Universe, Gustaf Skarsgård (late of Vikings) is on board to play Merlin.
The Falcon & The Winter Soldier (2020)
Adapted from: various Marvel Comics (The Falcon created by Stan Lee and Gene Colan, 1969; Bucky Barnes created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, 1941, and introduced as Winter Soldier by Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting, 2005)
Optioned for: Television (Disney+)
What it’s about: The further adventures of Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan).
Status: Premiering sometime in 2020 on Disney’s streaming service, the six-episode series will be released weekly.
Invincible (2020)
Adapted from: Invincible by Robert Kirkman (writer), Ryan Ottley (artist), and Cory Walker (artist)
Originally published: 2002, Image Comics
Optioned for: Television (Amazon Studios)
What it’s about: Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun), the teenage son of extraterrestrial superhero Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons), grapples with his manifesting powers. The animated series cast also includes Sandra Oh, Seth Rogen, Gillian Jacobs, Andrew Rannells, Zazie Beetz, Mark Hamill, Walton Goggins, Jason Mantzoukas, and Mae Whitman, among others.
Status: Shortly after the comic book series’ conclusion, Amazon issued a straight-to-series order. The series is expected to premiere in 2020.
Stargirl (2020)
Adapted from: Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. by Geoff Johns (writer) and Lee Moder (artist)
Originally published: 1999, DC Comics
Optioned for: Television (DC Universe)
What it’s about: High schooler Courtney Whitmore bands together with the Justice Society of America to fight villains, past and present.
Status: Announced at SDCC 2018. Brec Bassinger will play Courtney Whitmore, with Luke Wilson as her step-dad Pat Dugan (a former superhero sidekick who comes out of retirement to pilot a giant STRIPE robot and assist Stargirl), and Amy Smart as her mother, Barbara Whitmore. Premieres sometime in early 2020, on DC’s streaming service.
Y (2020)
Adapted from: Y: The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughn (writer) and Pia Guerra (artist)
Originally published: 2002, Vertigo
Optioned for: Television (FX)
What it’s about: Brian K. Vaughan’s landmark comic book series examines the fallout of a worldwide plague that wipes out everyone with a Y chromosome, except for aspiring escape artist Yorick and his monkey Ampersand. While the female survivors struggle to rebuild society, several groups target the last man and chase him across the Earth.
Status: Per The Hollywood Reporter, the show has gained a new showrunner in Eliza Clark (Animal Kingdom, The Killing, Extant) who will replace the original team of Aida Croal and Michael Green, who announced their departure on April 15, 2019. Clark has stated her enthusiasm for the project, saying” “A decade ago I devoured the complete Y: The Last Man series cover to cover, imagining how it might take shape on screen…[I]t introduced me to the amazing work of Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra and the complex, fascinating world of Y. I’m thrilled to tell this story and to be working with this immensely talented cast.” The show has already been picked up by FX. Cast includes Barry Keoghan (Yorick), Lashana Lynch (355), Juliana Canfield (Beth), Imogen Poots (Hero), Amber Tamblyn (Mariette Callows), Diane Lane (Jennifer Brown), Marin Ireland (Nora), Timothy Hutton (President Callows), and a CGI Ampersand. During a panel at New York Comic-Con in October 2019, Vaughn referred to the show as “the version that you guys deserve.” Y is expected to premiere in 2020.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of The Ten Rings (February 12, 2021)
Adapted from: Various Marvel comics (character created by Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin, 1973)
Optioned for: Film (Marvel Studios)
What it’s about: Shang-Chi, the son of a humanitarian-who-might-actually-be-evil, is raised and trained in martial arts inside a secret compound in China. When his father sends him into the outside world to do his bidding, Shang-Chi confronts the fact that his beloved dad is also known as The Devil’s Doctor. (Deadline points out that the script will be modernized to avoid stereotypes associated with the character.)
Status: Dave Callaham (Wonder Woman 1984, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2) will write the script, to be directed by Destin Daniel Crettin (Short Term 12). During Marvel’s 2019 San Diego Comic-Con appearance, Simu Liu was announced for the titular role, with Tony Leung as the Mandarin.Production is scheduled for early 2020.
Marvel’s What If? (2021)
Adapted from: What If…? comics series (various writers/artists)
Originally published: 1977, Marvel Comics
Optioned for: Television (Disney+)
What it’s about: Alternate-universe stories from the MCU, narrated by The Watcher (Jeffrey Wright). The first episoe poses the question: what if Peggy Carter took the super soldier serum instead of Steve Rogers?
Status: The animated anthology series is is expected to premiere in mid-2021 on Disney’s streaming service, with 23 episodes that will be released on a weekly schedule. Many MCU actors are expected to reprise their roles in the series; confirmed guests include Hayley Atwell, Chadwick Boseman, Michael Douglas, Karen Gillan, Jeff Goldblum, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael B. Jordan, Natalie Portman, Michael Rooker, Paul Rudd, Mark Ruffalo, Sebastian Stan, and Taika Waititi.
Nimona (March 5, 2021)
Adapted from: Nimona by Noelle Stevenson (writer/artist)
Originally published: 2015, HarperCollins
Optioned for: Film (20th Century Fox Animation)
What it’s about: “Nimona is an impulsive young shapeshifter with a knack for villainy. Lord Ballister Blackheart is a villain with a vendetta. As sidekick and supervillain, Nimona and Lord Blackheart are about to wreak some serious havoc. Their mission: prove to the kingdom that Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin and his buddies at the Institution of Law Enforcement and Heroics aren’t the heroes everyone thinks they are.”
Status: The animated film’s release date was pushed back following the Disney/Fox merger.
The Batman (June 25, 2021)
Adapted from: Various Batman comics (character created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, 1939)
Optioned for: Film (Warner Bros/DC Films)
What it’s about: The project has been described as an emotional Batman film while still “noir-driven in which Batman is investigating a particular case that takes us out into the world of Gotham.”
Status: Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, War for the Planet of the Apes) took over directing and writing from Affleck. In mid-2018, he gave an update that the script was still in the works. On May 31, 2019, Variety announced that Robert Pattinson would be taking on the role of Batman, with pre-production scheduled for summer 2019. More of the cast came together over fall 2019, with Jeffrey Wright joining as Commissioner Gordon, Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman, and Paul Dano as The Riddler.
The Suicide Squad (August 6, 2021)
Adapted from: Various DC Comics (Originally appeared in The Brave and the Bold #25, 1959; revived in Legends #3, 1987)
Optioned for: Film (Warner Bros/DC Films)
What it’s about: No word yet on plot, but Margot Robbie, Jai Courtney, Joel Kinnaman, and Viola Davis are returning, while Will Smith and Jared Leto are not.
Status: James Gunn was hired to write and direct a follow-up to Suicide Squad in October 2018. The film has since been re-titled The Suicide Squad, and is explicitly not a sequel to the first film. The cast was finalized in September 2019, and includes: Idris Elba, Margot Robbie, John Cena, Jai Courtney, Joel Kinnaman, Pete Davidson, Storm Reid, Taika Waititi, David Dastmalchian, Peter Capaldi, Steve Agee, and Viola Davis, alont with usual-James-Gunn-suspects Nathan Fillion, Michael Rooker, and Sean Gunn. Idris Elba was initially rumored to be replacing Will Smith, but he will instead be playing a new character, thus leaving the door open for Smith’s Deadshot to return in a later installment. Filming began on September 20, 2019.
Thor: Love and Thunder (November 5, 2021)
Adapted from: Various Thor comics (character created by Stan Lee, Larry Leiber, and Jack Kirby, 1962)
Optioned for: Film (Marvel Studios)
What it’s about: No specific plot details available yet, but Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) will be taking over the role of Thor, weilding Mjolnir and everything. This may suggest an adaptation of the recent Thor comics run by Jason Aaron and artist Russell Dauterman.
Status: Taika Waititi is back to direct. Waititi will also reprise his role as Korg, starring alongside Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Natalie Portman (Jane Foster) and Tessa Thompson (Valkyrie). Producer Kevin Feige confirmed that Valkyrie will be the MCU’s first openly queer superhero. The film is slated for release on November 5, 2021.
Fantastic Beasts 3 (November 12, 2021)
Adapted from: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by J.K. Rowling
Originally published: 2001, Bloomsbury (UK) / Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic (U.S.)
Optioned for: Film (Warner Bros.)
What it’s about: The next installment in the Fantastic Beasts franchise, following 2018’s Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.
Status: Production is expected to begin in spring 2020.
Wicked (December 22, 2021)
Adapted from: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
Originally published: 1996, HarperCollins
Optioned for: Film (Universal Pictures)
What it’s about: Maguire’s political and ethical commentary is a revisionist take on the Wicked Witch’s life—reimagining her as Elphaba, the misunderstood, green-skinned girl who befriends another witch-to-be, Galinda, at Shiz University and stumbles upon corruption in the Emerald City.
Status: Technically, the movie is adapting the beloved Broadway musical Wicked, with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by Winnie Holtzmann. But since their show was inspired by Maguire’s book, we’re counting it. The two are working on a screenplay, with Schwartz teasing at least two new songs. Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot) will direct, with Marc Platt (Into the Woods) producing.
Loki (2021)
Adapted from: various Marvel Comics (character created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, and Jack Kirby, 1962)
Optioned for: Television (Disney+)
What it’s about: The further misadventures of Loki (Tom Hiddleston).
Status: Premiering sometime in spring 2021 on Disney’s streaming service. Rick & Morty writer Michael Waldron has come onboard to write and executive produce.
WandaVision (2021)
Adapted from: various Marvel Comics (Scarlet Witch created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, 1964; The Vision created by Roy Thomas, Stan Lee, and John Buscema, 1968)
Optioned for: Television (Disney+)
What it’s about: The further adventures, romantic and otherwise, of Wanda/Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany). According to Olsen, the series seems to be set in the 1950s.
Status: Jac Schaeffer (Captain Marvel, TiMER) will serve as showrunner. Premiering sometime in 2021 on Disney’s streaming service. And if IMDB is to be believed, the cast includes a fascinating grab bag of supporting characters, including Emily Van Camp’s Sharon Carter, Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau, and our actual low-key favorite Marvel character, Kat Dennings’ Darcy Lewis.
Hawkeye (2021)
Adapted from: various Marvel Comics (Clint Barton created by Stan Lee and Don Heck, 1964; Kate Bishop created by Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung, 2005)
Optioned for: Television (Disney+)
What it’s about: No specific plot details available, but rumor has it the series is about Clint passing on the torch, er, bow to other Hawkeye, Kate Bishop. The series logo and title sequence suggest ties to the Hawkeye comic series run by Matt Fraction and David Aja.
Status: Jeremy Renner is currently confirmed to repise the role of Clint Barton. Hailee Steinfeld is reportedly in talks to play Kate Bishop, but as of November 2019, the casting is still uncomfirmed. The series is expected to premiere in the Fall of 2021.
Black Panther 2 (May 6, 2022)
Adapted from: various Marvel comics (character created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, 1966)
Optioned for: Film (Marvel Studios)
What it’s about: “We have ideas and a pretty solid direction on where we want to head with the second one,” Kevin Feige told Entertainment Weekly when confirming the sequel in early 2018.
Status: Writer-director Ryan Coogler has signed on to return for the sequel. Actors Chadwick Boseman (T’Challa), Letitia Wright (Shuri), Danai Gurira (Okoye), and martin Freeman (Everett Ross) are expected to return. Freeman revealed that filming is expected to begin in 2021, and the studio announced a release date of May 6, 2022.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (TBD)
Adapted from: various Marvel comics (series created by Stan Lee, Arnold Drake, and Roy Thomas, 1969)
Optioned for: Film (Marvel Studios/Walt Disney Studios)
What it’s about: The further adventures of the Guardians of the Galaxy, although it’s unclear how the movie would fit in with the events of Avengers: Infinity War.
Status: James Gunn was re-hired to the project in March 2019, but now the Guardians will have to wait for Gunn to finish The Suicide Squad before they return. Gunn has confirmed that GOTG3 will take place after Thor: Love and Thunder.
New Warriors (TBD)
Adapted from: New Warriors by Tom DeFalco (writer) and Ron Frenz (artist)
Originally published: 1989, Marvel Comics
Optioned for: Television (Marvel Television/TBD)
What it’s about: “New Warriors centers around six young people struggling to make a difference and learn how to harness their powers … Not quite super, not yet heroes, Marvel’s New Warriors is about that time in your life when you first enter adulthood and feel like you can do everything and nothing at once—except in this world, bad guys can be as terrifying as bad dates.”
Status: Kevin Biegel (Cougar Town, Enlisted) will serve as showrunner and lead writer. Milana Vayntrub will play Unbeatable Squirrel Girl! The series was expected to premiere sometime in 2018, but it’s been looking for a network since Freeform passed on it, and as it has not been added to the Disney+ lineup, things are not looking too good for the show. However, there hasn’t been an official cancellation, so it’s staying on this list until we have to remove it.
October Faction (TBD)
Adapted from: October Faction by Steve Niles (writer) and Damien Worm (artist)
Originally published: 2014, IDW Publishing
Optioned for: Television (Netflix/IDW Entertainment)
What it’s about: “Meet the Allan family: Fredrick, his wife Deloris, and their two children Geoff and Vivian. As Fredrick works to put his monster hunting days behind him, his two kids insist on joining the family business. But ghosts from the past refuse to stay dead and conspiring forces lurk in the shadows.”
Status: Damian Kindler (Sleepy Hollow, Krypton) is creator, executive producer, and showrunner. Netflix has ordered 10 episodes, but no official word on the premiere date.
The Three-Body Problem: I (TBD)
Adapted from: The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (translated by Ken Liu)
Originally published: 2006, Chongqing Press
Optioned for: Television (Youzu Pictures)
What it’s about: During China’s Cultural Revolution, a secret military program sends signals into space to initiate first contact with aliens. Years later, a physicist uses the virtual reality video game Three-Body to discover a secret organization and uncover what the aliens might actually want from Earth.
Status: Per CX Live, Yoozu Pictures, is developing a 24-episode animated adaptation of his Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy, titled The Three-Body Problem after the first book, with production set to begin in September 2019. This comes after the attempted film adaptation (which Amazon was interested in picking up at one point) didn’t live up to expectations. While we wait for it, check out the stunning stage adaptation of the novel!
The Wheel of Time (TBD)
Adapted from: The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan
Originally published: 1990, Tor Books
Optioned for: Television (Amazon Studios/Sony Pictures Television)
What it’s about: The Hollywood Reporter describes the series: “Set in a sprawling world where magic exists but can only be used by women, the story follows Moiraine, a member of the shadowy and influential all-female organization the Aes Sedai, as she embarks on a dangerous journey with five young men and women. Moiraine’s interest in these five lies in the fact that she believes one of them might be the reincarnation of an incredibly powerful individual who prophecies say will either save humanity or destroy it.”
Status: In early 2015, a baffling Wheel of Time “pilot” appeared online. Harriet McDougal, the late author’s wife and CEO of the Bandersnatch Group (to whom the movie and TV rights reverted back to in February 2015), released a statement clarifying that the pilot was neither seen nor approved by the Jordan estate. In April 2016, McDougal announced that legal issues had been resolved and “WoT will become a cutting edge TV Series.” A year later came the announcement that Sony Pictures Television would adapt the epic fantasy series alongside Red Eagle Entertainment and Radar Pictures, with Rafe Judkins (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Hemlock Grove, Chuck) serving as showrunner. In mid-2018, Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke confirmed that the streaming service was developing the TV series; later that year, Amazon gave a full series order. Rosamund Pike’s casting as Moiraine was announced on June 19, 2019. More of the cast was announced later in the summer, and since then they’ve shared a group photo and short video of a table read! No word on an official premiere date, but Judkins indicated that the writers are already working on season two. While we wait for the series, jump in with our read-along of the books!
IN THE WORKS
100 Bullets by Brian Azzarello (writer) and Eduardo Risso (artist)
Originally published: 1999-2009, Vertigo Comics
Optioned for: Film (New Line Cinema)
What it’s about: In Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso’s noiry, pulpy comic book series, the mysterious Agent Graves approaches people with a gun, the identity of the person who ruined their lives, and a hundred rounds of untraceable ammunition.
Status: Tom Hardy is on board to produce and potentially star in the movie adaptation.
143, from Uncanny X-Men #143 by Chris Claremont (writer) and John Byrne (artist)
Originally published: 1981, Marvel Comics
Optioned for: Film (20th Century Fox)
What it’s about: The project’s current code name is a nod to one of the first issues in which Kitty Pryde appeared, leading many to believe that even if the spinoff doesn’t specifically adapt that comic, it will nonetheless focus on the young, wall-phasing mutant.
Status: Deadpool director Tim Miller and X-Men comic book writer Brian Michael Bendis are teaming up for the spinoff. Fate unclear following the Disney/Fox merger.
3001: The Final Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
Originally published: 1997, Del Rey
Optioned for: Television (Syfy)
What it’s about: In 2014, Syfy announced that it would develop a miniseries based on Clarke’s fourth and final Odyssey book, which wraps up the loose ends from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Status: No update since 3001 was included ona 2016 list of in-production shows, and Syfy seems concerned with plenty of other projects (many of which are adaptations).
Aleister Arcane by Steve Niles (writer) and Breehn Burns (artist)
Originally published: 2004, IDW Publishing
Optioned for: Film (Amblin Entertainment)
What it’s about: Weatherman-turned-late-night TV horror show host Aleister Arcane (a.k.a. Green) gets a kick out of airing gory little skits, until the local sponsors in his hometown of Jackson, OK, shut him down. But when a tragic incident gets him taken off the air and forced into early retirement, the local kids realize that Aleister Arcane has laid a curse upon their town.
Status: As of summer 2016, Eli Roth was set to team with Jim Carrey (who will star and produce) to adapt Niles’ series. Jon Croker (The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death) will write the screenplay with David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman.
All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai
Originally published: 2017, Penguin Publishing Group
Optioned for: Film (Paramount/Pascal Pictures)
What it’s about: Mastai pitched the alternate-universe novel as Kurt Vonnegut trying to tell The Time Traveler’s Wife with the narrative voice of Jonathan Tropper: A man from a utopian AU falls into the very real 2015 and must decide whether he wants to return to his time or try to establish a life in this new reality.
Status: Amy Pascal nabbed the film rights at the 2015 Frankfurt Book Fair. Mastai will write the script for the adaptation and executive produce. As of May, 2019, Pascal Pictures’ has moved from Sony to Universal, but there have been no updates on the status of this project.
Amulet by Kazu Kibuishi
Originally published: 2008, Scholastic
Optioned for: Film (20th Century Fox)
What it’s about: Kibuishi’s ongoing graphic novel series (which won the American Library Association’s Best Book for Young Adults in 2008) follows siblings Emily and Navin through a portal into a fantasy world filled with giant robots and man-eating demons. Led by the talking rabbit Miskit, Em (wearing the eponymous amulet) and Navin search for their missing mother.
Status: 20th Century Fox is looking to develop the series into a potential film franchise. Aron Coleite (co-executive producer of the Star Trek TV series) will write the screenplay.
Analog by Gerry Duggan (writer) and David O’Sullivan (artist)
Originally published: 2018, Image Comics
Optioned for: Film (Lionsgate)
What it’s about: Five years from now, security on the Internet is a thing of the past. Instead, “Ledger Men” like Jack McGinnis carry secrets around in bloody briefcases, putting their lives on the line. But Gerry had something to do with the crisis that brought the Internet down in the first place…
Status: John Wick director Chad Stahelski and Colony co-creator Ryan Condal will adapt the comic.
Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake
Originally published: 2011, Tor Teen
Optioned for: Film (Fickle Fish Productions)
What it’s about: Ghost hunter Cas (Cameron Monaghan) is surprised when Anna Dressed in Blood (Maddie Hasson), a ghost known for killing anyone who sets foot in the abandoned Victorian she calls home, decides to spare his life. As he investigates her curse, these opposites grow closer.
Status: Twilight author Stephenie Meyer will produce, with music video director Trish Sie helming a script from Allison Wood. Maddie Hasson (Twisted) and Cameron Monaghan (Shameless) have signed on to lead the cast.
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
Originally published: 2014, Orbit Books
Optioned for: TBD
What it’s about: Breq used to be the spaceship Justice of Toren, controlling countless ancillary soldiers, before an accident fragmented her. Now, in a single form, she is returning to the Imperial Radch to confront its ruler, Anaander Mianaai.
Status: In 2014, Ann Leckie shared the exciting news that Ancillary Justice had been optioned for television. Fabrik and Fox Television Studios (who have between them worked on The Killing, Burn Notice, and The Americans, among other series) are interested, especially in terms of dealing with the series’ depictions of gender and race. At NYCC 2017, when asked about the possibility of the book being adapted to other mediums, Leckie mentioned that the first TV option had lapsed but that “[t]here is currently another option on the table, and I can’t say anything more about that, but it’s very exciting. […] While the option persists, I can’t pursue things like audio dramas or board games.” As of November, 2019, there had been no further announcements.
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Originally published: 1945, Secker and Warburg
Optioned for: Film (Netflix)
What it’s about: The animal inhabitants of a farm revolt against their human owners, but a pig named Napoleon twists the rebellion to his own purposes.
Status: Andy Serkis will direct the motion-capture adaptation, with Matt Reeves (War for the Planet of the Apes) among the producers.
Anyone by Charles Soule
Originally published: 2019, Harper Perennial
Optioned for: Television (NBCUniversal’s Carnival Films)
What it’s about: A scientist who is researching a treatment for Alzheimer’s inadvertently inhabits her husband’s body during an experiement, which leads to new technology which is quickly exploited on the black market.
Status: Soule will adapt his own novel for TV, along with Carnival Films’ Gareth Neame, Nigel Marchant, and Joanna Strevens.
Armada by Ernest Cline
Originally published: 2015, Crown/Archetype
Optioned for: Film (Universal Pictures)
What it’s about: Dreaming of a major event to change his humdrum life, Zack Lightman escapes into Armada, a flight simulator video game. Then one day, the flying saucers appear… as if straight out of Armada itself.
Status: Universal had optioned the rights in 2012, with Cline writing a screenplay. Following the release of the Ready Player One movie in 2018, Universal has moved forward on the adaptation, hiring Dan Mazeau (Wrath of the Titans, Van Helsing) to write a new draft. Cline will remain a collaborator.
Artemis by Andy Weir
Originally published: 2017, Crown
Optioned for: Film (20th Century Fox)
What it’s about: Jasmine Bashara is an occasional smuggler on Artemis, the first and only city on the Moon. But when Jazz gets the chance to commit the perfect crime, she instead stumbles into the middle of a conspiracy for control of Artemis.
Status: 20th Century Fox acquired the movie rights to the novel months before publication. The Martian producers Simon Kinberg and Aditya Sood are onboard for the adaptation, with Phil Lord and Chris Miller directing. A script has been written by Geneva Robertson-Dworet (late of Captain Marvel and Tomb Raider), and in April 2019 The Observer quoted a casting notice for main character Jazz Bashara that was rumored to be circulating.
Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi
Originally published: 2018, Disney Press
Optioned for: Film (Paramount Pictures)
What it’s about: Twelve-year-old Aru Shah regularly makes up lies to brighten her mundane life, but she never imagines that when she lights the supposedly cursed Lamp of Bharata, that she’ll freeze everyone she loves in time and unleash the Sleeper demon. To save the day, she’ll have to find the reincarnations of the five Pandava brothers from the epic poem the Mahabharata and journey through the Kingdom of Death.
Status: Paramount won the bidding rights to create a movie franchise that Deadline describes as “a cross between Wizard of Oz and Coco, with a touch of Night at the Museum.” Karen Rosenfelt (Twilight Saga; Percy Jackson) will produce.
Astro City by Kurt Busiek (writer), Brent Anderson (artist), and Alex Ross (artist)
Originally published: 1995, Image Comics
Optioned for: Television (Fremantle Media)
What it’s about: The series includes at least 16 standalone story arcs featuring over 2,000 original characters—the residents of Astro City, a mid-sized American city that boasts the largest number of superheroes and villains of any one place on the planet. Both regular people and “all-too-human superhumans” grapple with crime, justice, and life-altering events.
Status: Fremantle Media, the producers behind American Gods, will bring this adaptation to television. While DC Comics currently publishes the series, Busiek retains the rights (as Deadline points out), so don’t expect this series to be part of the DCEU.
Astronaut Academy by Dave Roman
Originally published: 2011, First Second Books
Optioned for: Film and Television (TBD)
What it’s about: Short version: “Harry Potter in space.” Long version: Hakata Soy, along with his friends and crushes Miyumi San and Maribelle Melonbelly, split time at Astronaut Academy between pop quizzes and Fireball Championships and saving the galaxy from threats that adults just can’t handle.
Status: Writer/producer Vivek J. Tiwary (The Fifth Beatle) has optioned the film and TV rights; he is currently in talks with studios, networks, and other creatives.
Austral by Paul McAuley
Originally published: 2018, Orion Publishing Group
Optioned for: Television (Big Talk Productions)
What it’s about: This near-future cli-fi tale takes place on the Antarctic Peninsula, home to Earth’s newest nation. One of the last generation of ecopoets, Austral is a husky, an edited person who can adapt to the extreme cold. Following a checkered criminal past, Austral has committed the kidnapping of the century—but rather than just collect the ransom and use it to fund a new life as planned, she must instead hide out in the peninsula’s forests from a criminal gang with other plans for her teenage hostage.
Status: McAuley tweeted in 2018 that Austral and “associated short stories” had been optioned by Big Talk Productions, the company behind Hot Fuzz, Attack the Block, and Baby Driver.
Autonomous by Annalee Newitz
Originally published: 2017, Tor Books
Optioned for: Television (AMC)
What it’s about: In 2144, ex-patent-scientist-turned-pirate Jack Chen is pursued by Eliasz, a brooding military agent, and his robotic partner, Paladin.
Status: AMC optioned the series in late 2018, with Newitz and TV writer/producer Amanda Segel (Person of Interest, The Mist) cowriting the pilot.
The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle
Originally published: 2016, Tor.com Publishing
Optioned for: Television (AMC)
What it’s about: Tommy Tester hustles to put food on the table, keep the roof over his father’s head, from Harlem to Flushing Meadows to Red Hook. He knows what magic a suit can cast, the invisibility a guitar case can provide, and the curse written on his skin that attracts the eye of wealthy white folks and their cops. But when he delivers an occult tome to a reclusive sorceress in the heart of Queens, Tom opens a door to a deeper realm of magic, and gets caught up in a Lovecraftian conspiracy to conjure the destruction of the world.
Status: AMC announced the project as part of their “scripts-to-series development model that puts the emphasis on the most important part of our strategy – outstanding writing, a commitment to worlds you’ve never seen on TV before, and rich character development.” No casting announcements yet, but Victor LaValle will act as co-executive producer.
Untitled Batgirl Movie
Originally published: Character created by Bill Finger (writer) and Sheldon Moldoff (artist), 1961 (DC Comics)
Optioned for: Film (Warner Bros/DC Entertainment)
What it’s about: No word yet on if the project will draw inspiration from Batgirl’s current, rebooted arc, or the more classic stories like Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke or Gail Simone’s run.
Status: Joss Whedon exited the project in early 2018, a year after signing on, after admitting that he had no way in to Batgirl’s story. Christina Hodson (Birds of Prey, Bumblebee) has been hired to replace him. As of September, 2019, DC is said to be looking for a female director for the film, and they’re planning to tie the film in closely with Matt Reeves’ The Batman.
Beacon 23 by Hugh Howey
Originally published: 2016, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Optioned for: Television (Studio 8)
What it’s about: In Howey’s collection of linked novellas, the notion of the lighthouse keeping boats safe has transformed into lighthouses in space, sending beacons across the Milky Way to ensure safe passage for spaceships. But when the supposedly reliable beacons break down, a shellshocked former soldier must put aside his past to help the ships traveling out in the dark.
Status: Studio 8 has tapped Josh Friedman (creator, The Sarah Connor Chronicles and screenwriter, Avatar 3) to develop the TV series. As of fall 2018 the series was said to be close to a greenlight as a production between independent studio Platform One Media and Spectrum Originals.
Behind the Throne by K.B. Wagers
Originally published: 2016, Orbit Books
Optioned for: Film and Television (TBD)
What it’s about: Princess-turned-gunrunner Hail Bristol has made a fearsome reputation across the galaxy, but she hides the secrets of her pasts—namely, escaping the throne of the Indranan Empire twenty years ago. When she is rediscovered and dragged back to court as the sole remaining heir, Hail takes on her most dangerous job yet.
Status: Producer David Barron (the Harry Potter films) has optioned both TV and film rights.
The BFG by Roald Dahl
Originally published: 1982, Jonathan Cape
Optioned for: Film/Television (Netflix)
What it’s about: Young Sophie and the Big Friendly Giant take on the Bonecruncher, the Bloodbottler, and other monsters.
Status: Netflix is adapting a number of Dahl’s works as “animated event series” starting in 2019.
Bitter Root by David F. Walker, Chuck Brown, and Sanford Greene (Artist)
Originally published: 2019, Image Comics
Optioned for: Film (Legendary)
What it’s about: Set during the Harlem Renaissance, the Eisner-nominated comics series follows the Sangeryes, a family of monster hunters. The family will have to heal old wounds and resolve generations-long feuds to fight an invasion of shapeshifting monsters who feed on prejudice.
Status: Ryan Coogler will produce for Legendary alongside Zinzi Evans. Comics creators Walker, Greene and Brown will executive produce with Sean Owolo of Drapetomedia, and two Legendary executives, Jon Silk and Disney Hall, will represent the production company.
Biopunk: DIY Scientists Hack the Software of Life by Marcus Wohlsen
Originally published: 2011, Penguin Publishing Group
Optioned for: Television (Legendary Television)
What it’s about: In 2011, WIRED editor Wohlsen delved into a then-mostly-unknown subculture of biohackers working to change how we build and alter genetic code. In the intervening half-decade, biopunk has become much more mainstream, so it’s good timing to reexamine Wohlsen’s book on the small screen.
Status: Zachary Quinto will co-executive produce and star as “the iconoclastic leader of this movement who can’t wait for the future to get here fast enough.”
Black Cat
Originally published: Character created by Marv Wolfman and Dave Cockrum, 1979 (Marvel Comics)
Optioned for: Film (Sony Pictures)
What it’s about: The Spider-Man spinoff will follow cat burglar (and Spidey love interest) Black Cat.
Status: Despite announcing Silver & Black in 2017, by 2018 Sony had decided to split the team-up movie into two separate projects. Screenwriter Chris Yost (Thor: Ragnarok) and director Gina Prince-Bythewood (Cloak & Dagger) had previously been attached. Prince-Blythewood is reportedly remaining as a producer, but it is unclear whether she’ll direct—as of 2018, Sony has stated that if not, she’ll be replaced with another female director.
Black Adam
Originally published: Character created by Otto Binder and C.C. Beck, 1945 (Fawcett Comics)
Optioned for: Film (DC Films)
What it’s about: The standalone film follows Black Adam (Dwayne Johnson), arch-nemesis of the superhero Shazam.
Status: In development; production is supposed to begin in 2020, and in June 2019 Jaume Collet-Serra (The Shallows; Disney’s Jungle Cruise) was announced to direct.
The Black Company by Glen Cook
Originally published: 1984, Tor Books
Optioned for: Television (Boston Diva Productions/Phantom Four)
What it’s about: The Black Company begin their series as a tough, cynical unit who sell their skills to the highest bidder. However, when they learn that an ancient prophecy may be coming true, they have to reevaluate their choices, and most importantly, decide whether to forsake old loyalties. The Lady, who rules the Northern Empire, hires the Black Company for her own ends.
Status: Eliza Dushku and David Goyer’s production companies (respectively) are collaborating on the adaptation, with Dushku playing the pivotal role of The Lady.
Black Hammer by Jeff Lemire (writer) and Dean Ormston (artist)
Originally published: 2016, Dark Horse Comics
Optioned for: Television & Film (Legendary Entertainment)
What it’s about: “Banished from existence by a multiversal crisis, the old champions of Spiral City—Abraham Slam, Golden Gail, Colonel Weird, Madame Dragonfly, and Barbalien—now lead simple lives in an idyllic, timeless farming village from which there is no escape! But as they employ all of their super abilities to free themselves from this strange purgatory, a mysterious stranger works to bring them back into action for one last adventure!”
Status: Legendary Entertainment optioned both film and TV rights, in order to develop their own superhero universe, in late 2018.
Blackhawk by Chuck Cuidera (writer), Bob Powell (artist), and Will Eisner (artist)
Originally published: 1941, Quality Comics
Optioned for: Film (Warner Bros/DC Films)
What it’s about: The Blackhawks are a World War II-era squadron of ace pilots led by a mysterious man known as Blackhawk to fight superpowered threats.
Status: Steven Spielberg will produce the adaptation, from a screenplay by frequent collaborator David Koepp (Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull), “with an eye toward” directing.
Blue Beetle created by Charles Nicholas Wojtkowski (writer/artist)
Originally published: 1939, Mystery Men Comics
Optioned for: Film (Warner Bros/DC Entertainment)
What it’s about: It looks as if the film will follow Mexican-American teenager Jaime Reyes, the third iteration of the character, who becomes Blue Beetle after picking up a mysterious scarab that fuses itself to his back and creates an Iron Man-like suit of armor.
Status: Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer (Miss Bala) will write the screenplay, with Zev Foreman executive producing for Warner Bros. If it comes to the screen, it will be the first DC standalone film lead by a Latinx character.
Bodies by Si Spencer (writer) and Tula Lotay, Phil Winslade, Meghan Hetrick, and Dean Ormston (artists)
Originally published: 2014, Vertigo Comics
Optioned for: Television (Hulu)
What it’s about: This miniseries follows four detectives trying to solve four murder cases, all in London but in distinct time periods: the 1890s, the 1940s, 2014, and post-apocalyptic 2050.
Status: Amulet screenwriter Aron Coleite is developing Bodies with Robert Downey Jr. and Susan Downey’s Team Downey company.
Bone by Jeff Smith
Originally published: 1991, Cartoon Books
Optioned for: Television (Netflix)
What it’s about: The series follows the three Bone cousins, Fone, Smiley, and Phoney Bone, after they’re run out of Boneville and have to make a new life for themselves in a forbidding forest. They’re soon caught up in an adventure with a young woman named Thorn, which is gradually revealed to be an epic high fantasy saga.
Status: Netflix acquired the rights to the series in October 2019, and is planning an animated series. Per Jeff Smith: “Netflix is the perfect home for Bone. Fans of the books know that the story develops chapter by chapter and book by book. An animated series is exactly the way to do this! The team at Netflix understands Bone and is committed to doing something special — this is good news for kids and cartoon lovers all over the world.”
Bone Street Rumba by Daniel José Older
Originally published: 2015, Roc
Optioned for: Film and Television (Roaring Virgin Productions)
What it’s about: Being a “halfie”—not quite dead, not quite alive—makes Carlos Delacruz a perfect soulcatcher for the Council of the Dead in New York City: He tracks down ghosts with unfinished business and keeps them from disturbing the balance between the living and the dead.
Status: Actress and producer Anika Noni Rose optioned Daniel José Older’s urban fantasy series in January 2015.
The Boogeyman by Stephen King
Originally published: 1973, Cavalier
Optioned for: Film (20th Century Fox/21 Laps)
What it’s about: Lester Billings is a man terrorized by some inhuman creature that has killed each of his young children, each time with the child crying “Boogeyman!” and him finding the closet door slightly open.
Status: Though The Boogeyman has been adapted several times (as a short) by amateur filmmakers, this is its first feature-length, big studio adaptation. Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (A Quiet Place) will write the screenplay. As of September 2019 the film was still in development after the Disney/Fox merger.
The Book of Joan by Lidia Yuknavitch
Originally published: 2017, Harper
Optioned for: Film (Stone Village Productions)
What it’s about: In this futuristic retelling of the Joan of Arc story, humanity has fled the radioactive surface of the Earth for CIEL, a mysterious hovering platform. Having evolved into hairless, sexless creatures who inscribe stories upon their skin, the surviving humans are galvanized by Joan, “a child-warrior who possesses a mysterious force that lives within her and communes with the earth.”
Status: Stone Village won the movie rights before the book even hit shelves, with Scott Steindorff (The Lincoln Lawyer) and Dylan Russell (Penelope) producing.
Borne by Jeff VanderMeer
Originally published: 2017, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Optioned for: Film (Paramount)
What it’s about: Borne follows a young woman fighting to survive in desolate near-future city. The woman finds a green lumpish creature called Borne during a scavenging mission, and begins to realize that her new companion may be more than she first thought.
Status: Scott Rudin and Eli Bush, who produced the film adaptation of VanderMeer’s Annihilation with Paramount, will also produce Borne.
Brand New Cherry Flavor by Todd Grimson
Originally published: 2011, Schaffner Press
Optioned for: Television (Netflix)
What it’s about: Aspiring director/scrreenwriter tries o build a career in Holloywood, but after one too many lascivious producers try to force her into sleazy quid pro quos, she makes a magical bargain for vengeance, and thel ines between reality, dream, and satire begin to blur.
Status: The horror noir will be an eight-episode series, written by Channel Zero‘s Nick Antosca and Lenore Zion. Antosca will serve as EP, and Channel Zero‘s Arkasha Stevenson to direct the first episode.The series will star Rosa Salazar (Alita: Battle Angel), Get Out’s Catherine Keener, who will hopefully leave her tea sets at home, he perfect and amazing Manny Jacinto, who stars in The Good Place (and many of tor.com’s collective dreams), Eric Lange (Unbelievable), and Jeff Ward (Marvel’s Agents of Shield).
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Originally published: 1932, Chatto & Windus
Optioned for: Television (Peacock)
What it’s about: Aldous Huxley’s scarily prescient vision of the future sees humans born in hatcheries and seduced by consumerism, free sex, and—when those don’t make them entirely happy—the hallucinogenic drug soma, which they can take to get away from it all. But soon a “savage” from the “reservation” threatens the World State.
Status: Ordered straight-to-series in early 2019. David Wiener (Fear the Walking Dead) will serve as showrunner, with Grant Morrison executive producing and writer Bryan Taylor (Crank) acting as a consultant. The series previously moved from Syfy to the USA Network, and then in September 2019 it was announced it would go to NBC’s streaming service, Peacock. The cast will include Harry Lloyd as Bernard Marx, Alden Ehrenreich as John the Savage, Hannah John-Kamen as Wilhelmina Watson, and Jessica Brown Findlay as Lenina Crowne.
Brilliance by Marcus Sakey
Originally published: 2013, Amazon Publishing
Optioned for: Film (The Story Factory)
What it’s about: Since 1980, one percent of the population, called “brilliants,” have been born with powers ranging from mind-reading to invisibility. Federal agent Nick Cooper is a brilliant, using his power to hunt terrorists. But to catch his greatest target—a brilliant intent on civil war—Cooper will have to violate everything he believes in—and betray his own kind.
Status: Akiva Goldsman has signed on to write and produce the adaptations of the books in Sakey’s trilogy. As of September 2019, Will Smith will star as the book series’ hero, Nick Cooper.
The Brotherhood of the Wheel by R.S. Belcher
Originally published: 2016, Tor Books
Optioned for: Television (ITV Studios America)
What it’s about: Belcher’s urban fantasy follows an offshoot of the Knights of Templar: bikers, taxi hacks, state troopers, bus drivers—the Brotherhood of the Wheel—who protect travelers from roaming serial killers.
Status: ITV Studios America (Aquarius, Texas Rising) acquired the rights in mid-2017.
Camelot, from every Arthurian legend ever
Optioned for: Television (Fox)
What it’s about: The legend of King Arthur, reimagined as a modern-day police procedural. Hoo boy. I’m just gonna post the synopsis: “When an ancient magic reawakens in modern-day Manhattan, a graffiti artist named Art must team with his best friend Lance and his ex, Gwen—an idealistic cop—in order to realize his destiny and fight back against the evil forces that threaten the city.”
Status: The Jackal Group’s Gail Berman (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Rocky Horror Picture Show reboot) and Joe Earley will oversee the project, written by Dan Frey and Ru Sommer (The Black List, Fox’s Saint Patrick) writing.
Caraval by Stephanie Garber
Originally published: 2017, Flatiron Books
Optioned for: Film (20th Century Fox)
What it’s about: When her cruel father arranges a marriage for her, Scarlett fears she will never journey to Caraval, the magical annual festival that demands participation of its attendees. But when her sister Tella whisks her away to Caraval, and then gets kidnapped, Scarlett learns the disturbing truth: This year’s Caraval revolves around Tella, with whoever finds her the winner.
Status: Fox preemptively picked up the film rights in 2015; as of early 2018, there were no new developments, though the option still holds.
Castle Hangnail by Ursula Vernon
Originally published: 2015, Dial Books
Optioned for: Film (Walt Disney Company)
What it’s about: Molly, a 12-year-old witch, travels to Castle Hangnail to become its new master. If she fails at being as wicked as expected, the castle will be decommissioned by the Board of Magic, with its various residents (including a hypochondriac fish and a minotaur afraid of the letter Q) dispersed into the non-magic world.
Status: Ellen DeGeneres, along with her A Very Good Production partner Jeffrey Kleeman, will produce the story for Disney, with writer Bill Kunstler adapting the book.
The Changeling by Victor LaValle
Originally published: 2017, Spiegel & Grau
Optioned for: Television (FX)
What it’s about: LaValle’s New York City fairy tale centers on new parents Apollo and Emma, who suspect that something may be unusual about their son Brian… (Read our review.)
Status: Kelly Marcel (Venom, Fifty Shades of Gray) will adapt LaValle’s (amazing) book for television in a co-production between FX Productions and Annapurna Television. Annapurna’s Sue Naegle and Ali Krug will oversee development, with LaValle serving as a co-executive producer.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
Originally published: 1964, Alfred A. Knopf
Optioned for: Film/Television (Netflix)
What it’s about: Charlie Bucket gets a golden ticket to Willy Wonka’s mythical factory of sweets and pure imagination.
Status: Netflix is adapting a number of Dahl’s works as “animated event series” starting in 2019.
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl
Originally published: 1972, Alfred A. Knopf
Optioned for: Film/Television (Netflix)
What it’s about: Sequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Status: Netflix is adapting a number of Dahl’s works as “animated event series” starting in 2019.
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
Originally published: 2018, Henry Holt & Co.
Optioned for: Film (Fox 2000)
What it’s about: The first installment in the Legacy of Orïsha series follows young maji Zélie as she struggles to restore magic to the kingdom of Orïsha following its eradication.
Status: Rick Famuyiwa (Dope, The Mandalorian) will direct the screenplay written by David Magee (Life of Pi, Mary Poppins Returns). Famuyiwa will also produce (under his new shingle Verse) along with Marty Bowen, Isaac Klausner and John Fischer of Temple Hill (Love, Simon, First Man, Maze Runner) and Sunswept’s Karen Rosenfelt.
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Originally published: 2015, Pan Macmillan/2018, Orbit Books
Optioned for: Film (Summit Entertainment/Lionsgate Pictures)
What it’s about: The last remnants of Earth escape their dying planet for a fully terraformed one… only to find the new world abandoned by humans and occupied by a very different sentient species.
Status: Film rights optioned in mid-2017, with Colby Day (Simultaneous, Spaceman of Bohemia) adapting the novel.
The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny
Originally published: 1970, Doubleday
Optioned for: Television (Skybound Entertainment)
What it’s about: Recovering from a loss of memory, Corwin discovers that he is a prince from Amber, one of the two “true” worlds—the other being the Courts of Chaos—waging war for control over the “shadow” worlds, including Earth.
Status: Robert Kirkman and David Alpert will adapt the ten-book series; no writers have been announced yet. As of July 2019, Brian Huntington of Skybound was promising to update the news “soon” on Twitter.
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
Originally published: 1950, Geoffrey Bles
Optioned for: Film and Television (Netflix)
What it’s about: Lewis’ beloved series follows the four Pevensie siblings as they step through an ordinary wardrobe into the magical land of Narnia.
Status: The Mark Gordon Company, Entertainment One (eOne, The C.S. Lewis Company, and Netflix are partnering on various adaptations of all seven books in the series. Coco’s Matthew Aldrich will oversee the production of both series and feature-length adaptations.
Circe by Madeline Miller
Originally published: 2018, Little, Brown and Company
Optioned for: Television (HBO Max)
What it’s about: This reimagining details the life of the witch Circe, a supporting character in The Odyssey, as she is banished to an island in the mortal world, where she harnesses her witchcraft and encounters Daedalus and Icarus, Medea, and of course Odysseus.
Status: HBO Max gave an 8-episode, straight-to-series order for an adaptation from writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, who co-wrote and produced 2015’s Jurassic World as well as the most recent Planet of the Apes trilogy.
City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab
Originally published: 2018, Scholastic
Optioned for: Television (The CW)
What it’s about: After a near-death experience, college grad Cass discovers that she can pull back the Veil between the worlds of the living and the dead—and she’s not the only one with this gift.
Status: I. Marlene King (Pretty Little Liars) will executive produce alongside Lauren Wagner (The Following, Time After Time), Karen Wyscarver, and Sanford Golden (Bones, Time After Time, Taken).
The Comet Cycle by Benjamin Percy
Originally published: 2020, Houghton Mifflin
Optioned for: Film (TBD)
What it’s about: The trilogy (The Ninth Metal, The Unfamiliar Garden, and Sky Fault) depict the aftermath of a meteor shower that drastically alters the planet.
Status: The Russo brothers (Avengers: Infinity War) optioned the film rights in 2018.
Conan the Barbarian by Robert E. Howard
Originally published: 1932, Weird Tales
Optioned for: Television (Amazon Studios)
What it’s about: In this reimagining, “driven out of his tribal homelands, Conan wanders the mysterious and treacherous world of civilization where he searches for purpose in a place that rejects him as a mindless savage.”
Status: Ryan Condal (Colony co-creator), Miguel Sapochnik (Game of Thrones director), and Warren Littlefield (The Handmaid’s Tale producer) are adapting the series.
Culture, from Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks
Originally published: 1987, Macmillan
Optioned for: Television (Amazon Studios)
What it’s about: The first book in Banks’ Culture series is the story of Horza, who is tasked by the conquering and warlike Idirans with recovering a Culture “Mind”—an A.I. that could help them wipe out the Culture.
Status: Amazon Studios has acquired the rights to Consider Phlebas, with the Estate of Iain M. Banks serving as executive producer. Dennis Kelly (Utopia, Matilda) will adapt the series, with Plan B Entertainment (World War Z) producing.
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
Originally published: 2015, Bloomsbury USA
Optioned for: Film (Constantin Film/Tempo Productions)
What it’s about: After killing what she believes is a wolf, huntress Feyre realizes that she has accidentally slain a faerie. Dragged to the faeries’ realm by lethal immortal Tamlin, Feyre must choose between stopping an impending, shadowy threat or dooming Tamlin and the world of Fae forever.
Status: The production company behind the Resident Evil movie franchise and the Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments TV series (based on Cassandra Clare’s books) is adapting Maas’ first novel in this series of the same name for the big screen. Maas shared a photo of the first page of the screenplay (adapted by Rachel Hirons) in mid-2018, warning fans that it was still slow going as they were searching for the perfect director and cast.
Cowboy Ninja Viking by A.J. Lieberman (writer) and Riley Rossmo (artist)
Originally published: 2009, Image Comics
Optioned for: Film (Universal Pictures)
What it’s about: Chris Pratt plays an assassin who is a “Triplet,” or someone who manifests multiple identities at once—in this case, a cowboy, a ninja, and a Viking.
Status: Michelle MacLaren (Game of Thrones) will direct the film, written by Dan Mazeau (Wrath of the Titans) and Ryan Engle (The Commuter, Rampage). While it was slated for a June 2019 release, Universal has now delayed the film indefinitely.
Crosswind by Gail Simone (writer) and Cat Staggs (artist)
Originally published: 2017, Image Comics
Optioned for: Television (eOne)
What it’s about: “A slick and ruthless Chicago hitman. A smart but downtrodden Seattle housewife. When an inexplicable event strikes these two random strangers, their bodies, souls, and lives are switched to potentially deadly effect. It’s Freaky Friday meets Goodfellas!”
Status: The adaptation is one of Vanessa Piazza’s (Lost Girl, Dark Matter) major projects in her new multi-year producing partnership with eOne. Simone wrote the pilot and will serve as an executive producer, with Staggs serving as a consulting producer.
The Dark Tower by Stephen King
Originally published: 2003, Plume Books
Optioned for: Film & Television (Amazon Studios/Sony Pictures Entertainment)
What it’s about: Stephen King has described the series as his magnum opus: Combining themes from sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and Western, it follows a gunslinger (Idris Elba), the Man in Black he’s following (Matthew McConaughey), and his quest to find a tower that is both physical and metaphorical.
Status: The Dark Tower movie (read our review) came to theaters in 2017. Per TV Guide, the TV show is at the pilot stage as of June 2019. Former Walking Dead showrunner Glenn Mazzara has signed on as an executive producer. The gunslinger Roland Deschain will be played by Sam Strike, a British actor recently seen in Nightflyers, will play Roland Deschain, and Vikings‘ Jasper Pääkkönen will play the Man in Black. The series will reportedly tell Roland’s origin story, with this iteration of The Man in Black going by the alias Marten Broadcloak. Jerome Flynn (Bronn in Game of Thrones) and Michael Rooker (Mary Poppins, y’all) will reportedly also be joining the cast. Also, billy-bumblers will be appearing in the show.
A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
Originally published: 2015, Tor Books
Optioned for: Film (G-BASE)
What it’s about: Traveler-magician Kell’s official job is to deliver correspondence between the parallel Londons, but his unofficial job is smuggling visitors to see the flourishing magic of Red London, or the eerie control of White London (though no one is allowed in Black London). When a thief from boring Grey London robs, saves, and then joins Kell, he discovers the perilous magic at the root of everything.
Status: While the original plans for the adaptation was a limited series along the lines of Game of Thrones, the project changed direction in 2017: Schwab will be a producer on the movie version of the first book, with the other two volumes serving as material for a potential franchise. John Wick screenwrite Derek Kolstad will adapt the books for G-BASE.
Dawn by Octavia E. Butler
Originally published: 1987, Grand Central Publishing
Optioned for: Television (TBD)
What it’s about: Lilith’s Brood is a trilogy, in which the alien Oankali save humans from themselves, but for a price (Dawn); some humans agree to mate and evolve with the Oankali, while others revolt (Adulthood Rites); and there emerges a new generation of human-Oankali hybrids (Imago).
Status: While producer Allen Bain acquired the TV rights in 2015, that adaptation seems to have fallen through. As of mid-2017, director Ava DuVernay (A Wrinkle in Time) is helming the new adaptation alongside producer Charles D. King’s (Fences) Macro Ventures and TV writer Victoria Mahoney (Misfits). Right now it seems as if only Dawn is in development.
Deadtown, from The Refrigerator Monologues by Catherynne M. Valente
Originally published: 2017, Saga Press
Optioned for: Television (Amazon Studios)
What it’s about: “Five recently-dead women meet in Deadtown, a purgatory where they discover that their entire lives were merely in service to the superhero men they happened to cross paths with, resulting in each of their deaths. Or in comic book terms, they were “fridged”—the term coined by comics icon Gail Simone to commemorate a plot in Green Lantern #54, when Kyle Rayner finds that his girlfriend, Alexandra DeWitt, has been killed by a villain and stuffed into a refrigerator to traumatize him. The realize they are part of a long line of women whose lives and deaths were written solely to give men an emotional backstory. Until now. They start to discover their own powers, tell their sides of the narrative, and decide to write their own damn stories. And a group of seemingly ordinary women discover their own true power. It’s a subversive, kick-ass exploration of what it means for women to find their inner power—and use it.”
Status: Announced in late 2018. Shauna Cross (Whip It, If I Stay, What to Expect When You’re Expecting) will write the pilot.
Deathstroke by Marv Wolfman (writer) and George Pérez (artist)
Originally published: 1980, DC Comics
Optioned for: Film (DC Entertainment/Warner Bros)
What it’s about: A longtime enemy of the Teen Titans, Deathstroke the Terminator is a U.S. Army soldier who was transformed in a secret experiment to create metahuman super soldiers.
Status: While the movie was announced in late 2017, as of mid-2018 it still seems to be in the works but moving slowly. Joe Manganiello is attached to star, and teased fans in a July 2019 Instagram post that featured a custom Deathstroke-themed D20—Manganiello is an avid DnD player, but many fans took it as a hint that the film is still in the works.
Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant by Tony Cliff
Originally published: 2013, First Second Books
Optioned for: Film (Disney)
What it’s about: Like the female Indiana Jones and trained in 47 styles of swordfighting, Delilah Dirk breaks out of a Turkish prison and picks up a mild-mannered lieutenant, Selim, as her sidekick for fighting pirates and the like.
Status: Disney is developing a live-action adaptation that could lead to a diverse franchise built on female empowerment.
Dire Earth by Jason M. Hough
Originally published: 2017, Random House Publishing Group
Optioned for: Television (TBD)
What it’s about: Hough’s action-adventure sci-fi duology follows two clashing crews undertaking a long journey to a far-off planet to rescue a race of benevolent aliens.
Status: The deal was announced in 2017, around the publication of the first installment, Injection Burn.
Dissonance by Erica O’Rourke
Originally published: 2014, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Optioned for: Film (Straight Up Films/Envision Media Arts)
What it’s about: Del is a Walker, able to move between parallel realities. When she is forbidden from Walking after a training session gone wrong, she can’t resist still poking into alternate worlds, following the echo of Simon Lane—who won’t give her the day in her world, but whose alternate selves seem strangely intrigued by her.
Status: Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight, Red Riding Hood) will direct a screenplay adapted by Andrea Siegel (Laggies).
DMZ by Brian Wood (writer); Ricardo Burchielli (Artist)
Originally published: 2005, Vertigo
Optioned for: TV (HBO Max)
What it’s about: Over 72 issues from 2005 to 2012, DMZ explored a future in which Manhattan has become a lawless demilitarized zone after a brutal civil war.
Status: Ava DuVernay will direct the pilot episode for the streaming service’s upcoming take on the Vertigo comic.
Doc Savage, from the character created by Henry W. Ralston, John L. Nanovic, and Lester Dent
Originally published: 1933, Doc Savage Magazine
Optioned for: Film (Sony Pictures/Original Film)
What it’s about: The pulpy adventure hero has been credited as the forerunner to modern superheroes.
Status: Director Shane Black and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson have wanted to work together on this adaptation since 2016. As of April 2018, it sounded as though the film has been put on hold, but we’ll leave it here until there’s an official cancellation.
Doctor Doom
Originally published: Character created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, 1962 (Marvel Comics)
Optioned for: Film (20th Century Fox)
What it’s about: No word yet on whether this will be a standalone film or if Doctor Doom will get to play off the Fantastic Four.
Status: Legion creator and executive producer Noah Hawley announced at SDCC 2017 that he was developing the film, reportedly to direct. It would seem that he wants to mix genres, perhaps drawing inspiration from Captain America: The Winter Soldier to make the Doom movie more of a political thriller. However, as of April 2019 it seems the standalone film, at least, is in limbo.
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Originally published: 1897, Archibald Constable and Company
Optioned for: Television (BBC One/Netflix)
What it’s about: “In Transylvania in 1897, the blood-drinking Count is drawing his plans against Victorian London. And be warned: the dead travel fast.”
Status: BBC One commissioned three 90-minute episodes of the series, to be written by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, in late 2018. No word on a release date yet, but BBC One has dropped a trailer!
Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey
Originally published: 1968, Ballantine Books
Optioned for: Film (Warner Bros.)
What it’s about: The possible franchise series would begin with the first book, Dragonflight, which sees orphaned noble Lessa hiding out as a lowly servant after the assassination of her family. But as her telepathic powers grow, a dragonrider recognizes her potential to become the strongest Weyrwoman (that is, the female leader in a Weyr, or group of dragons) in recent history.
Status: As of late 2014, the studio had landed a screenwriter, but no update since then.
East of West by Jonathan Hickman (writer) and Nick Dragotta (artist)
Originally published: 2013, Image Comics
Optioned for: Television (Amazon Studios)
What it’s about: This sci-fi Western takes place in a dystopian, alternate-history United States in which Death—of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse—must actually stop the world from ending.
Status: Both creators are on board as producers.
The Electric State by Simon Ståhlenhag
Originally published: 2018, Atria
Optioned for: Film (Russo Brothers Studio)
What it’s about: “In late 1997, a runaway teenager and her small yellow toy robot travel west through a strange American landscape where the ruins of gigantic battle drones litter the countryside, along with the discarded trash of a high-tech consumerist society addicted to a virtual-reality system.”
Status: Joe and Anthony Russo will produce, with Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely (Avengers: Infinity War) writing and Andy Muschietti (It) in negotiations to direct.
Elric Saga by Michael Moorcock
Originally published: 1972, Hutchinson
Optioned for: Television (New Republic Pictures)
What it’s about: Elric is the skull-white, ruby-eyed Sorcerer Emperor of Melniboné. He’s a genius, he’s on many, many magical drugs, and his court is, um, fun. But over the course of the saga he has to become more of an action hero, wiedling an evil sword and hating every second of it.
Status: “[E]xclusive rights to all works” in Moorcock’s series have sold to New Republic Pictures’ Brian Oliver and producer Bradley J. Fischer. As of late 2019, they’re shopping a potential TV series around; Glen Mazzara (The Walking Dead) and Vaun Wilmott (Star Trek: Discovery) have signed on to adapt. While you wait, you can read Karin L. Kross’ reread!
Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri
Originally published: 2018, Orbit Books
Optioned for: Television (Kronicle Media/Amyale/Rebel Maverick)
What it’s about: “The Amrithi are outcasts; nomads descended of desert spirits, they are coveted and persecuted throughout the Empire for the power in their blood. Mehr is the illegitimate daughter of an imperial governor and an exiled Amrithi mother she can barely remember, but whose face and magic she has inherited. When Mehr’s power comes to the attention of the Emperor’s most feared mystics, she must use every ounce of will, subtlety, and power she possesses to resist their cruel agenda. Should she fail, the gods themselves may awaken seeking vengeance…”
Status: Sadia Ash (author of Juniper Smoke) will adapt the pilot.
Empress by Mark Millar (writer) and Stuart Immonen (artist)
Originally published: 2016, Icon Comics
Optioned for: Film (Netflix)
What it’s about: “Imagine you’re married to the worst bad guy from your favorite sci-fi movie. An alien dictator feared throughout the universe, who will kill you if you leave—but you need to escape for the sake of your three children. All you have are your wits, your bodyguard, and three guns.”
Status: Lindsey Beer (The Kingkiller Chronicle) is adapting the comic for the screen, with Joe Roth and Jeff Kirschenbaum producing.
Endurance: My Year in Space and Our Journey to Mars by Scott Kelly
Originally published: 2017, Knopf
Optioned for: Film (Sony Pictures)
What it’s about: Astronaut Scott Kelly’s memoir will detail his year spent in space, as well as the post-return to Earth experiments conducted on him and his twin brother and fellow astronaut Mark Kelly to help guide NASA’s plans for eventual travel to Mars.
Status: Sony Pictures picked up the competitive rights to the book; both Kelly brothers will serve as co-executive producers.
Extreme Universe, from various titles by Rob Liefeld
Originally published: 1992, Image Comics
Optioned for: Film (Netflix/Fundamental Films)
What it’s about: Spanning nine comic-book titles and nearly 100 characters, Liefeld’s universe includes such superheroes as Bloodstrike, Brigade, Lethal, Re-Gex, Cybrid, Bloodwulf, Battlestone, Kaboom, and Nitro-Gen.
Status: Liefeld will work with Akiva Goldsman and Graham King to develop the property, with the potential opportunity to make it into a film franchise. Netflix bought the rights in early 2018, setting up a cinematic universe writers room helmed by Goldsman, but as of January 2019, Liefeld tweeted that the deal had been cancelled, and he was looking for other markets for the property.
The Fandom by Anna Day
Originally published: 2018, Scholastic
Optioned for: Television (Fox 21 Television Studios)
What it’s about: Violet and her friends are diehard fans of dystopian book/movie franchise The Gallows Dance. But when a freak accident at Comic-Con catapults them into the story, and they accidentally kill heroine Rose, the only way out is for Violet to step into Rose’s role and play out the plot to the end.
Status: Producer Ileen Maisel (The Golden Compass) inked a first-look deal with Fox 21 in 2018, and is looking to develop Day’s novel as a TV series.
Fear Street by R.L. Stine
Originally published: 1989, Simon Pulse
Optioned for: Film (20th Century Fox)
What it’s about: According to THR: “The first film is set in 1994 in the town of Shadyside and focuses on a group of teens that discover that the deadly events occurring in their town have not only been happening for centuries, but are also connected. The other stories are set in 1978 and 1666 before finding their way back to 1994.”
Status: The first in an intended trilogy, starring Gillian Jacobs and a number of newcomers. Filming wrapped in Georgia in August, 2019, and there is talk of an unusual release strategy of the three films being released in three consecutive months, sometime in 2020.
Ferryman by Claire McFall
Originally published: 2017, Floris Books
Optioned for: Film (Legendary Pictures)
What it’s about: “Dylan has escaped a horrific train crash unscathed. Except she hasn’t. The bleak landscape around her isn’t Scotland. It’s a wasteland haunted by wraiths searching for human souls. And the stranger waiting for her isn’t an ordinary boy. Tristan is a Ferryman, tasked with transporting her soul safely to the afterlife, a journey he’s made a thousand times before. Except this time, something’s different.”
Status: Kelly Marcel (Venom, Fifty Shades of Grey) will direct the adaptation.
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
Originally published: 2015, Orbit Books
Optioned for: Television (TNT)
What it’s about: The series follows three women who possess the ability to control the civilization-causing earthquakes (the eponymous “fifth season”) that threaten their world… but they can also create them. Damaya is training to serve the Empire; ambitious Syenite is ordered to breed with her frighteningly powerful mentor; and Essun is searching for the husband who murdered her son and kidnapped her daughter mere hours after the last Season.
Status: Leigh Dana Jackson (Sleepy Hollow, Helix) will adapt the first installment of Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy. Daveed Diggs will serve as an executive producer.
The Final Six by Alexandra Monir
Originally published: 2018, HarperCollins
Optioned for: Film (Sony Pictures)
What it’s about: The United Nations teams up with international space agencies to create an unprecedented coalition of six intrepid teenagers who will establish humanity’s first settlement on Jupiter’s moon Europa. Not much else is known, but the book will have themes of global unity, leadership, and environmentalism.
Status: Sony optioned the rights based on the first few chapters alone, ahead of publication. Josh Bratman at Immersive Pictures is attached to produce.
The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay
Originally published: 1984, McClelland & Stewart
Optioned for: Television (Temple Street)
What it’s about: Five people invited to Fionavar (the first of all worlds), ostensibly for the celebration of the king, discover that each of them has a role to play in the war that is brewing.
Status: Temple Street, the production company behind Orphan Black, will bring the series to television.
FKA USA by Reed King
Originally published: 2019, Flatiron Books
Optioned for: Film (Warner Bros.)
What it’s about: In 2085 America, dissolved from environmental disasters and secessions, factory worker Truckee from Crunchtown 407 (formerly Little Rock, Arkansas) must deliver a talking goat across the lawless territories that used to make up the United States. Joined by an android who wants to be human and a former convict lobotomized in Texas, this foursome may be the world’s last hope.
Status: Warner Bros. optioned the film rights prior to publication.
The Flash
Originally published: Character created by Gardner Fox and Harry Lampert, 1940 (DC Comics)
Optioned for: Film (DC Entertainment/Warner Bros)
What it’s about: Crime scene investigator Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) uses his newly-gained super speed to help put criminals behind bars.
Status: While the Flash’s standalone movie was initially revealed as the Flashpoint storyline, more recent reports liken the film, directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein (Game Night), to the comparatively lighter Back to the Future. With Miller’s involvement in the Fantastic Beasts films, he won’t start on The Flash until late 2019/early 2020, putting the film on track for a likely 2021 release. In July of 2019 it was announced that IT director Andy Muschietti had signed onto the project, and Miller confirmed in August 2019 that the film is still happening.
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
Originally published: 1974, St. Martin’s Press
Optioned for: Film (Warner Bros.)
What it’s about: Channing Tatum has signed on to star as William Mandella, a soldier fighting a fearsome enemy, only to (thanks to time dilation) return to a world he doesn’t recognize.
Status: The project was initially announced in 2015. Screenwriter Jon Spaihts provided an update in late 2016, saying that the adaptation was still happening but had been delayed by the production of his film Passengers.
Fortunately, The Milk by Neil Gaiman (writer) and Skottie Young (artist)
Originally published: 2013, HarperCollins
Optioned for: Film (Fox)
What it’s about: Edgar Wright will direct a part-live action, part-animated adaptation (written by Flight of the Conchords’ Bret McKenzie) of Gaiman’s children’s book. Johnny Depp will star as a father who, with his son, gets caught up in issues of time travel and breakfast cereal.
Status: Currently the aforementioned folks are in negotiations.
Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Originally published: 1951, Gnome Press
Optioned for: Television (Apple TV+/Skydance Television)
What it’s about: Foreseeing the imminent fall of the Galactic Empire, mathematician Hari Sheldon creates a foundation of artists, academics, and engineers to preserve and expand on humanity’s knowledge before said fall.
Status: David S. Goyer (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice) and Josh Friedman (Avatar 2) will serve as showrunners/EPs, working with Asimov’s daughter Robyn. A 2019 casting update announced that Jared Harris will star as Hari Seldon, the mathematical genius who predicts the demise of the empire, with Lee Pace starring as Brother Day, the current Emperor of the Galaxy.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Originally published: 1818, Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor & Jones
Optioned for: Television (CBS)
What it’s about: From Deadline: “Frankenstein centers on a San Francisco homicide detective who’s mysteriously brought back to life after being killed in the line of duty, but as he resumes his old life and he and his wife realize he isn’t the same person he used to be, they zero in on the strange man behind his resurrection—Dr. Victor Frankenstein.”
Status: Announced at the 2019 winter TCAs, the series is written and executive produced by Jason Tracey (Elementary), with Elementary creator Rob Doherty also serving as EP.
Untitled Game of Thrones Prequel, from A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin
Originally published: 1996, Bantam Books
Optioned for: Television (HBO)
What it’s about: HBO’s logline: “Taking place thousands of years before the events of Game of Thrones, the series chronicles the world’s descent from the golden Age of Heroes into its darkest hour. And only one thing is for sure: from the horrifying secrets of Westeros’s history to the true origin of the white walkers, the mysteries of the East, to the Starks of legend… it’s not the story we think we know.”
Status: As of October 2019, the project had been scrapped by HBO.
Gateway by Frederik Pohl
Originally published: 1977, St. Martin’s Press
Optioned for: Television (TBD)
What it’s about: The discovery of Gateway, a space station belonging to the Heechee alien race, in a hollow asteroid leads to a kind of gold rush for the human race, as they endeavor to learn more about the Heechee and turn these artifacts into fortunes.
Status: Syfy announced in 2015 its intention to adapt the novel to series, with David Eick (Battlestar Galactica) revising a pilot script written by Josh Pate (Falling Skies). However that production never came to fruition, and in 2017 it was announced that rights had been picked up by Robert Kirkman and David Alpert’s Skybound Entertainment, who are developing it for television with Frederik Pohl IV onboard as a consultant.
Gideon Falls by Jeff Lemire (writer) and Andrea Sorrentino (artist)
Originally published: 2018, Image Comics
Optioned for: Television (Hivemind Productions)
What it’s about: “The lives of a reclusive young man obsessed with a conspiracy in the city’s trash, and a washed-up Catholic priest arriving in a small town full of dark secrets, become intertwined around the mysterious legend of The Black Barn, an otherworldly building that is alleged to have appeared in both the city and the small town, throughout history, bringing death and madness in its wake.”
Status: The series was optioned in late 2018, and in October 2019it was announced that James Wan had signed on to executive produce.
The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez
Originally published: 1991, Firebrand Books
Optioned for: Television (13 Gen)
What it’s about: Gomez’s groundbreaking Afrofuturist novel follows Gilda, a young woman who escapes slavery and learns about freedom working in a brothel. She becomes a vampire and adopts the title of Gilda, moving through the world as an immortal being.
Status: Cheryl Dunye (Queen Sugar, Star) is attached to write, direct, and produce the adaptation.
The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill
Originally published: 2016, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
Optioned for: Film (Fox Animation)
What it’s about: Every year, the people of the Protectorate leave a baby as an offering to an unseen witch. But when delivering a baby to waiting families on her yearly journey, witch Xan accidentally feeds moonlight to the infant, filling her with magic. Xan decides she must raise this enmagicked girl, whom she calls Luna, as her own, with the help of a wise swamp monster and a Perfectly Tiny Dragon.
Status: Kubo and the Two Strings co-writer Marc Haimes is adapting Barnhill’s book as a live-action/animation-hybrid film.
The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch
Originally published: 2018, Penguin Random House
Optioned for: Film (Fox)
What it’s about: Not much information is available about the book except that it’s described by Deadline as “a sci-fi time travel procedural.” Read our review of Sweterlitsch’s first novel, Tomorrow and Tomorrow, for an idea of his work.
Status: District 9 and Elysium’s Neill Blomkamp signed on to write and direct the film adaptation even before the novel was published.
Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake
Originally published: 1946, Eyre & Spottiswoode
Optioned for: Television (FremantleMedia North America)
What it’s about: Titus Groan, reluctant heir to Gormenghast Castle, finds his legacy potentially threatened by the more charismatic kitchen boy Steerpike, who’s moving up through the ranks.
Status: Neil Gaiman and Akiva Goldsman will serve as non-writing executive producers alongside fellow EPs Barry Spikings (The Deer Hunter) and David A. Stern (Howards End). Toby Whithouse (Doctor Who, Being Human) will write the adaptation and also serve as EP. As of August 2019, the project had been picked up by Showtime, who are planning to co-produce with Fremantle, and have given a script-to-series order.
The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu
Originally published: 2015, Saga Press
Optioned for: Film (DMG Entertainment)
What it’s about: Bandit Kuni Garu and Mata Zyndu, son of a deposed duke, become friends when fighting to overthrow the emperor. But once the throne is available for the taking, they become leaders of opposing factions, with very different views on the best way to run the world.
Status: DMG Entertainment has acquired the film and licensing rights to the entire Dandelion Dynasty series into a film series.
Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith
Originally published: 2014, Penguin Books
Optioned for: Film (New Regency)
What it’s about: Austin Szerba struggles with confusing sexual feelings for both his best friend and his girlfriend while preying mantises hatch in his Iowa town and threaten to take over the world.
Status: Edgar Wright (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) is on board to direct. New Regency is in final negotiations after a bidding war against Netflix and others; the project had previously been set up at Sony.
Green Lantern by Martin Nodell (writer) John Broome (writer) and Gil Kane (artist)
Originally published: 1940, DC Comics
Optioned for: Television (HBO Max)
What it’s about: A hero uses an alien’s ring to channel his imagination and willpower in order to fight evil and defend the universe. Or, to put that more poetically: “In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil’s might, beware my power: Green Lantern’s light!”
Status: Greg Berlanti, the man behind the CW’s DC Arrowverse, announced that the Green Lantern series will be “our biggest DC show ever made,” and that at least some of the adventures will take place in space. The show will be produced by Berlanti Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television. There’s no word yet on which iteration of the Green Lantern will star.
Green Lantern Corps by John Broome (writer) and Gil Kane (artist)
Originally published: 1959, DC Comics
Optioned for: Film (DC Entertainment/Warner Bros)
What it’s about: Following the Green Lantern Corps, including John Stewart and Hal Jordan, as they keep the peace in space.
Status: In mid-2018, Geoff Johns came on as writer and producer, so it’s expected that the movie would pull from his run of the comic. As of 2019, there have been no updates announced for the project.
Happiness Is for Humans by P.Z. Reizin
Originally published: 2018, Grand Central Publishing (US) and Sphere Fiction (UK)
Optioned for: Film (Fox 2000/Working Title)
What it’s about: Described as “Sleepless in Seattle meets Her,” the novel follows a pair of AIs who attempt matchmaking with two lovelorn humans.
Status: Fox 2000, which adapted John Green’s Paper Towns and Nicholas Sparks’ The Longest Ride for the big screen, acquired film rights to Reizin’s partial manuscript before the London Book Fair in 2016. Fox 2000 is partnering with Working Title to adapt the novel.
The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert
Originally published: 2018, Flatiron Books
Optioned for: Film (Columbia Pictures)
What it’s about: Pursued by bad luck, teenager Alice and her mother live on the road, with no contact with Alice’s grandmother Althea Proserpine, author of the dark fairy tales Tales from the Hinterland. When her mother is kidnapped, Alice must confront the fact that the Hinterland is real—and journey into it to discover how her own story went so wrong.
Status: Ashleigh Powell (The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, The Paper Magician) will adapt the novel for the screen.
A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay
Originally published: 2015, HarperCollins
Optioned for: Film (Focus Features)
What it’s about: When 14-year-old Marjorie Barrett displays signs of acute schizophrenia, or possible demonic possession, her desperate family agree to an exorcism but wind up becoming the stars of a twisted reality series. Fifteen years later, younger daughter Merry meets a journalist and offers up the true story of what happened.
Status: Osgood Perkins (son of Psycho star Anthony Perkins) will rewrite and direct the adaptation.
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
Originally published: 2017, Graywolf Press
Optioned for: Television (FX)
What it’s about: Machado’s short fiction collection is being adapted into an anthology series (via Deadline) “staging psychologically vivid tales of women’s fears and desires on landscapes of horror, fabulism, and wild-haired absurdity. It’s described as a feminist Black Mirror with fairy tale themes, its hours threaded together with a recurring ensemble of female characters.”
Status: Gina Welch (Castle Rock, The Terror) is adapting the collection for television.
HEX by Thomas Olde Heuvelt
Originally published: 2016, Tor Books
Optioned for: Television (Warner Bros.)
What it’s about: The residents of Black Spring use apps and video surveillance to keep track of their resident witch, who in turn keeps them trapped in Black Spring. But when a group of teenage boys want to broadcast the existence of Katherine van Wyler outside of their tiny town, they risk unleashing an ancient and dangerous magic.
Status: Per Den of Geek, HEX has been optioned by Gary Dauberman, director of 2019’s Annabelle Comes Home, and screenwriter of Annabelle, Annabelle: Creation, The Nun, and The Curse of La Llorona. Dauberman was mentioned the potential adaptation when answering a question about recent horror literature, saying “It just felt like one of those instant classic books, that I felt like, ‘Oh man, I got to do something with this.’ So I am doing something with it that I’m really excited about.” There’s no word yet on when the adaptation will begin filming, but in the meantime, delve into the creepiness of Black Spring by reading an excerpt.
The Hidden Girl, from “The Hidden Girl” by Ken Liu
Originally published: 2017, Penguin Random House
Optioned for: Film (Studio 8)
What it’s about: Described as Interstellar meets Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, “The Hidden Girl” follows a group of female assassins who can cross between dimensions.
Status: Film rights were optioned before Liu’s story was even published; it appeared in the 2017 anthology The Book of Swords, edited by Gardner Dozois. Novelist and screenwriter Ellen Shanman will adapt the screenplay.
The Hike by Drew Magary
Originally published: 2016, Viking
Optioned for: Television (IM Global Television)
What it’s about: On a business trip in rural Pennsylvania, suburban family man Ben decides to take a short hike before his dinner meeting… only to find himself lost in the woods, his path crossed by a talking crab, a futuristic hovercraft, a 16th-century Spanish explorer, and even more surreal encounters.
Status: David S. Goyer (Batman v Superman) is producing the show, with Magary adapting his novel to pilot.
Hold Back the Stars by Katie Khan
Originally published: 2017, Gallery Books
Optioned for: Film (21 Laps)
What it’s about: After an accident, lovers Carys (Letitia Wright) and Max (John Boyega) are floating adrift in space, with only 90 minutes of oxygen left between them, as they reminisce about their love affair on a utopian Earth and where they went wrong. The movie is described as “Romeo & Juliet meets Gravity.”
Status: Mike Cahill (I Origins, Sleepless) will direct a script by Christy Hall.
Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix
Originally published: 2014, Quirk Books
Optioned for: Television (Fox)
What it’s about: The novel follows five employees at the ORSK furniture superstore, as they volunteer to take an all-nighter shift to find out what’s behind the mysterious damage at their store. Fox’s supernatural dramedy (co-written by The O.C. creator Josh Schwartz and produced by Charlie Kaufman) seems to be building out this story into more serialized form, focusing on slacker protagonist Amy.
Status: No update yet.
Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff VanderMeer
Originally published: TBA, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Optioned for: Film (Netflix)
What it’s about: VanderMeer describes the novel, inspired by our dystopian present, as “a taut thriller set in the Pacific Northwest about a simple act of turning a key in the door of a storage unit, and changing someone’s life forever.”
Status: Per this August 2019 tweet from VanderMeer, Netflix has optioned the book, and taxidermy and flame are in our future.
The Hunger by Alma Katsu
Originally published: 2018, G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Optioned for: Film (20th Century Fox)
What it’s about: A retelling of the Donner Party tragedy, but with zombies.
Status: 20th Century Fox snapped up the film rights to former CIA analyst Katsu’s book proposal, with Luke Scott (The Martian) attached to direct the film.
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
Originally published: 1989, Doubleday
Optioned for: Television (Syfy)
What it’s about: On the eve of armageddon brought about by galactic war, seven pilgrims set out to the Shrike, hidden in the Valley of Time Tombs. Each has a riddle, a hope, and a secret.
Status: Bradley Cooper, who has been trying to adapt the novel for years, is now working with Syfy to adapt the novel into an “event series” (i.e., miniseries). Itamar Moses (Boardwalk Empire) is set to write the screenplay. However, per a post from Simmons himself, it soundsl ike the Cooper-led adaptation may have gone off the rails.
I Still Dream by James Smythe
Originally published: 2018, HarperCollins UK é
Optioned for: Television (Carnival Films)
What it’s about: In 1997, 17-year-old Emma creates an artificial intelligence that she names Organon. As Emma grows up, the AI grows with her; but as rival companies begin developing their own AIs, Emma struggles with whether to hand over Organon, if it means saving humanity from itself.
Status: Carnival Films, a producer behind Downtown Abbey, is adapting the novel for television.
Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Originally published: 2015, Knopf
Optioned for: Film (Warner Bros./Plan B Entertainment)
What it’s about: Told through a series of letters, chat conversations, and dossiers, a teenage hacker and her pilot ex must struggle with their broken relationship while unearthing an interstellar conspiracy.
Status: No update since the first announcement in 2015.
Infidel by Pornsak Pichetshote (writer), Aaron Campbell (artist), and José Villarrubia (artist)
Originally published: 2018, Image Comics
Optioned for: Film (TriStar)
What it’s about: “A haunted house story for the 21st century, Infidel follows an American Muslim woman and her multi-racial neighbors who move into a building haunted by entities that feed off xenophobia.”
Status: Producer Michael Sugar acquired the rights to Infidel before the third of its five issues even came out. As of December 2018, Hany Abu-Assad, director of The Mountain Between Us, has signed on to direct, with Juliet Snowden and Stiles White adapting the script.
Injection by Warren Ellis (writer), Jordie Bellaire (artist), and Declan Shalvey (artist)
Originally published: 2015, Image Comics
Optioned for: Television (Universal Cable Productions)
What it’s about: Five eccentric geniuses collaborate on an unprecedented artificial intelligence, created by both technology and shamanistic magic. Years later, the disbanded group must reunite when the AI they created reemerges, wreaking havoc inspired by superstition and folklore.
Status: UCP optioned the TV rights in 2018. Ellis is already working with UCP to adapt his vigilante crime graphic novel series El Pantera.
Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
Originally published: 1976, Knopf
Optioned for: Film (Universal Pictures)
What it’s about: Louis de Pointe du Lac tells his life story to a reporter—but as life stories go, it’s a doozy, spanning over two centuries of being a vampire alongside his maker Lestat and their bloodthirsty charge Claudia.
Status: For a long time the rumors were that Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars) was working on a movie adaptation that combined the plots of The Vampire Lestat and The Queen of the Damned. Then Boone clarified in 2016 that he was remaking Interview, by sharing a page from the script on Instagram. He has also hinted that Jared Leto could play Lestat, though that has not been confirmed.
The Invisibles by Grant Morrison (writer) and various artists
Originally published: 1994, DC Comics
Optioned for: Television (Universal Cable Productions)
What it’s about: “Throughout history, a secret society called the Invisibles, who count among their number Lord Byron and Percy Shelley, work against the forces of order that seek to repress humanity’s growth.”
Status: As part of Morrison’s overall deal with UCP, The Invisibles will be his first adaptation with the studio for cable and streaming networks.
Jake Ellis, from Who Is Jake Ellis? by Nathan Edmondson
Originally published: 2011, Image Comics
Optioned for: Film (20th Century Fox)
What it’s about: Silas’ life is turned upside-down when he discovers that the voice in his head—an entire personality named Jake Ellis—is a result of human experimentation. With Jake Ellis’ help, Silas flees the people chasing him as he tries to learn what happened to him. (In the comics, Silas was former CIA analyst-turned-criminal Jon Moore; it’s unclear if the film will stick to this original background.)
Status: Josh Mond (James White) will direct the adaptation, taking over for David Yates; they’re currently looking for a screenwriter.
Untitled Joker/Harley Quinn Movie, from various DC Comics
Originally published: 1993, DC Comics
Optioned for: Film (DC Films/Warner Bros)
What it’s about: Described as “an insane and twisted love story. When Harry Met Sally on benzedrine.”
Status: Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (Crazy, Stupid, Love and This Is Us) were in negotiations to write and direct, but there are no post-Joker/post-Birds of Prey/post-James-Gunn’s-The Suicide Squad updates on the film.
Judge Dredd: Mega City One, from Judge Dredd by John Wagner (writer) and Carlos Ezquerra (artist)
Originally published: 1977, Rebellion
Optioned for: Television (IM Global Television)
What it’s about: The ensemble drama follows a team of Judges as they deal with crime in the future-shocked megalopolis of the 22nd century.
Status: IM Global Television president Mark Stern, who developed Battlestar Galactica and other Syfy series, will serve as executive producer.
Kill Shakespeare by Conor McCreery (writer), Anthony Del Col (writer), and Andy Belanger (artist)
Originally published: 2010, IDW Publishing
Optioned for: Television (Universal Cable Productions)
What it’s about: This Shakespeare crossover comic diverts the plot of Hamlet, joining the titular prince up with Richard III, Lady Macbeth, Juliet, and many more in a world where all of the Bard’s villains are banding together to kill the reclusive wizard known as William Shakespeare.
Status: UCP optioned the project in 2015, but there’s been no updates since.
The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss
Originally published: 2007, DAW Books
Optioned for: Film, Television, & Video Games (Lionsgate/Showtime)
What it’s about: In Rothfuss’ fantasy trilogy—the first two books of which have been published—adventurer and musician Kvothe tells his life story, with the majority of the series made up by the flashbacks.
Status: Lionsgate plans to adapt the books into movies and a TV series and tie-in video games… and perhaps eventually for the stage? At any rate, it’s in good hands: Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda will serve as creative producer overseeing this burgeoning franchise, and John Rogers will serve as showrunner of the TV series. In September 2019, Showtime passed on the project, with Lionsgate planning to shop the prequel to other networks. Assuming the show makes it to air, it will take place a generation before the events of Name of the Wind and follow “a pair of wandering performers on their adventures through the unique and startling world of Temerant.” The show will feature music heavily, as Miranda recently discussed on an episode of the podcast Day Drinking with Gary and Eliot. Early 2018 brought word that Sam Raimi (Spider-Man, Evil Dead) would direct the feature film adaptation of The Name of the Wind, but he has since dropped out.
Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey
Originally published: 2001, Tor Books
Optioned for: Film? (Lionsgate)
What it’s about: Courtesan-spy Phèdre nó Delaunay uses her gods-touched gift to glean information from the court of Terre d’Ange while falling in love amid a looming war.
Status: Film rights for all nine books were sold to Lionsgate in October, 2019, with Dan Hadl, the studio’s Executive Vice President of Television Business Affairs listed as producer. However, the deal was listed under Publishers Marketplace’s “Film” category, so perhaps the story will stretch over both media? (This is the Kushiel-verse, after all. Some fluidity is to be expected.) And author Jaqueline Carey chimed in to say the team is working towards a Starz series.
The Last Girl by Joe Hart
Originally published: 2016, Thomas & Mercer
Optioned for: Television (Amazon Studios)
What it’s about: Twenty-five years after a worldwide epidemic reduced the female birth population from 50 percent to 1 percent, an entire generation grows up with a population of fewer than a thousand women. Held captive in a scientific facility looking for the cure, Zoey seeks to escape beyond the walls of the facility rather than be subjected to a potentially fatal round of experiments. But after being isolated from her family for two decades, Zoey has no idea what kind of world awaits her outside of the walls of her prison.
Status: According to Publishers Marketplace, Amazon Studios has nabbed the TV rights to Hart’s dystopian novel.
The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters
Originally published: 2012, Quirk Books
Optioned for: Television (NBC)
What it’s about: Asteroid 2011GV1 is hurtling toward Earth, the human race has six months left to live, people are leaving their jobs to hole up in churches to pray, and yet Detective Hank Palace is still solving murders.
Status: As of 2016,NBC had the rights, and planned to produce with Sony. Neal Moritz would produce, with Winters adapting the script from his book.
The Laundry Files series by Charles Stross
Originally published: 2004, Golden Gryphon Press
Optioned for: Television (42)
What it’s about: Part Lovecraftian horror, spy thriller, and workplace comedy, Stross’ series follows a super-secret government agency that deals with “the Laundry.”
Status: As of April 2019, 42 Management & Production (the company behind Watership Down and Traitors) will adapt the series.
Lazarus by Greg Rucka (writer) and Michael Lark (artist)
Originally published: 2013, Image Comics
Optioned for: Television (Amazon Studios)
What it’s about: In an alternate near future, the world has been divided up among 16 rival families ruling in a dystopian feudal system. The series follows Forever Carlyle, a military leader for the Carlyle family, who questions her identity in this nature-versus-nurture future.
Status: Rucka, who is adapting the comic, and Lark will co-produce with Angela Cheng Caplan.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore (writer) and Kevin O’Neill (artist)
Originally published: 1999, DC Comics
Optioned for: Film (20th Century Fox)
What it’s about: The ongoing comic book series teams up a bevy of Victorian characters from literature—including Mina Murray, Allan Quatermain, Captain Nemo, Doctor Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, and the Invisible Man—to fight various nasties.
Status: The 2003 movie adaptation starring Sean Connery tanked, but Fox is rebooting itself over a decade later. No cast has yet been announced.
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
Originally published: 1969, Ace Books
Optioned for: Television (Critical Content)
What it’s about: The novel follows Genly Ai, who travels from Terra to the planet Gethen (a.k.a. “Winter”), to try and convince the planet’s nations to join the Ekumen, a peaceful confederation of planets. But as he explores Gethenian culture, Ai is stymied by both the Gethenians’ ambisexuality—the androgynous inhabitants can shift their gender according to mating rituals—as well as the planet’s politics.
Status: Limitless producers Tom Forman, Andrew Marcus, and Raymond Ricord will oversee the adaptation, announced in mid-2017; no writer has yet been announced.
Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds by Brandon Sanderson
Originally published: 2018, Tor Books
Optioned for: Television (TBA)
What it’s about: “Stephen Leeds is perfectly sane. It’s his hallucinations who are mad. A genius of unrivaled aptitude, Stephen can learn any new skill, vocation, or art in a matter of hours. However, to contain all of this, his mind creates hallucinatory people—Stephen calls them aspects—to hold and manifest the information. Wherever he goes, he is joined by a team of imaginary experts to give advice, interpretation, and explanation. He uses them to solve problems… for a price.”
Status: From State of the Sanderson 2018: “This is the property’s third time being picked up for an option, so I’m hopeful we’ll make it work this time. I don’t believe the company has been announced officially yet, so we’ll hold off on mentioning them for now.” The project is currently in the screenplay stage.
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
Originally published: 2006, Bantam Spectra
Optioned for: Television (TBA)
What it’s about: Elite con artists the Gentleman Bastards—counting among their ranks their leader Father Chains and his protege Locke Lamora—rob the rich in the Venice-like city of Camorr on a distant planet. As Locke comes of age, the Gentleman Bastards find themselves fighting the mysterious Gray King, looking to take over the criminal underworld.
Status: In 2019, Phoenix Pictures and Critical Content aquired the right to The Gentlemen Bastards series, as confirmed by Lynch himself.
Life on Mars, from “We Have Always Lived On Mars” by Cecil Castellucci
Originally published: 2013, Tor.com
Optioned for: Film (Paramount Pictures)
What it’s about: Nina, one of the few descendants of an abandoned Mars colony, discovers that she can breathe the toxic atmosphere of her home planet.
Status: A Quiet Place director/co-writer/star John Krasinski will adapt the story with fellow A Quiet Place producers Michael Bay, Andrew Form, and Brad Fuller. Krasinski is onboard as a producer and unlikely to direct or write, but no screenwriter has yet been announced.
Liking What You See: A Documentary by Ted Chiang
Originally published: 2002, Tor Books
Optioned for: Television (AMC)
What it’s about: Presented in the form of a documentary, Chiang’s novella features arguments for and against calliagnosia, a simple (and reversible) procedure that removes ingrained biases against certain appearances.
Status: Arrival (based on Chiang’s “Story of Your Life”) screenwriter Eric Heisserer announced on Twitter in 2017 that he would be adapting Liking What You See (from the same collection, Stories of Your Life and Others) for AMC.
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
Originally published: 2008, Tor Books
Optioned for: Film (Paramount Pictures)
What it’s about: Cory Doctorow’s modern techno-thriller follows a 17-year-old hacker in the wrong place at the wrong time following a terrorist attack on San Francisco, and how he and his friends must fend for themselves when their home becomes a police state.
Status: In 2015, Paramount Pictures acquired Cory Doctorow’s hacker series as its own “reality-based” YA franchise; no update since then.
The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu
Originally published: 2013, Angry Robot Books
Optioned for: Television (ABC)
What it’s about: IT consultant Roen Tan must become a secret agent when he’s taken over by an ancient alien named Tao. He soon learns that whether he likes it or not, he’s part of a terrifying alien civil war—and one side is quite willing to wipe humanity out in order to win. Roen must fight to save his species, while also training to become a real secret agent.
Status: Tara Butters and Michele Fazekas, the executive producers behind Agent Carter, are developing the series with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter’s Chris Dingess. Chu will serve as a consultant.
Locke & Key by Joe Hill
Originally published: 2008, IDW Publishing
Optioned for: Television (Netflix)
What it’s about: After the gruesome murder of their father/husband, the Locke family moves in to their family estate on the island of Lovecraft, Massachusetts. As the Locke boys mourn their father, they also discover a set of magical keys that open strange doors in the house… but that also draw out creatures who’ve been looking for those locks and keys.
Status: Locke & Key has gone through a number of failed adaptations, from a Dimension Films movie to a TV series—that Fox greenlit in 2011, only to pass on—to a movie trilogy from Universal Pictures. In 2017, Hulu ordered a pilot written by Hill, with Carlton Cuse (Lost, Bates Motel) producing and Andy Muschietti (It) directing. However, the pilot was not picked up; on July 25, 2018, Netflix stepped in with a ten-episode series order. The new production team included executive producers Aron Eli Coleite, Meredith Averill, and Rick Jacobs, with Averill (late of Netflix’s mostly-successful adaptation of The Haunting of Hill House) and Carlton Cuse (Lost, The Strain, Bates Motel) serving as showrunners. The show was subsequently recast, with only IT’s Jackson Robert Scott remaining to play Bode Locke. The current cast includes Petrice Jones, Felix Mallard, Emilia Jones, Connor Jessup, Griffin Gluck, Laysla De Oliveira, and Darby Stanchfield.
Lockwood & Co. by Jonathan Stroud
Originally published: 2013, Disney-Hyperion
Optioned for: Television (Big Talk Productions)
What it’s about: The YA series, described as “Ghostbusters meets Sherlock Holmes,” takes place in an alternate-universe London where young people with the ability to perceive ghosts and supernatural creatures set up rival detective agencies. The most ramshackle of these is Lockwood & Co.
Status: London’s Big Talk Productions has optioned the TV rights to the Lockwood & Co. series.
Logan’s Run by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson
Originally published: 1967, Dial Press
Optioned for: Film (Warner Bros.)
What it’s about: In the dystopian future of 2116, the population lives only to 21; on citizens’ Lastdays, they are executed, or those who attempt to escape are run down by Sandmen. Logan-5, a Sandman, plans to ring in his 21st birthday by tracking down the rumored Sanctuary that takes in runners; instead, he becomes sympathetic to their cause.
Status: The 1976 movie adaptation became a cult classic but changed some key details (like raising the age from 21 to 30). Joel Silver, Simon Kinberg, and Ryan Condal are teaming up on a new film that will hew closer to the original novel.
Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
Originally published: 1967, Doubleday
Optioned for: Television/Film (Mike The Pike Entertainment)
What it’s about: “On a colony planet in which reincarnation has become retail, a brilliant hermit finds himself at the helm of a revolution when he returns to society to obtain a new, younger body and discovers his former colleagues have used the same technology to fashion themselves as gods while keeping society in the dark ages.”
Status: While previously Ashley Miller (X-Men), Gale Anne Hurd (The Walking Dead), and Valhalla Entertainment were attached to the project, as of early 2019 VGTel, Inc. announced that it had optioned the TV, film, and graphic novel rights to Zelazny’s novel.
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
Originally published: 1954, Allen & Unwin
Optioned for: Television (Warner Bros. Television/Amazon Studios)
What it’s about: According to the press release in late 2017, the series will also explore “new storylines” preceding The Fellowship of the Ring, making this a prequel series… possibly following young Aragorn?
Status: Amazon Studios will adapt the trilogy into an epic fantasy TV series alongside the Tolkien Estate and Trust as well as New Line Cinema. Amazon has made a five-season commitment but must begin production by 2020 per the terms of the deal. Writing duo JD Payne and Patrick McKay (Star Trek 4, Jungle Cruise) will develop the series. In October Deadline reported that the show’s villain Oren, will be played by Joseph Mawle. Mawle will be familiar to fans of epic fantasy from his turn as Uncle Benjen in HBO’s Game of Thrones. And, as the road goes on and ever one, the show has already been renewed for a second season, years before its premiere.
Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff
Originally published: 2016, HarperCollins
Optioned for: Television (HBO)
What it’s about: Searching for his missing father, 22-year-old Army veteran Atticus Turner, accompanied by his Uncle George and childhood friend Letitia (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), encounters both “the mundane terrors of white America” and malevolent, otherworldly forces.
Status: Jordan Peele (Get Out) and J.J. Abrams will serve as executive producers along with Misha Green (Underground), who will write the pilot and serve as showrunner. Yann Demange (Dead Set) will direct.
Lumberjanes by Shannon Watters (writer), Grace Ellis (writer), Brooke A. Allen (artist), and Noelle Stevenson (writer)
Originally published: 2014, Boom! Studios
Optioned for: Film (20th Century Fox)
What it’s about: Boom! Studios describes its beloved series as “Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Gravity Falls and features five butt-kicking, rad teenage girls wailing on monsters and solving a mystery with the whole world at stake.”
Status: Emily Carmichael (Powerhouse) will direct the adaptation.
Luna: New Moon by Ian McDonald
Originally published: 2015, Tor Books/Gollancz
Optioned for: Television (CBS)
What it’s about: In 2110, fifty years after the Moon’s colonization, the top ruling families—the Five Dragons—are intermarrying, poisoning, sabotaging, and battling for control of the Moon.
Status: CBS Television Studios won the bidding war over adaptation rights in late 2015, with NCIS: Los Angeles creator Shane Brennan to adapt, but there have been no real updates since then. In the meantime, we made a handy chart showing you how everyone is related in this drama some are likening to “Game of Thrones on the Moon.”
MaddAddam, from The MaddAddam Trilogy by Margaret Atwood
Originally published: 2003, Doubleday/Bloomsbury
Optioned for: Television (Paramount TV/Anonymous Content)
What it’s about: The speculative fiction trilogy follows the 21st-century human race before and after the Waterless Flood, brought about by corporations’ control and an overabundance of genetically-engineered organisms. The latter two books look at the survivors of the Flood and how they rebuild society.
Status: The adaptation that Darren Aronofsky was planning to helm for HBO was declared dead in 2016. In 2018, Paramount TV and Anonymous Content won the bidding war for television rights to Atwood’s series.
The Magic Order by Mark Millar (writer) and Olivier Coipel (artist)
Originally published: 2018, Image Comics
Optioned for: Film (Netflix)
What it’s about: The series follows a multi-generation family of magicians under attack.
Status: After acquiring Millarworld, Netflix published The Magic Order as a comic, with plans to adapt for film. You can watch a trailer for the comic.
Matilda by Roald Dahl
Originally published: 1988, Jonathan Cape
Optioned for: Film/Television (Netflix)
What it’s about: “Matilda is a genius. Unfortunately, her family treats her like a dolt. Her crooked car-salesman father and loud, bingo-obsessed mother think Matilda’s only talent is as a scapegoat for everything that goes wrong in their miserable lives. But it’s not long before the sweet and sensitive child decides to fight back. Faced with practical jokes of sheer brilliance, her parents don’t stand a chance.”
Status: Netflix is adapting a number of Dahl’s works as “animated event series” starting in 2019.
Mika Model, from “Mika Model” by Paolo Bacigalupi
Originally published: 2016, Slate
Optioned for: Film (Netflix)
What it’s about: Bacigalupi’s short story “Mika Model,” written as part of Slate’s Future Tense initiative, has drawn comparisons to Ex Machina for its examination of whether a robot (a sex bot, no less) is capable of murder. Detective Rivera finds himself grappling not only with his attraction to the fantasy-in-the-synthetic-flesh, but also with issues of morality and justice.
Status: Up-and-comer David Weil is in talks to adapt the screenplay, as the subject matter matches one of his spec screenplays that made it onto the 2014 Hit List. Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum, Real Steel) will produce.
Millarworld comics by Mark Millar
Originally published: 2004-present, Millarworld
Optioned for: Television & Film (Netflix)
What it’s about: This collective universe contains Millar’s titles including Kick-Ass, Superior, American Jesus, Empress, Huck, and more.
Status: Netflix has snapped up the rights to the rest of the Millarworld titles not already adapted. According to THR, Netflix could mine properties like Reborn, MPH, and Jupiter’s Legacy.
The Monolith by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray (writers) and Phil Winslade (artist)
Originally published: 2004, Image Comics
Optioned for: Film (Lionsgate)
What it’s about: In this modern-day retelling of the golem legend, ex-junkie Alice Cohen inherits a Brooklyn house from her grandmother, only to discover a diary from the 1930s detailing the creation of a monster that would avenge a good man’s death.
Status: Dave Wilson (creative director of the studio that made Deadpool) will direct a screenplay by Barnett Brettler.
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur by Amy Reeder and Brandon Montclare (writers) and Natacha Bustos (artist)
Originally published: 2015, Marvel Comics
Optioned for: Television (Marvel Animation/Disney Channels Worldwide)
What it’s about: Nine-year-old super-genius/Inhuman Lunella Lafayette teams up with her crimson dinosaur to save the day.
Status: Laurence Fishburne’s (black-ish, grown-ish) Cinema Gypsy Productions is developing the comic as an animated series, though it’s unclear if it will wind up on Disney Channel, Disney XD, or Disney Junior.
Mort by Terry Pratchett
Originally published: 1987, Gollancz
Optioned for: Film (Narrativia)
What it’s about: Hapless Mort lives up to his name when he becomes the apprentice to Death. But he is torn between helping his master usher souls into the afterlife and the desire to change destiny for pretty princesses and others called before their time.
Status: Announced at Pratchett’s memorial in 2016. Terry Rossio (Aladdin, Shrek, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl) will write the adapted screenplay.
MPH by Mark Millar (writer) and Duncan Fegredo (artist)
Originally published: 2015, Image Comics
Optioned for: Film, TBD
What it’s about: “When a group of hard-luck teens in Motor City stumble upon a street drug called MPH, they gain the power of super speed. Will they use it to save the world? Hell no! Not when there’s dolla, dolla bills to be had, y’all.”
Status: Lorenzo di Bonaventura (Transformers, G.I. Joe) optioned the film rights in 2014 before the first issue was published, but there have been no major updates since.
Untitled Multiple Man Movie by Len Wein (writer/artist)
Originally published: 1975, Marvel Comics
Optioned for: Film (20th Century Fox)
What it’s about: Jamie Madrox, a mutant who can instantly create copies of himself, was a minor character in various X-Men adventures.
Status: The project, announced in 2017, had James Franco and Allan Heinberg (Wonder Woman) attached. Fate unclear following the Disney/Fox merger.
The Murders of Molly Southbourne by Tade Thompson
Originally published: 2017, Tor.com Publishing
Optioned for: Film (Welle Entertainment)
What it’s about: For as long as Molly Southbourne can remember, she’s been watching herself die. Whenever she bleeds, another “Molly” is born, identical to her in every way and intent on her destruction. Any instance of bleeding—a scrape, a scuffle, and every month for a couple of harrowing days. And so, she has been trained in how to destroy the Mollys first. She finds herself wondering whether it’s better to kill herself or be killed by the inescapable horde of…herself.
Status: No word on screenwriting or casting yet, but Welle’s Cathy Schulman will produce with Krishnan Menon and Adam Stone of Phenomenon Entertainment. Brendan Deneen and the book’s editor, Carl Engle-Laird, will serve as executive producers.
My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix
Originally published: 2016, Quirk Books
Optioned for: Film (Endeavor Content)
What it’s about: Described as Heathers meets Beaches meets The Exorcist, the story (set in 1988) follows best friends Abby and Gretchen: After the latter begins acting strange, Abby begins to believe that Gretchen might be possessed. but is their friendship powerful enough to beat the devil?
Status: Christopher Landon (Happy Death Day, Happy Death Day 2 U) is potentially looking to direct, from a script adapted by Jenna Lamia (Awkward, 90210).
My Boyfriend is a Bear by Pamela Ribon (writer) and Cat Farris (artist)
Originally published: 2018, Oni Press
Optioned for: Film (Legendary Entertainment)
What it’s about: “The delightful story of Nora who, after a succession of terrible boyfriends, finds a much happier relationship with a 500-pound American black bear.”
Status: Ribon (Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2) will adapt her graphic novel for film.
Needle in a Timestack, from “Needle in a Timestack” by Robert Silverberg
Originally published: 1983, Playboy
Optioned for: Film (Bron Studios)
What it’s about: Silverberg’s short story follows “a devoted husband who will stop at nothing to save his marriage when it is destroyed by a time traveling rival.”
Status: 12 Years a Slave producer John Ridley will write and direct the adaptation. Leslie Odom Jr., Freida Pinto, Orlando Bloom, Cynthia Erivo, and Jadyn Wong have all joined the cast, and filming was completed in summer 2018.
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Originally published: 1984, Ace
Optioned for: Film (Fox)
What it’s about: Gibson’s pioneering cyberpunk novel follows hacker Henry Dorsett Case, cut off from The Matrix after he steals from his employers. But a new job could give him back that access… assuming he can hack an AI orbiting Earth.
Status: Deadpool director Tim Miller will helm the adaptation, with Simon Kinberg producing. No writer has yet been set.
New Gods by Jack Kirby (writer/artist)
Originally published: 1971, DC Comics
Optioned for: Film (Warner Bros/DC Entertainment)
What it’s about: The self-named New Gods, natives from the twin planets New Genesis and Apokolips, will join the DC Extended Universe.
Status: A Wrinkle in Time director Ava DuVernay, who has mentioned that her favorite superhero is Big Barda, will helm the film. DuVernay will cowrite with Eisner Award-winning comics writer Tom King. No casting has yet been announced.
Newsflesh by Mira Grant
Originally published: 2010, Orbit Books
Optioned for: Film (Electric Entertainment)
What it’s about: In 2040, the post-zombie generation is all infected with a miracle-cure-turned-infection that will cause them to amplify at death, used to routine blood tests and carrying a gun to ward off wild undead, and get all their news from bloggers like the After the End Times. The first book, Feed, sees Georgia and Shaun Mason following the Republican senator on the campaign trail, though they hit a few zombie-shaped stumbling blocks. Learn more about the world of Newsflesh here.
Status: The rights were optioned in 2012, but there doesn’t seem to have been much movement made on the project so far. We want to see the Masons move from the computer screen to the silver screen!
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
Originally published: 2019, Flatiron Books
Optioned for: Television (Amazon)
What it’s about: Alex Stern is recruited by an alternate-universe Yale to investigate their pesky ghost problem, but she soon falls into a terrifying labyrinth of secret societies and murderous intrigue. Those ghosts have to come from somewhere.
Status: No director/showrunner has been named yet, but Bardugo is on board to write and executive produce the series.
North American Lake Monsters (Monsterland) by Nathan Ballingrud
Originally published: 2013, Small Beer Press
Optioned for: Television (Hulu)
What it’s about: The collection is full of tales featuring everything from mermaids to fallen angels.
Status: Annapurna will produce an episodic horror anthology series drawn from Ballingrud’s collection. The adaptation, titled Monsterland, will be created, written, and executive produced by Mary Laws (Succession, Preacher) and Under the Shadow’s Lucan Toh and Babak Anvari will serve as EPs with Ali Krug co-exec-producing, beside Megan Ellison and Sue Naegle of Annapurna. The show’s star will include Booksmart’s Kaitlyn Dever and Westworld’s Jonathan Tucker as Toni and Alex, who are the protagonists of the story “You Go Where It Takes You.”
October Daye by Seanan McGuire
Originally published: 2009, DAW
Optioned for: Television (Kung Fu Monkey Productions)
What it’s about: After being cursed by someone from the world of Fae, changeling October Daye is ready to embrace only the human half of her heritage. But when she gets geased into investigating a murdered fae, she must return to the kingdom of Fae, hidden just beneath the surface of the San Francisco Bay Area.
Status: The film rights were acquired in 2013, but as of 2014, McGuire had no updates to share on the project. In a recent column, Foz Meadows made the case for adapting the October Daye books—but as a TV series. As it turns out, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries writer Margaret Dunlap is adapting the series for television, but as she explained in a recent podcast, it’s a slow process. McGuire provided a brief update in 2017 that the rights had been licensed “and the people who have them are looking for a network.”
Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
Originally published: 2005, Tor Books
Optioned for: Film (Netflix)
What it’s about: Good news: Humanity finally made it to the stars. Bad news: Humans have to fight aliens for the few habitable planets. As far as the the Colonial Defense Force is concerned, the older the soldiers, the better. So, on his 75th birthday, John Perry enlists, hoping to make it two years in exchange for a homestead on a hard-won planet. But the actual fight is far, far harder than he can imagine—and what he will become is far stranger.
Status: Netflix acquired the movie rights in late 2017. Scalzi will serve as an executive producer. As of March 2018, Scalzi shared that they were looking for screenwriters for the show.
The One by John Marrs
Originally published: 2018, Hanover Square Press
Optioned for: Television (Netflix)
What it’s about: “The One is set five minutes in the future, in a world where a DNA test can find your perfect partner—the one person you’re genetically predisposed to fall passionately in love with. No matter how good your relationship, which one of us can honestly say we haven’t thought about whether there is someone better out there? What if a hair sample is all it takes to find them? The idea is simple, but the implications are explosive. We will never think of love and relationships in the same way again.”
Status: Howard Overman (Misfits) will adapt the series for Netflix, serving as writer and executive producer, and author Marrs says they’ve planned for a 10-part series, with a debut in January.
The Paper Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg
Originally published: 2014, 47North
Optioned for: Movie (Walt Disney Company)
What it’s about: After graduating from the Tagis Praff School for the Magically Inclined, Ceony Twill is heartbroken when she’s assigned an apprenticeship with paper magic instead of her true love, metal magic. And once she bonds to paper, she won’t be able to do any other magic. But as she finds herself warming up to bespelling paper, she also discovers forbidden, dark magic, at great price.
Status: Producer Allison Shearmur (The Hunger Games, Rogue One) has picked up the project for Disney, with Ashleigh Powell (The Hazel Wood) writing the screenplay.
Pantheon, based on the short fiction of Ken Liu
Originally published: 2002, various
Optioned for: Television (AMC)
What it’s about: No word on which of Liu’s over 100 SFF short stories the network will draw from, but the animated series is about uploaded intelligence.
Status: AMC has assembled a writers room as part of its scripts-to-series model; the writers room will develop the series, at which point the network will decide whether or not to pick it up.
The Peripheral by William Gibson
Originally published: 2014, Berkley
Optioned for: Television (Amazon Studios/Warner Bros. Television)
What it’s about: A virtual reality world puts Flynne Fisher, a have-not from near-future America, in touch with Wilf Netherton, a have from “seventy-some years later, on the far side of decades of slow-motion apocalypse.”
Status: Amazon put the adaptation into script development with a series option in early 2018. Westworld creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy will executive produce the project, written by Scott B. Smith (Siberia, A Simple Plan) and directed by Vincenzo Natali (Westworld). Amazon has since given the adaptation a series order.
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
Originally published: 1961, Epstein & Carroll
Optioned for: Film (TriStar Pictures)
What it’s about: “This ingenious fantasy centers around Milo, a bored ten-year-old who comes home to find a large toy tollbooth sitting in his room. Joining forces with a watchdog named Tock, Milo drives through the tollbooth’s gates and begins a memorable journey.”
Status: Director Matt Shakman (Game of Thrones) joined the project in late 2017, but no real update since then.
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Originally published: 1890, Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine
Optioned for: Film (Lionsgate)
What it’s about: Dorian Gray sells his soul for eternal youth, leading an endlessly hedonistic existence while the eponymous portrait ages and decays, recording his every sin.
Status: Experimental rock multi-instrumentalist St. Vincent (who made her filmmaking debut as part of the female-driven XX horror anthology) will direct a genderbent adaptation starring a female Dorian.
Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi, illustrated by Gris Grimly
Originally published: 2002, Tor Books
Optioned for: Film (Netflix)
What it’s about: A little wooden boy wants to become a real boy.
Status: Guillermo del Toro will direct a stop-motion animated take on the classic tale (originally published in 1883) with Mark Gustafson. del Toro’s co-production designer Guy Davis will be drawing inspiration from Gris Grimly’s illustrations, and NICK FREAKING CAVE is doing the music. It should celebrate its lack of strings sometime in 2021.
Plastic Man created by Jack Cole (writer/artist)
Originally published: 1941, Quality Comics
Optioned for: Film (DC Entertainment/Warner Bros)
What it’s about: Criminal-turned-good-guy Patrick “Eel” O’Brian begins to reform when an accident gives him super-stretchy powers, making him a malleable crimefighter.
Status: Amanda Idoko (Breaking News in Yuba County) will write the screenplay.
The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang (writer/artist)
Originally published: 2018, First Second Books
Optioned for: Film (Universal Pictures)
What it’s about: Instead of marrying a princess, as his parents want, Prince Sebastian would rather don gorgeous gowns and take Paris by storm as fashion icon Lady Crystallia. His secret weapon is dressmaker (and best friend) Frances, who thinks up his eye-catching ensembles. But Frances’ dreams of being recognized for her work may never come to pass, as being the prince’s secret weapon means she must be secret. How long can she put off her dreams to protect her friend?
Status: Universal and producer Marc Platt (La La Land) optioned the rights in 2018, shortly after the graphic novel’s publication.
Princeless by Jeremy Whitley (writer) and Mia Goodwin (artist)
Originally published: 2014, Action Lab
Optioned for: Film (Sony Pictures)
What it’s about: Princess Adrienne Ashe never wanted her royal pedigree, or the obligations it brings. But her parents expect her to play out a typical princess narrative, so they lock her in a tower on the eve of her 16th birthday, to await rescue by a handsome prince. Instead, Adrienne decides to rescue herself.
Status: Sony acquired the film rights in 2017.
Prodigy by Mark Millar (writer) and Rafael Albuquerque (artist)
Originally published: 2018, Image Comics
Optioned for: Film (Netflix)
What it’s about: From Netflix: Edison Crane’s “brilliant mind needs constant challenge and so he’s become the go-to guy for governments around the world when a problem arises they just can’t handle. A Nobel Prize-winning scientist, a genius composer, an Olympic-level athlete and an expert in the occult, Edison Crane is as addicted to the mysteries of the world as he is to sitting at the top of the Fortune 500. These are the tales of the world’s most exceptional man and this story marks his first published adventure.”
Status: Prodigy is another Millarworld creation (after The Magic Order) in which the plan is to publish as a comic and then have Netflix adapt.
The Progeny by Tosca Lee
Originally published: 2016, Simon & Schuster
Optioned for: Television (The CW)
What it’s about: “Emily Jacobs is the descendant of a serial killer. Now, she’s become the hunted. She’s on a quest that will take her to the secret underground of Europe and the inner circles of three ancient orders—one determined to kill her, one devoted to keeping her alive, and one she must ultimately save.”
Status: Chris Roberts (Orphan Black) will adapt the novel as a drama series, with Edward Burns attached as an executive producer.
Project 13, from Superman #189 by Joe Kelly (writer) and Dwayne Turner (artist)
Originally published: 2003, DC Comics
Optioned for: Television (The CW)
What it’s about: Based on the supporting character who has popped up in Superman comics and the DC Rebirth reboot, but not on any particular story, this hour-long drama will follow (according to Variety) “Traci, a twenty-something forensic scientist and believer in the paranormal who discovers her own hidden extra-sensory abilities when she joins her estranged, skeptic father to investigate mysterious cases of the paranormal and unexplained phenomena.”
Status: Elizabeth Banks will serve as executive producer alongside writer and producer Daegan Fryklind (Bitten).
Queen of Shadows, from the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas
Originally published: 2012, Bloomsbury
Optioned for: Television (Hulu)
What it’s about: In a land without magic, assassin Celaena Sardothien must fight 23 challengers in order to win her freedom… to become the champion of a tyrannical king.
Status: Kira Snyder (The 100, The Handmaid’s Tale) will write the pilot, with Anna Foerster (Outlander, Underworld: Blood Wars) set to direct.
The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen
Originally published: 2014, HarperCollins
Optioned for: Film (Warner Bros.)
What it’s about: On her 19th birthday, princess Kelsea Glynn must return from exile, armed with the powerful Tearling sapphire and backed by the Queen’s Guard, to defeat the malevolent Red Queen in order to reclaim her dead mother’s throne.
Status: Emma Watson acquired the rights in 2013, ahead of the trilogy’s publication. Though there have been updates since, no word on production or projected release date.
Radioactive, from Radioactive: Marie and Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout by Lauren Redniss
Originally published: 2010, HarperCollins
Optioned for: Film (Amazon Studios/StudioCanal)
What it’s about: In this illustrated biography, artist and journalist Redniss tells the story of Nobel Prize winner Marie Curie and her husband Pierre, from their romance to their scientific discoveries and how they changed the world.
Status: Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis) directed a script by Jack Thorne (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child), with Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl) playing Marie Curie. The film premiered at the 2019 Toronto Film Festival, with plans for a wide release sometime in 2020. You can watch a teaser here!
Ranger’s Apprentice, from the Ranger’s Apprentice series by John Flanagan
Originally published: 2004, Philomel (US & Canada) and Random House (Australia & New Zealand)
Optioned for: Film (Dick Cook Studios)
What it’s about: After spending the first fifteen years of his life wanting to be a knight, Will instead is selected as a Ranger’s apprentice. But he quickly learns that not only are the Rangers the protectors of the kingdom, but there’s a battle brewing that will need every skill he can obtain.
Status: Paul Haggis and his daughter Alissa Sullivan Haggis are writing the screenplay, with Haggis directing and co-producing. Lou Xiaolou, chairman of China-based financier Film Carnival Co. Ltd., said, “Ranger’s Apprentice is only the beginning to our strategic plan of a more comprehensive collaboration.”
The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater
Originally published: 2012, Scholastic
Optioned for: Television (Syfy)
What it’s about: “[F]our private school boys and a psychic’s daughter … quest for a sleeping king of Welsh legend in the mountains of Virginia, uncovering ancient magic, powerful dreams, and the devils in themselves.”
Status: Publishers Marketplace reported the news in mid-2017. Universal Cable Productions has set up the project at Syfy. In late 2018, Stiefvater shared a photo of the pilot script, written by her and to be directed by Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight, Dissonance).
Recursion by Blake Crouch
Originally published: 2019, Crown
Optioned for: Film and Television (Netflix)
What it’s about: In this thriller from the author of Dark Matter and The Wayward Pines (both adapted for television), Detective Barry Sutton investigates the death of a woman suffering from False Memory Syndrome, while brilliant neuroscientist Helena Smith ponders whether to accept funding from a mysterious benefactor that will help create her most ambitious device: one that would allow people to preserve their most cherished memories and relive them whenever they want.
Status: Shonda Rhimes and Matt Reeves will develop “a feature film and television universe” around the novel. Author Blake Crouch spoke to EW about the adaptation process in June 2019.
Red Sonja, from various comics by Robert E. Howard (name), Roy Thomas (concept), and Barry Windsor Smith (art), and others
Originally published: 1973, Marvel Comics
Optioned for: Film (Millennium Media)
What it’s about: Millennium Media’s Avi Lerner cited the popularity of Wonder Woman and the demand for female superhero movies as the appropriate timing to bring back the swashbuckling comic book character for her own movie.
Status: After dropping Bryan Singer as director, Millennium tapped Transparent creator Jill Soloway to write and direct. In January 2019 Soloway spoke of the project, saying, “Exploring this powerful mythology and evolving what it means to be a heroine is an artistic dream come true.”
Redliners, adapted from short fiction by Charlaine Harris
Originally published: various
Optioned for: Television (NBC)
What it’s about: The series, about former spies in suburbia, is described as “a high-octane project that mixes humor, romance and espionage centering on a pair of former operatives who get reactivated and drawn into a larger conspiracy while attempting to maintain their undercover lives.”
Status: Emerald City executive producer Shaun Cassidy and comics creator Kelly Sue DeConnick (also involved with Emerald City) are setting up NBC’s second Harris project, after Midnight, Texas. While a pilot was cast, that heave been no updates since early 2017, so this one might be a strikethrough.
Redshirts by John Scalzi
Originally published: 2012, Tor Books
Optioned for: Television (TBD)
What it’s about: In the 25th century, five new recruits on the Starship Intrepid start to notice the suspiciously high death toll happening to their crew… but their investigations uncover a meta conspiracy.
Status: A year after Redshirts won the Hugo Award, FX bought the rights for a limited series on television. However, in November 2017, Sclazi announced that is was “once again optionable.”
Resident Alien by Peter Hogan (writer) and Steve Parkhouse (artist)
Originally published: 2012, Dark Horse Comics
Optioned for: Television (Syfy)
What it’s about: After crash-landing on Earth, extraterrestrial Harry adopts the identity of a small-town Colorado doctor and observes humans—because his secret mission is to answer the question, “Are humans worth saving?”
Status: Chris Sheridan (Family Guy) adapted the comic for television. Star Alan Tudyk hosted a pilot premiere at October 2019’s New York Comic-Con.
Revival by Tim Seeley and Mike Norton
Originally published: 2012, Image Comics
Optioned for: Film (Shatterglass Films)
What it’s about: One day, in a town in rural Wisconsin, the dead come back to life. Officer Dana Cypress must deal with outside interference from religious zealots and government quarantines while coping with the return of her recently deceased sister Em.
Status: Shatterglass Films’ Luke Boyce will direct a script co-written by Seeley and Sarah Fischer. Production was expected to start in early 2018; in the meantime, here’s the proof-of-concept teaser trailer.
Ringworld by Larry Niven
Originally published: 1970, Ballantine Books
Optioned for: Television (Amazon Studios/MGM)
What it’s about: Celebrating his 200th birthday in 2850 A.D., Louis Gridley Wu has become bored with human society. When offered the opportunity to join a voyage to Ringworld, he jumps at the chance to explore the artificial ring floating beyond the edges of known space.
Status: Syfy had previously developed the books as a four-hour miniseries, but now it will be a television series. No update since the 2017 announcement.
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
Originally published: 2011, Gollancz
Optioned for: Television (Stolen Picture)
What it’s about: Aaronovitch’s urban fantasy procedural follows aspiring detective Peter Grant, who finds himself working for The Folly, Scotland Yard’s department of supernatural beings.
Status: Simon Pegg and Nick Frost will adapt the first book in the series, with Aaronovitch also serving as an executive producer. Rivers of London (known as Midnight Riot in the U.S.) will make up the first season, which will be about 8-10 episodes. Future seasons might combine books.
Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
Originally published: 1972, Macmillan
Optioned for: Television (TBD)
What it’s about: This Russian sci-fi novel centers on Red Schuhart (Matthew Goode), who enters “the Zone”—a dimension formerly inhabited by aliens—to collect mysterious artifacts to sell on the black market. But when something goes wrong in his world, Red must return to the Zone over and over again to find answers.
Status: Jack Paglen (Alien: Covenant) is writing the pilot. Interestingly, Roadside Picnic had previously inspired the 1979 film Stalker. WGN chose not to proceed with a series order, so this one might be lost in the Zone forever.
Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson
Originally published: 2011, Doubleday
Optioned for: Film (Dreamworks)
What it’s about: Basically World War Z with robots, Daniel H. Wilson’s novel provides an oral history of the Singularity and its aftermath.
Status: Steven Spielberg has been circling the project for years, but it’s currently been postponed. In late 2014, Wilson clarified that it’s “basically in the queue” behind Spielberg’s other projects. In early 2016, Drew Goddard (The Martian) put a positive spin on the delays: “There are so many times when projects don’t go at a certain release date but find a better home later” and “It was just a joy to see [Spielberg] in action and learn from him.” In a 2017 Reddit AMA, Wilson described the project as “Spielberg allllllmost made it into a movie, and now it’s still being developed and not dead as far as I know.” In early 2018, Michael Bay signed on to direct.
Roche Limit by Michael Moreci (writer) and Vic Malhotra (artist)
Originally published: 2014, Image Comics
Optioned for: Television (Syfy/Fremantle Media)
What it’s about: Syfy describes the adaptation as “a sci-fi noir series about a human colony founded on a planet that borders a strange space anomaly.”
Status: Screenwriter Will Pascoe (Orphan Black) is the prospective showrunner, per the official announcement in early 2018.
Rolling in the Deep by Mira Grant
Originally published: 2015, Subterranean Press
Optioned for: Film (Branded Pictures Entertainment)
What it’s about: Mira Grant’s (a.k.a. Seanan McGuire) science horror novella follows a documentary crew who venture into the Mariana Trench in search of a mermaid hoax, only to discover that mermaids are real, and very deadly.
Status: Director Mary Lambert (Pet Sematary) will helm the adaptation.
The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons
Originally published: 2019, Tor Books
Optioned for: Television (Annapurna TV)
What it’s about: Kihrin is a young thief who discovers he may be the son of a prince and involved in a complex prophecy where he is more valuable alive than dead.
Status: Annnapurna TV optioned Lyons’ debut novel as an epic fantasy series in early 2019.
Runtime by S.B. Divya
Originally published: 2016, Tor.com Publishing
Optioned for: Film & Television (Escape Artists Productions)
What it’s about: In a cyberpunk near-future, Marmeg Guinto cobbles together an exoskeleton from rich people’s garbage, and uses the money her mother gave her for nursing school, to enter the Minerva Sierra Challenge—the cyborg’s Tour de France—to earn a better life for herself and her younger brothers.
Status: Escape Artists optioned the rights in early 2018.
Sand by Hugh Howey
Originally published: 2013, CreateSpace Publishing
Optioned for: Television (Syfy)
What it’s about: In a post-ecologically ravaged world of savage winds and shifting dunes, a family of sand divers try to navigate their dangerous society in order to find their missing father.
Status: Universal Cable Productions has set up the project at Syfy. Gary Whitta (Rogue One) will adapt the novel for television, with Marc Forster (World War Z) directing the pilot.
The Sandman by Neil Gaiman
Originally published: 1989, Vertigo
Optioned for: Netflix
What it’s about: After escaping nearly a century of imprisonment, Morpheus, the Lord of Dreams and one of the Endless, goes about rebuilding his kingdom. Along the way, he visits Hell and Asgard, attempts to undo massive sins, and searches for his missing brother.
Status: There have been several Sandman film adaptations over the years, each of which have stalled out. But it seems like Morpheus might finally be coming to a screen this time. Netflix has greenlit and eleven-episode first season, and named a showrunner, Allan Heinberg (Wonder Woman, ABC’s The Catch, Grey’s Anatomy) who will also act as executive producer alongside Neil Gaiman and David S. Goyer. Variety reported on the news, and quoted Netflix’s VP of original series, Channing Dungy, saying: “We’re thrilled to partner with the brilliant team that is Neil Gaiman, David S. Goyer and Allan Heinberg to finally bring Neil’s iconic comic book series, The Sandman, to life onscreen…[F]rom its rich characters and storylines to its intricately built-out worlds, we’re excited to create an epic original series that dives deep into this multi-layered universe beloved by fans around the world.” Neil Gaiman went on to elaborate on his Twitter feed, saying “The first season will be eleven episodes. That’s the start of it all. Preludes and Nocturnes and a little bit more” and hoping the series will feel “personal and true.” As of November 2019, Gaiman updated fans with the news that he and the producers are breaking down the first two seasons, not just one. Here’s hoping that “24” is a single shot 60-minute episode with no cuts!
Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey
Originally published: 2009, Harper Voyager
Optioned for: Film (Studio 8)
What it’s about: James “Sandman Slim” Stark escapes over a decade in Hell as a gladiator to fight demons on the streets of Los Angeles, seeking revenge on the people who killed his lover.
Status: John Wick director Chad Stahelski will helm the adaptation, working off a screenplay penned by Kerry Williamson (What Happened to Monday).
Scythe by Neal Shusterman
Originally published: 2016, Simon & Schuster
Optioned for: Film (Universal/Bluegrass Films)
What it’s about: Despite eradicating all disease, hunger, and war, humankind must still keep the population levels manageable, through trained killers known as scythes. Two teens, Citra and Rowan, are unwillingly apprenticed to a scythe, knowing that they must learn this “art” of killing or risk losing their lives instead.
Status: Scott Stuber and Dylan Clark will produce the adaptation for Bluegrass Films, with 10 Cloverfield Lane screenwriters Josh Campbell and Matt Stuecken adapting Shusterman’s YA novel.
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
Originally published: 2015, William Morrow
Optioned for: Film (Skydance)
What it’s about: When the Moon unexpectedly blows up, it turns Earth into a ticking time bomb—prompting humans to create a multinational ark in the hopes of finding a new home before theirs is uninhabitable. Five thousand years later, the seven distinct races created from the survivors return to explore the foreign planet Earth.
Status: Director-producer duo Ron Howard and Brian Grazer are reteaming with Apollo 13 screenwriter Bill Broyles to adapt Neal Stephenson’s doorstopper of a generation ship novel.
Shadow and Bone, from the Grishaverse novels by Leigh Bardugo
Originally published: 2012, Macmillan
Optioned for: Television (Netflix)
What it’s about: Here’s how Deadline describes the series: “In a world cleaved in two by a massive barrier of perpetual darkness, where unnatural creatures feast on human flesh, a young soldier uncovers a power that might finally unite her country. But as she struggles to hone her power, dangerous forces plot against her. Thugs, thieves, assassins and saints are at war now, and it will take more than magic to survive.”
Status: Shadow and Bone will combine both the Grisha Trilogy and the Six of Crows duology into one TV series. Eric Heisserer (Bird Box, Arrival) will serve as creator, writer, showrunner, and executive producer. Bardugo will also be an EP alongside Pouya Shahbazian (the Divergent series) and Shawn Levy (Stranger Things) of production company 21 Laps Entertainment. In October the first round of casting was announced with Jessie Mei Li as Alina Starkov, Archie Renaux as Malyen Oretsev, Amita Suman as Inej, Kit Young as Jesper Fahey, Freddy Carter as Kaz Brekker, and, in news that set the internet on fire, Prince Caspian’s Ben Barnes as the Darkling.
Shadowman by Jim Shooter (writer), Steve Englehart (writer), and Mike Manley (artist)
Originally published: 1992, Valiant Comics
Optioned for: Film (The Sean Daniel Company/Valiant Entertainment)
What it’s about: A black musician in New Orleans becomes infected by an otherworldly spirit; as the latest Shadowman, he must fight against Master Darque and other creatures of the Deadside.
Status: Adam Simon (Salem) will rewrite a screenplay by J. Michael Straczynski, to be directed by Reginald Hudlin (Marshall). The project will be developed in-house before shopping around to studios.
Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older
Originally published: 2015, Arthur A. Levine Books
Optioned for: Film and Television (Roaring Virgin Productions)
What it’s about: During what’s supposed to be a relaxing summer, artist Sierra Santiago discovers shadowshaping, a magic that infuses ancestral spirits into paintings, music, and stories. But someone is killing the shadowshapers one by one. Now Sierra must unravel her family’s past, take down the killer in the present, and save the future of shadowshaping for generations to come.
Status: As of 2017, actress and producer Anika Noni Rose (who also optioned Older’s Bone Street Rumba series in 2015) has acquired film and TV rights.
Untitled Shakespeare Project, based on the works of William Shakespeare
Originally published: various
Optioned for: Television (LuckyChap Entertainment/Australian Broadcasting Company)
What it’s about: Margot Robbie is spearheading a ten-part TV series that will produce standalone episodes, overseen by female creative teams, that retell a particular Shakespeare story from the female perspective.
Status: Filming was expected to begin in 2018.
The Shambling Guide to New York City by Mur Lafferty
Originally published: 2013, Orbit Books
Optioned for: Film (Netflix)
What it’s about: Travel writer Zoe takes a shady job in New York City’s publishing industry… writing a travel guide to the Big Apple for the undead.
Status: Netflix, which has begun releasing other feature films including Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny and Pee-wee’s Big Holiday, is counting on The Shambling Guide to hit the sweet spot between YA and urban fantasy with this adaptation.
The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes
Originally published: 2013, Mulholland Books
Optioned for: Film (MRC)
What it’s about: Beukes’ celebrated time travel centers on Midwest serial killer Harper Curtis, who discovers a wormhole in a house that allows him to jump through time and hunt down the “shining girls” whose auras compel him; and Kirby Mizrachi, the only victim to survive an attack and (as she grows up) his eventual nemesis.
Status: Previously considered for television, The Shining Girls looks to be a film now. Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game, Passengers) is in talks to direct the adaptation, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Davison Killoran producing. Danny Boyle was previously attached to write the screenplay but left the project; perhaps Beukes, who is adapting her novel Zoo City as a screenplay, will take a stab at it.
Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
Originally published: 2010, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Optioned for: Film (Far East)
What it’s about: The novel, set after the melting of the polar ice caps, contemplates a world in which many major cities are underwater and follows a young boy named Nailer who tries to help a girl named Nita escape a blackmail plot.
Status: Oscar-winning writer/director Paul Haggis (Million Dollar Baby, Crash) will direct the adaptation, the first in a planned trilogy. Production was set to begin in late 2018.
Silver, from Silver Sable comics by various authors and artists
Originally published: 1985, Marvel Comics
Optioned for: Film (Sony Pictures)
What it’s about: The Spider-Man spinoff will follow mercenary Silver Sable.
Status: Despite announcing Silver & Black in 2017, Sony decided to split the team-up movie into two separate projects. Screenwriter Chris Yost (Thor: Ragnarok) and director Gina Prince-Bythewood (Cloak & Dagger) had previously been attached, but it is unclear if they will remain with either project.
Simultaneous, from “Simultaneous” by Eric Heisserer
Originally published: 2011, Popcorn Fiction
Optioned for: Television (Hulu)
What it’s about: Deadline describes the short story, written for the site Popcorn Fiction, as “a cerebral detective thriller involving regenerative past lives.”
Status: Heisserer (Arrival, Bird Box) will produce the series, while Colby Day (Children of Time, Spaceman of Bohemia) will write.
The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
Originally published: 1959, Delacorte
Optioned for: Television (Universal Cable Productions)
What it’s about: Vonnegut’s classic novel introduces readers to Malachi Constant—the richest, most depraved man in 22nd-century America, who is offered the chance to journey to distant worlds… but for a catch.
Status: Dan Harmon (Community, Rick and Morty) and Evan Katz (Small Crimes) are adapting the novel. As of May 2018 Harmon was still working on the adaptation, but there have been no updates on production or casting.
Six Months, Three Days by Charlie Jane Anders
Originally published: 2011, Tor.com
Optioned for: Television (NBC)
What it’s about: Charlie Jane Anders’ Hugo-winning Tor.com novellette tracks the doomed relationship between a man who can see the future and a woman who can see many futures.
Status: In 2013, NBC nabbed the rights to adapt the novelette (with Krysten Ritter producing) into “a light procedural” that recasts the man and woman as bickering private investigators who know they’ll fall in love… if they can save him from getting killed in six months and three days. Unfortunately, no update since then.
Skin Trade by George R.R. Martin
Originally published: 1989, Orion Publishing
Optioned for: Television (Cinemax)
What it’s about: George R.R. Martin describes his 1988 novella as an “offbeat werewolf noir”: Private investigator Randi Wade gets involved in a string of gruesome serial killings (taking the skin of victims) that reminds her of her father’s death two decades prior. But when a close friend becomes a target, she’s pulled into a hairy underworld.
Status: Cinemax ordered a pilot script, to be written by Kalinda Vazquez (Prison Break, Once Upon a Time), in 2015. No update since then.
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Originally published: 1969, Delacorte
Optioned for: Television (Universal Cable Productions/Epix)
What it’s about: When World War II soldier Billy Pilgrim becomes “unstuck in time,” he travels back and forth across his own timeline, including his period of captivity on the planet Tralfamadore by the four-dimension-seeing Tralfamadorians.
Status: Happy! showrunner Patrick Malmanus will write and executive produce, with Gale Anne Hurd producing and Kari Skogland (The Handmaid’s Tale) attached to direct.
Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King and Owen King
Originally published: 2017, Scribner
Optioned for: Television (TBD)
What it’s about: The inhabitants of a women’s prison in a small Appalachian town become shrouded in gauze when they go to sleep every night; if their slumber is disturbed, they turn feral and violent. All except Evie, who seems to be immune…
Status: Michael Sugar and Ashley Zalta (The OA, Maniac) will serve as executive producers. As of April 2019 AMC had made a pilot script commitment, with Owen King signed on to write the pilot.
Snapshot by Brandon Sanderson
Originally published: 2017, Dragonsteel Entertainment, LLC
Optioned for: Film (MGM Entertainment)
What it’s about: “Anthony Davis and his partner Chaz are the only real people in a city of 20 million, sent there by court order to find out what happened in the real world 10 days ago so that hidden evidence can be brought to light and located in the real city today. Within the re-created Snapshot of May 1st, Davis and Chaz are the ultimate authorities. Flashing their badges will get them past any obstruction and overrule any civil right of the dupes around them. But the crimes the detectives are sent to investigate seem like drudgery—until they stumble upon the grisly results of a mass killing that the precinct headquarters orders them not to investigate. That’s one order they have to refuse. The hunt is on. And though the dupes in the replica city have no future once the Snapshot is turned off, that doesn’t mean that both Davis and Chaz will walk out of it alive tonight.”
Status: In his State of the Sanderson 2018, the author described the adapted screenplay as “the best I’ve ever read based on one of my books.”
Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente
Originally published: 2018, Saga Press
Optioned for: Film (Universal Pictures)
What it’s about: Once every cycle, the great galactic civilizations gather for the Metagalactic Grand Prix—part gladiatorial contest, part beauty pageant, part concert extravaganza, and part continuation of the wars of the past. But when Earth makes first contact, the fate of humanity will depend on Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeroes, and their ability to rock.
Status: Marc Platt (La La Land) and Colin Trevorrow (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom) will produce.
Spaceman of Bohemia by Jaroslav Kalfař
Originally published: 2017, Little, Brown and Company
Optioned for: Film (Free Association)
What it’s about: “Orphaned as a boy, raised in the Czech countryside by his doting grandparents, Jakub Procházka has risen from small-time scientist to become the country’s first astronaut. When a dangerous solo mission to Venus offers him both the chance at heroism he’s dreamt of, and a way to atone for his father’s sins as a Communist informer, he ventures boldly into the vast unknown.”
Status: Johan Renck, who won two Emmys for his work on HBO’s Chernobyl, and has also directed episodes of Bloodline, Vikings, and Breaking Bad, has signed on to direct, with Colby Day (Simultaneous, Children of Time) adapting the novel for the screen.
Spawn by Todd McFarlane (writer/artist)
Originally published: 1992, Image Comics
Optioned for: Film (Blumhouse)
What it’s about: CIA black ops agent Al Newman (Jamie Foxx) is betrayed by his colleagues and lit on fire, only to return as a Hellspawn warrior. But when he comes back for his wife (the reason he accepted the transformation), he finds she has married his best friend.
Status: The film marks McFarlane’s directorial debut—unless he decides to walk away from the project.
Spin by Robert Charles Wilson
Originally published: 2005, Tor Books
Optioned for: Television (Syfy)
What it’s about: The Big Blackout cuts Earth off from the stars and sun through an alien barrier. With time passing faster outside of the barrier than on Earth, the youngest generation discovers that they may be the last: The sun will die in forty years unless someone figures out how to reverse this apocalypse or find new life on Mars.
Status: Syfy is supposedly planning a six-hour miniseries, but it wasn’t announced with the last crop of premieres, so it’s likely on the back burner.
The Stand by Stephen King
Originally published: 1978, Doubleday
Optioned for: Television (CBS All Access)
What it’s about: King’s novel explores the aftermath of a worldwide pandemic that has wiped out most of the population.
Status: Josh Boone’s (The New Mutants) adaptation has taken many forms over the years, the most current (as of early 2019) being a 10-hour limited series on CBS All Access. In the latest cast announcement, as of October 2019, Greg Kinnear had signed on to play Glen Batemen, alongside Whoopi Goldberg as prophet Mother Abagail, James Marsden as Stu Redman, Amber Heard as a schoolteacher named Nadine Cross, Odessa Young as Fran Goldsmith, a college student who learns she’s pregnant right before the pandemic hits, Henry Zaga as the saintly Nick Andros, and Alexander Skarsgård as the villain, Randall Flagg (aka the Man in Black)—because it just isn’t a King adaptation without at least one Skarsgård.
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Originally published: 2014, Knopf Doubleday
Optioned for: Television (WarnerMedia)
What it’s about: The Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning novel envisions a post-apocalyptic future twenty years after a flu pandemic wiped out much of civilization. The story is told through Kirsten Raymonde and the Traveling Symphony, a roaming troupe of actors keeping the arts and humanity alive.
Status: The HBOMax limited series will be directed by Hiro Murai, the visionary director of Atlanta and Barry. In October it was announced that Mackenzie Davis (The Turning, The Martian, Halt and Catch Fire) will star as Kirsten Raymonde, and Himesh Patel (Yesterday) will star as Jeevan Chaudhary.
Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson
Originally published: 2013, Random House Childrens Books
Optioned for: Film (21 Laps/Fox)
What it’s about: “How far would you go for revenge if someone killed your father? If someone destroyed your city? If everything you ever loved was taken from you? David Charleston will go to any lengths to stop Steelheart. But to exact revenge in Steelheart’s world, David will need the Reckoners—a shadowy group of rebels bent on maintaining justice. And it turns out that the Reckoners might just need David too.”
Status: According to State of the Sanderson 2018, the project is still in the works with the backing of Shawn Levy (Stranger Things, Real Steel) and the Fox studio. However, it is still in the screenplay stage.
The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss
Originally published: 2017, Saga Press
Optioned for: Television (The CW)
What it’s about: After the death of her father, Mary Jekyll discovers her half-sister Diana Hyde, and a series of gruesome murders tied to their late father.
Status: The CW put the series in development in late 2018, with AJ Marechal (The First) writing the adaptation.
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
Originally published: 1961, Putnam Publishing Group
Optioned for: Television (Syfy)
What it’s about: Heinlein’s classic novel tells the story of Valentine Michael Smith, a human who was raised by Martians, and who has to find way to adapt to human society after coming to live on Earth.
Status: Paramount TV and Universal Cable Productions (who have also collaborated on the series Shooter and Pendergast) are teaming up to adapt the novel.
Supergirl by various writers and artists
Originally published: 1959, DC Comics
Optioned for: Film (DC Films)
What it’s about: Not much is known about the project aside from the fact that it would focus on Kara Zor-El, Clark Kent’s cousin who also escaped Krypton. It is unclear (but also unlikely) that this movie would have any connection to the CW’s Supergirl (Melissa Benoist).
Status: Oren Uziel (The Cloverfield Paradox, 22 Jump Street) is writing the script; no director is yet attached.
Superior by Mark Millar (writer) and Leinil Yu (artist)
Originally published: 2010, Icon Comics (Marvel Comics)
Optioned for: Film (Fox)
What it’s about: Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a 12-year-old boy has his greatest wish granted: to become Superior, his favorite superhero. But after he discovers that the alien monkey who granted his wish is a demon, he must sell his soul to keep his powers.
Status: Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass, Kingsman: The Secret Service) is attached to adapt the project. The most recent update is from January 2016.
The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub
Originally published: 1984, Viking
Optioned for: Film (Amblin Entertainment)
What it’s about: Jack Sawyer, on a desperate quest to save his mother’s life, must search for a prize across an epic landscape of innocents and monsters, of incredible dangers and even more incredible truths.
Status: Chris Sparling (Buried) will adapt the novel, to be directed by Mike Barker (Outlander, The Handmaid’s Tale). Presumably a week after this film’s release, Hollywood will begin preemptively optioning Stephen King’s Notes app.
The Telling by Ursula K. Le Guin
Originally published: 2000, Harcourt
Optioned for: Film (Bayview Films)
What it’s about: Le Guin’s first Hainish Cycle followup novel since 1974’s The Disposessed follows Sutty Dass, a Terran sent to the planet Aka. While Sutty is supposed to be an observer, she becomes embroiled in the political and religious conflicts spawned by Aka’s outlawing of all customs and beliefs.
Status: Following Le Guin’s passing in early 2018, Bayview Films confirmed that it was developing the project, written and directed by Leena Pendharker (20 Weeks) and starring Battlestar Galactica’s Rekha Sharma. The film is projected for a 2019 release.
Temeraire by Naomi Novik
Originally published: 2006, Del Rey
Optioned for: Film or Television (TBD)
What it’s about: Alternate-history Napoleonic Wars in which protagonist Captain Will Laurence is part of the Aerial Corps, battling the French forces on the backs of fearsome dragons like his own, Temeraire.
Status: Peter Jackson optioned the rights in 2006 but has not made any moves to develop the project. According to quotes he gave in 2009, it would seem that he had originally intended to make a film trilogy, then realized that the material would be better suited to a miniseries. In 2016 Novik discussed the potential adaptation slightly in a reddit AMA, reiterating that while she couldn’t really say anything, something was happening. But whether that involves Peter Jackson or someone else, we have no update yet.
The Themis Files, from Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel
Originally published: 2016, Del Rey
Optioned for: Film (Sony Pictures Entertainment)
What it’s about: After falling through the ground and into the palm of a giant metal hand as a child, Rose Franklin, now grown-up and a physicist, leads a team to discover the answers behind the hand… and where the rest of the body is.
Status: Josh Bratman (Fright Night) and Matt Tolmach (The Amazing Spider-Man) will co-produce the film adaptation.
These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
Originally published: 2013, Disney Hyperion
Optioned for: Television (Freeform)
What it’s about: When the massive luxury spaceliner Icarus crashes into the closest planet, the only survivors are Lilac LaRoux (daughter of the richest man in the universe) and Tarver Merendsen (a war hero with humble origins). As these literally star-crossed lovers help each other survive, they begin to wonder if they even want to get off their new planet.
Status: Actor and producer Eric Balfour is teaming up with his producing partner Stephanie Varella and Fargo producer Warren Littlefield to adapt the first book in the Starbound trilogy (which includes This Shattered World and Their Fractured Light, both published). Continuum creator/showrunner Simon Barry will write the teleplay.
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Originally published: 2019, Saga Press
Optioned for: Television (wiip)
What it’s about: “Two time-traveling agents from warring futures, working their way through the past, begin to exchange letters—and fall in love.”
Status: Optioned in early 2019, ahead of publication. El-Mohtar and Gladstone will adapt and executive produce.
This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab
Originally published: 2016, HarperCollins
Optioned for: Film (Sony Pictures/Safehouse Pictures)
What it’s about: In the dystopian V-City, violent acts have bred actual monsters. One monster, August, can steal a soul with a simple strain of music. But as he tries to tamp down his murderous impulses, he finds himself teamed up with Kate, the daughter of an extortionist, after an assassination attempt.
Status: Sony optioned the film rights in 2016.
Time Salvager by Wesley Chu
Originally published: 2015, Tor Books
Optioned for: Film (Paramount Pictures)
What it’s about: Convicted criminal James Griffin-Mars is a chronman: He jumps back and forth in time to help delay humanity’s demise in the future. But when he brings a scientist from the past into the future with him, they both become fugitives.
Status: Michael Bay will direct the film adaptation, with Wesley Chu executive-producing and Zak Olkewicz (Fear Street, Malignant) adapting Chu’s novel.
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Originally published: 2003, MacAdam/Cage
Optioned for: Television (HBO)
What it’s about: The love story of Henry DeTamble, a librarian with Chrono-Displacement Disorder, and Clare Abshire, an artist who proceeds through time linearly.
Status: The novel was adapted to film in 2009, but now Steven Moffat (Doctor Who, Sherlock) is developing it for television. HBO gave the project a straight-to-series order in mid-2018.
Trees by Warren Ellis (writer) and Jason Howard (artist)
Originally published: 2014, Image Comics
Optioned for: Television (Hardy Son & Baker/NBCUniversal)
What it’s about: Aliens land on Earth, but they don’t make contact—they just stand on the surface, exerting silent pressure, refusing to acknowledge humans as intelligent life.
Status: Tom Hardy’s production company is currently developing the TV adaptation.
Under Glass by Sam Marsden
Originally published: 2018, Wattpad
Optioned for: Film and Television (Stampede Ventures)
What it’s about: “Under Glass is set in a glass-domed colony on Mars, where 17-year-old Eva Knight, the daughter of the colony’s president, detests the Martian way and dreams of living on Earth. When her brother is deemed unproductive and executed publicly by the Martian government, Eva must choose between accepting her mother’s path for her as a future dictator or find her place in the resistance.” (via THR)
Status: Marsden’s debut novel was optioned ahead of the 2018 Frankfurt Book Fair.
The Underwater Welder by Jeff Lemire
Originally published: 2012, Top Shelf Productions/IDW Publishing
Optioned for: Film (Anonymous Content)
What it’s about: Jack is an offshore oil rig worker who undertakes the dangerous work of underwater welding to repair the rig. Deep on one dive, Jack encounters a supernatural creature that allows him to interact with the ghost of his father.
Status: Ryan Gosling, Ken Kao, and Anonymous Content will serve as producers on the adaptation.
Unearthed by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
Originally published: 2017, Hyperion
Optioned for: Film (Cross Creek Pictures)
What it’s about: Unearthed is the first book of a duology by the writing duo behind These Broken Stars and is described as “Lara Croft meets Indiana Jones, set in deep space.” The sequel, Undying, will be published on January 22, 2019.
Status: Edge of Tomorrow director Doug Liman is planning to direct the adaptation, from a script by Jez and John-Henry Butterworth (Spectre, Edge of Tomorrow).
Uprising, from The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein
Originally published: 1966, G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Optioned for: Film (20th Century Fox)
What it’s about: Heinlein’s Hugo-winning novel depicts the revolt of a former Lunar penal colony against the Lunar Authority controlling it from Earth (no doubt where the movie’s title comes from)—a rebellion that counts among its numbers a technician, an academic, and an artificial intelligence committed to the cause.
Status: Fox picked up the movie rights in 2015, with X-Men’s Bryan Singer attached to direct. This will be the third attempted adaptation of the novel; DreamWorks and Phoenix Pictures both had projects in the works at some point, but each time the rights reverted back to Heinlein’s estate.
Uprooted by Naomi Novik
Originally published: 2015, Del Rey
Optioned for: Film (Warner Bros)
What it’s about: Plain, clumsy, loyal Agnieszka is handed over to the Dragon, a fearsome wizard who takes one girl from her village every ten years. She never expected to be taken—expected that he would take her beautiful, brave best friend Kasia—but as Agnieszka begins exploring the magic she never knew she had, it soon becomes clear why the Dragon felt compelled to take her instead.
Status: Naomi Novik is working with Ellen DeGeneres to adapt the novel.
The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice
Originally published: 1976, Knopf
Optioned for: Television (Hulu/Paramount Television/Anonymous Content)
What it’s about: Beginning with Interview with the Vampire, Rice’s series follows vampire Lestat de Lioncourt through his long eternal life.
Status: Paramount Television and Anonymous Content have optioned the rights to all 11 novels in the series; the author describes the adaptation as “an open ended series.” Rice will serve as executive producer alongside her son Christopher Rice, who will be main writer and showrunner. Alex Kurtzman, who was attached to a previous potential film adaptation at Universal Pictures, will also serve as a producer. Bryan Fuller joined the project in early 2018 but then departed. Rice has invited fans to submit their suggestions for up-and-comers to play Lestat. As of February 2019, Nashville executive producer Dee Johnson has joined as showrunner.
Wanderers by Chuck Wendig
Originally published: 2019, Del Rey
Optioned for: Television (QC Entertainment)
What it’s about: “A decadent rock star. A deeply religious radio host. A disgraced scientist. And a teenage girl who may be the world’s last hope.”
Status: Optioned in 2019, ahead of the book’s publication, by the production company behind Get Out BlacKkKlansman, and Us. Per Wendig’s announcement, this will be the company’s first venture into television!
The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
Originally published: 1898, William Heinemann
Optioned for: Television (The Firm/MTV)
What it’s about: An unnamed protagonist in Surrey and his brother in London watch as Martians invade southern London.
Status: There is a second adaptation in the works! Teen Wolf creators Jeff Davis and Andrew Cochran will adapt Wells’ iconic novel for MTV, but there’s been no update on this project since late 2016.
The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett
Originally published: 2009, Del Rey
Optioned for: Film (New Harlem Partnership)
What it’s about: Three young survivors of vicious demon (or coreling) attacks step beyond the safe bounds of warded magic to discover secrets about the past and figure out how to level the playing field between humans and corelings.
Status: After Paul W.S. Anderson’s hold on the rights expired, Spike Seldin (The A-Team) and Hans Futterman picked them up. Brett will adapt his novel into a screenplay. New Harlem is currently meeting with potential financiers and distributors.
Warrior Nun, from Warrior Nun Areala by Jim Gelvin (writer) and Craig Babiar (artist)
Originally published: 1994, Antarctic Press
Optioned for: Television (Netflix)
What it’s about: “A young woman wakes up in a morgue with inexplicable powers and gets caught in a battle between good and evil.”
Status: Simon Barry (Continuum, Van Helsing) is creator, executive producer, and showrunner. Netflix has ordered 10 episodes, and filming took place from March to July 2019.
The Warriors by Sol Yurick
Originally published: 1965, E.P. Dutton
Optioned for: Television (Paramount TV/Hulu)
What it’s about: When they’re framed for the murder of the leader of New York City’s street gangs, the eponymous Warriors must race back to their home turf of Coney Island before the rival gangs tear them apart.
Status: The Russo brothers (Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Civil War) will direct a script from Frank Baldwin as a one-hour drama.
The Watch, from the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett
Originally published: 1983, Colin Smythe
Optioned for: Television (Narrativia/BBC Studios)
What it’s about: While it is unclear exactly which parts of the Discworld universe the six-part series will pull from, the working title would imply that the story will center on the Ankh-Morpork City Watch—perhaps as a “Pratchett-style CSI” procedural.
Status: An adaptation has been in the works since late 2015, but it was an announcement in early 2018 that confirmed that The Watch is actively in development. Richard Dormer (Game of Thrones) was announced as Captain of The Watch Sam Vimes, joining a cast that includes Jo Eaton-Kent as non-binary forensics expert Constable Cheery, Adam Hugill as Constable Carrot, Marama Corlette as Corporal Angua, Lara Rossi as Lady Sybil Ramkin, and Sam Adewunmi as the bitter Carcer Dun, who is set on vengeance against the whole city. The series will be eight episodes, and began filming in fall of 2019. It was announced late in 2019 that Anna Chancellor would be playing Lord Vetinari; you can find more casting updates here.
Watchdog by Will McIntosh
Originally published: Delacorte, 2017
Optioned for: Television (Sonar Entertainment)
What it’s about: Twins Vick and Tara, who is autistic (communicative but faced with worsening systems), and their loyal robot watchdog Daisy fend for themselves on the streets of futuristic, economically devastated Chicago.
Status: Art Brown and Douglas Sloan (Dragons: Race to the Edge) will serve as showrunners on the animated series.
Way Down Dark by James Smythe
Originally published: 2016, Quercus
Optioned for: Film (Studio 8)
What it’s about: The first book in Smythe’s YA sci-fi trilogy follows the inhabitants of the spaceship Australia, plagued by gang warfare, as they search for a habitable planet.
Status: Studio 8 optioned the rights in 2015.
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
Originally published: 2010, Tor Books
Optioned for: Film and Television (DMG Entertainment)
What it’s about: The first installment in The Stormlight Archive follows Kaladin, a medical apprentice turned slave; Brightlord Dalinar Kholin, commanding one of ten armies in a war that makes no sense; Shallan, an untried woman seeking to train under an eminent scholar and notorious heretic; and the fallen Knights Radiant and the Shardblades they left behind.
Status: In 2016, DMG Entertainment made a licensing and film deal for the rights to Sanderson’s Cosmere universe. DMG likened the acquisition to obtaining the rights for a comic-book universe, as the Cosmere contains The Stormlight Archive, Mistborn, White Sand, and more. They are currently fast-tracking an adaptation of Way of Kings; screenwriters Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, the writing team behind several Saw films, will adapt the screenplay. DMG is also adapting the Mistborn series for film but has not determined a screenwriter yet. Sanderson will serve as an executive producer. In his State of the Sanderson 2018, he shared an update that DMG is trying to get studio interest for the properties, pitching Mistborn as a film series and The Way of Kings as a television series.
Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire
Originally published: 2016, Tor.com Publishing
Optioned for: Television (Legendary Television/Syfy)
What it’s about: The novella series, set at Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children, chronicles what happens when the portal fantasy ends and the hero/ine must return to the real world.
Status: Joe Tracz (Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief, A Series of Unfortunate Events TV series) will adapt the novella and serve as showrunner.
We Are All Completely Fine by Daryl Gregory
Originally published: 2014, Tachyon Publications
Optioned for: Television (Syfy)
What it’s about: Psychotherapist Dr. Jan Sayer brings together the final girls (and final boys) of various horror-movie scenarios for a support group. But in trying to help these survivors, Dr. Sayer unwittingly unlocks the supernatural evils buried within their consciousnesses.
Status: After Wes Craven’s death in 2015, Syfy announced that it still intends to move forward with a number of projects, including We Are All Completely Fine.
The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett
Originally published: 2003, Doubleday
Optioned for: Film (Narrativia & The Jim Henson Company)
What it’s about: The first of several Tiffany Aching stories, about the young witch-to-be’s discovery of her powers. Armed with her frying pan and common sense, and aided by the Wee Free Men, Tiffany faces off against headless horsemen, dreams come true (in the worst way), and the Elf Queen.
Status: Pratchett’s daughter Rhianna Pratchett announced back in 2013 that she was adapting the novel as a feature-length film, but there were no updates until the project was confirmed at Pratchett’s memorial. The Jim Henson Company will co-produce with Narrativia.
Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor
Originally published: 2010, DAW
Optioned for: Television (HBO)
What it’s about: Onyesonwu, whose name means “who fears death,” is Ewu—conceived by rape, expected to live a life of violence as a half-breed rejected by her community. Instead, Onye discovers that she manifests the beginnings of a remarkable and unique magic.
Status: George R.R. Martin will serve as an executive producer on the television adaptation; Okorafor will also be very involved in the project, with Selwyn Seyfu Hinds penning the adaptation. HBO officially closed on the deal in September 2017; no real update since then.
Wild Cards, from the Wild Cards series edited by George R.R. Martin and Melinda Snodgrass
Originally published: 1987, Bantam Books
Optioned for: Television (Hulu/Universal Cable Productions)
What it’s about: Martin’s shared-universe anthology tracks the aftermath of an alien virus released after World War II, which killed 90% of those who contracted it but imbued a small number of survivors with extraordinary powers. Some have used them for good, others for evil. The 22 published installments have featured stories by dozens of authors, including Roger Zelazny, Pat Cadigan, Daniel Abraham, Ty Franck, Cherie Priest, Paul Cornell, and more.
Status: In 2016, Martin announced that UCP was adapting the mosaic novels for television, with co-editor Melinda Snodgrass (Star Trek: The Next Generation) as showrunner. In 2018, Hulu opened a writers room for a Wild Cards shared universe, with the plan to develop two TV series written by Andrew Miller (The Secret Circle). Martin, Snodgrass, and Vince Gerardis will serve as executive producers. In the meantime, here’s everything you need to know about the series before it comes to TV.
Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler
Originally published: 1980, Doubleday
Optioned for: Television (Amazon Prime Video)
What it’s about: Wild Seed is the first book in Octavia E. Butler’s Patternist series, about two African immortals whose lives span ages. One is Doro, who kills and uses his abilities to breed people as livestock, the other is Anyanwu, a healer who demands that Doro come to terms with his cruelty.
Status: Viola Davis and Julius Tennon’s JuVee Productions are developing Wild Seed for Amazon Prime Video, with Nnedi Okorafor (Binti, Who Fears Death) and Wanuri Kahiu (Rafiki) to co-write the series and Kahiu set to direct.
Wildwood by Colin Meloy (writer) and Carson Ellis (artist)
Originally published: 2011, Balzer + Bray
Optioned for: Film (LAIKA)
What it’s about: Set in an alternate version of Portland, OR, the middle-grade epic fantasy follows young Prue McKeel, who must enter the Impassable Wilderness after her little brother is abducted by a murder of crows.
Status: LAIKA picked up the rights shortly after publication, but the film, a stop-motion adaptation, has not been released yet. As of May 2018 it is said to be the studio’s next project, with ParaNorman director Chris Butler directing a cast including Zoe Saldana, Zach Galifianakis, and Hugh Jackman.
The Witch Boy by Molly Knox Ostertag
Originally published: 2017, Scholastic
Optioned for: Film (Fox Animation)
What it’s about: “In thirteen-year-old Aster’s family, all the girls are raised to be witches, while boys grow up to be shapeshifters. Anyone who dares cross those lines is exiled. Unfortunately for Aster, he still hasn’t shifted… and he’s still fascinated by witchery, no matter how forbidden it might be. When a mysterious danger threatens the other boys, Aster knows he can help—as a witch.”
Status: Fox Animation picked up the film rights in 2017.
Witchblade by various authors and artists
Originally published: 1995, Top Cow Productions/Image Comics
Optioned for: Television (Sony Pictures Television/NBC Universal)
What it’s about: NBC’s adaptation will be a police procedural following homicide detective Sara Pezzini, on the hunt for a serial killer only to discover that the bracelet she has worn her entire life is actually the mystical Witchblade amulet, giving her supernatural insight into cases.
Status: Fresh off The Vampire Diaries, Caroline Dries and Brian Young (who wrote the pilot) will executive produce. The last time Witchblade was adapted was as a short-lived TV series in 2001 starring Yancy Butler. However, there has been no update since 2017.
The Witchlands by Susan Dennard
Originally published: 2016, Tor Teen
Optioned for: Television (The Jim Henson Company)
What it’s about: The series is set in a world where three empires rule and every member of the population is born with a magical skill set, known as a “witchery.” Now, as the Twenty-Year Truce in a centuries-long war is about to come to an end, the balance of power will fall on the shoulders of two young women, Safiya and Iseult, who must accept their fate, and themselves, to survive.
Status: Lisa Henson, CEO and President of The Jim Henson Company, and Halle Stanford, President of Television at The Jim Henson Company, will serve as executive producers for the project. Susan Dennard will serve as co-executive producer. The Emmy Award-winning Jim Henson’s Creature Shop will create the creature characters for the series. More information in the official announcement.
Wool by Hugh Howey
Originally published: 2013, Simon & Schuster
Optioned for: Television (AMC)
What it’s about: In a post-apocalyptic future characterized by a ruined and toxic landscape, surviving humans live in a silo deep underground. When Sheriff Holston breaks the community’s most important rule, asking to go outside, he is replaced by mechanic Juliette. But as Juliette is entrusted with fixing her silo, she begins to discover just how broken their society is.
Status: While 20th Century Fox held the film rights for many years (with Guardians of the Galaxy screenwriter Nicole Perlman hired to revise the screenplay), those rights have since lapsed. Now, LaToya Morgan (Shameless, Parenthood, Into the Badlands) will executive produce the TV series as well as write the pilot.
X-Force by Fabian Nicieza (writer) and Rob Liefeld (artist)
Originally published: 1991, Marvel Comics
Optioned for: Film (20th Century Fox)
What it’s about: The film will spin off directly from Deadpool 2, following Deadpool, Cable, and Domino.
Status: Writer/director Drew Goddard (The Cabin in the Woods, Bad Times at the El Royale) is hard at work on the film. However, its fate is unclear following the Disney/Fox merger. But as of January 2019 there were hints that it is still on the schedule? Like all things involving Deadpool, confusion abounds.
Xanth series by Piers Anthony
Originally published: 1977, Ballantine Books & Del Rey
Optioned for: Television and Film (SP Entertainment Group)
What it’s about: Anthony’s long-running fantasy saga takes place in the eponymous land of Xanth, whose inhabitants develop their “talent,” or magic, to become powerful magicians while encountering mythological creatures and maybe popping back and forth into Mundania.
Status: Producer Steven Paul’s (Ghost in the Shell, Ghost Rider) SP Entertainment Group is launching development of the Xanth novels into both a feature film and a television series.
Zero K by Don DeLillo
Originally published: 2016, Scribner
Optioned for: Television (FX)
What it’s about: Billionaire Ross Lockhart sends his wife Artis Martineau, diagnosed with a terminal illness, to a secret compound where bodies are preserved and death is staved off. With a personal investment now joining his financial stake, Ross hopes that Zero K can help save Artis’ life… but the story is told from the POV of Jeffrey Lockhart, their son.
Status: The rights were optioned before the book was even published.
Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke
Originally published: 2011, First Second Books
Optioned for: Film (Fox Animation)
What it’s about: When her best friend is abducted by an alien doomsday cult, Zita leaps to the rescue—encountering ancient prophecies, doomed planets, and mysterious con men along the way.
Status: Screenwriting duo Morgan Jurgenson and Alex Ankeles (Hyperdrive, Tucker & Dale vs. Evil) will adapt Eisner Award winner Ben Hatke’s Miyazaki-esque graphic novel trilogy.
RUMORED
Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
Originally published: 1984, Random House
Optioned for: Film (TBD)
What it’s about: Lifelong friends who had gone their separate ways are reunited by a mysterious woman with a crystal staff, destined to become something they never would have expected: heroes.
Status: Joe Manganiello (Magic Mike) is enthusiastic about making a Dungeons & Dragons movie happen—specifically, this adaptation of the first Dragonlance novel, from a screenplay developed with John Cassel. Manganiello has been in talks with Wizards of the Coast, but so far this project seems to be in the very early planning stages. In the meantime, revisit our Dragonlance Reread!
Untitled X-23 Spinoff by Craig Kyle (writer/artist)
Originally published: 2004, Marvel Comics
Optioned for: Film (TBD)
What it’s about: Unclear, though it will most likely follow the events of Logan and could branch out in terms of genre.
Status: Logan writer/director James Mangold is working on the script for a Laura sequel, but that’s all we know so far. Fate unclear following the Disney/Fox merger, but as of October 2019 Mangold stated that he was still excited for the project, but that he doubted it would happen in the near future.
CURRENTLY ON THE AIR / RETURNING NEXT SEASON
The 100 (Television, The CW)
Adapted from: The 100 by Kass Morgan
Originally published: 2013, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
What it’s about: Following a worldwide nuclear war, the survivors of the human race live above the devastated Earth. Until 100 juvenile delinquents are sent down to the planet’s surface to see if it has become habitable again. The CW series has very much diverged from Morgan’s ongoing book series, but the premise is the same.
Status: Renewed for a seventh and final season in August 2019.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Television, Marvel Studios/ABC)
Adapted from: various Marvel Comics by various authors and artists
Originally published: 1965, Marvel Comics
What it’s about: Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) and the rest of S.H.I.E.L.D. must deal with unusual cases and threats from Hydra and Inhumans.
Status: Season 6 premiered May 10, and the show’s seventh and final season is set to air in 2020.
Altered Carbon (Television, Netflix)
Adapted from: Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan
Originally published: 2002, Gollancz
What it’s about: In a post-cyberpunk future, human consciousness can be stored, downloaded, and reuploaded into “sleeves,” or new bodies. Soldier Takeshi Kovacs is downloaded into the body of a disgraced cop to investigate the death of a Meth, or aristocrat, who’s convinced that he was murdered.
Status: Renewed for an eight-episode season 2, with Anthony Mackie replacing Joel Kinnaman as Kovacs’ current body, and Lela Loren joining the cast as Danica Harlan. The series is scheduled to return in 2020.
American Gods (Television, Starz)
Adapted from: American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Originally published: 2001, William Morrow
What it’s about: Showrunners Bryan Fuller (Hannibal) and Michael Green (Heroes) initially made Gaiman’s novel, about the battles between old gods and new, into a sort of anthology series. The two left the show after a dispute with Starz, and Jesse Alexander was hired on as showrunner, where he worked with Neil Gaiman to keep the series on track. Alexander left the show in September 2018, and the show continued without an official showrunner until Charles Eglee, a former executive producer of Dexter, The Shield, and The Walking Dead, was hired to helm the upcoming third season. According to Gaiman, he and Eglee have already begun to map out a fourth season as well.
Status: Renewed for a third season in March 2019.
Arrow (Television, The CW)
Adapted from: Green Arrow by Mort Weisinger (writer) and George Papp (artist)
Originally published: 1941, DC Comics
What it’s about: After being shipwrecked on an island for five years, billionaire playboy-turned-costumed hero Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) returns to Starling City to protect its citizens and his loved ones from criminals.
Status: The eighth and final season premiered on October 15, 2019. This season will be part of a “Crisis On Infinite Earths” crossover in December and January that will include Batwoman, Supergirl, The Flash, and Legends of Tomorrow.
Batwoman (2019)
Adapted from: Batwoman by Geoff Johns (writer), Grant Morrison (writer), Greg Rucka (writer), Mark Waid (writer), and Keith Giffen (artist)
Originally published: 2006, DC Comics
Optioned for: Television (The CW)
What it’s about: “Armed with a passion for social justice and a flair for speaking her mind, Kate Kane (Ruby Rose) soars onto the streets of Gotham as Batwoman, an out lesbian and highly trained street fighter primed to snuff out the failing city’s criminal resurgence. But don’t call her a hero yet. In a city desperate for a savior, Kate must overcome her own demons before embracing the call to be Gotham’s symbol of hope.”
Status: Season 1 premiered on October 6, 2019, and was picked up for a full 22-episode season.
Black Lightning (Television, The CW)
Adapted from: various DC Comics by various authors and artists
Originally published: 1977, DC Comics
What it’s about: “Jefferson Pierce (Cress Williams) is a man wrestling with a secret. Nine years ago, Pierce was gifted with the superhuman power to harness and control electricity, which he used to keep his hometown streets safe as the masked vigilante Black Lightning. However, after too many nights with his life and his family on the line, he left his Super Hero days behind. Almost a decade later, Pierce’s crime-fighting days are long behind him…or so he thought. But with crime and corruption spreading like wildfire, Black Lightning returns—to save not only his family, but also the soul of his community.”
Status: Season 3 premiered in October 2019.
Castle Rock (Television, Hulu/Bad Robot)
Adapted from: the universe of Stephen King
Originally published: various
What it’s about: Named for the fictional Maine town appearing (or mentioned) in many of King’s novels and short stories, Castle Rock is a horror anthology series that will both draw from King’s existing body of work while including new stories.
Status: The second season premiered in October 2019, featuring Lizzy Caplan as Annie Wilkes and Tim Robbins as Reginald “Pop” Merrill.
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (Television, Netflix)
Adapted from: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (writer) and Robert Hack (artist)
Originally published: 2014, Archie Horror
What it’s about: Aguirre-Sacasa’s new interpretation of Sabrina the Teenage Witch draws from the recent series reimagining her occult upbringing as a half-mortal, half-witch.
Status: Renewed for a sixteen-episode second season, which will be released in two separate parts. No word on a release date.
The City & the City (Television, BBC Two)
Adapted from: The City & the City by China Miéville
Originally published: 2009, Del Rey
What it’s about: To solve a murder, Inspector Tyador Borlú must move between the overlapping twin cities of Besźel and Ul Qoma.
Status: Tony Grisoni (The Young Pope, Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams has adapted the novel into a four-part series) starring David Morrissey (The Walking Dead) and Mandeep Dhillon (Wolfblood). The BBC released the first four episodes for UK viewers on in April 2018, but no word yet on when U.S. viewers will be able to watch.
Cloak & Dagger (Television, Freeform/Marvel Television)
Adapted from: Cloak and Dagger by various authors and artists
Originally published: 1983, Marvel Comics
What it’s about: Tandy “Dagger” Bowen (Olivia Holt) and Tyrone “Cloak” Johnson (Aubrey Joseph) are an unusual duo, in that their superpowers are incredibly complementary: She can create daggers of light, while he can engulf others in total darkness. Writer/director Gina Prince-Bythewood (Beyond the Lights, An Untamed State) directed the pilot.
Status: Series canceled in October 2019 after two seasons.
Creepshow (2019)
Adapted from: Stories by Stephen King and Joe Hill
Originally published: Various
Optioned for: Television (Shudder)
What it’s about: The six-episode series will adapt the 1982 movie of the same name (for which King wrote the screenplay), but will adapt to-be-determined stories by King and Hill.
Status: Renewed for a second season in October 2019.
Deadly Class (Television, Syfy)
Adapted from: Deadly Class by Rick Remender (writer) and Wes Craig (artist)
Originally published: 2014, Image Comics
What it’s about: High school intrigue—first love, gossip, cliques, growing up—at a boarding school for assassins in 1987 San Francisco.
Status: Adapted for television by the Russo brothers (Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame). Series cancelled in June 2019 after one season; the cast and creators are actively looking for a new home for the show.
A Discovery of Witches (Television, BBC America)
Adapted from: A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
Originally published: 2011, Penguin Books
What it’s about: Diana Bishop (Teresa Palmer), an alchemical history professor at the University of Oxford, gets caught up with an ancient manuscript that calls to the magic in her blood, and a charming vampire, Matthew Clairmont (Matthew Goode), who may also have designs on her blood. Doctor Who’s Alex Kingston will play Diana’s aunt Sarah Bishop, with Sherlock’s Lindsay Duncan as Matthew’s vampiric mother Ysabeau de Clermont.
Status: Jane Tranter and Bad Wolf will produce the series; Harkness is one of the executive producers and is writing some of the episodes. Season 1 premiered in September 2018 in the UK, and debuted in April 2019 in the US (AMC / BBC America); the series has been renewed for a second and third season, but no word on release dates.
Doom Patrol (Television, DC Universe)
Adapted from: Doom Patrol by Arnold Drake (writer), Bob Haney (writer), and Bruno Premiani (artist)
Originally published: 1963, DC Comics
What it’s about: It is unclear which iteration of the long-running series the TV show will be based on, but here’s the official synopsis: “Doom Patrol is a re-imagining of one of DC’s most beloved group of outcast Super Heroes: Robotman (Brendan Fraser), Negative Man, Elasti-Girl (April Bowlby), and Crazy Jane (Diane Guerrero), led by modern-day mad scientist Dr. Niles Caulder (The Chief) (Timothy Dalton). The Doom Patrol’s members each suffered horrible accidents that gave them superhuman abilities—but also left them scarred and disfigured. Traumatized and downtrodden, the team found purpose through The Chief, who brought them together to investigate the weirdest phenomena in existence—and to protect Earth from what they find. Part support group, part Super Hero team, the Doom Patrol is a band of super-powered freaks who fight for a world that wants nothing to do with them. Picking up after the events of Titans, Doom Patrol will find these reluctant heroes in a place they never expected to be, called to action by none other than Cyborg (Joivan Wade), who comes to them with a mission hard to refuse, but with a warning that is hard to ignore: their lives will never, ever be the same.”
Status: Season 2 premieres in 2020 on DC Universe and the new HBO Max streaming service.
The Expanse (Television, Amazon Prime Video)
Adapted from: The Expanse series by James S.A. Corey (Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck)
Originally published: 2011, Orbit Books
What it’s about: Hundreds of years in the future, humans have colonized the solar system, but tensions have war simmering among Earth, Mars, and the Asteroid Belt. The disappearance of Julie Mao (Florence Faivre) brings together a hardened detective (Thomas Jane) and a rogue ship’s captain (Steven Strait), pointing them toward a massive conspiracy.
Status: Syfy cancelled the series after three seasons, and the show was picked up by Amazon. Season 4 will premiere on December 13th, 2019. You can watch a thank-you video from the cast and crew from SDCC, and here’s a trailer.
Fear the Walking Dead (Television, AMC)
Adapted from: The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman (writer) and Tony Moore (artist)
Originally published: 2003, Image Comics
What it’s about: A prequel series to The Walking Dead, about the early days of the zombie apocalypse.
Status: Renewed for a sixth season in July 2019.
The Feed by Nick Clark Windo
Adapted from: The Feed by Nick Clark Windo
Originally published: 2018, HarperCollins
What it’s about: Set in the nearish future, it gives us a world connected by an advanced communications network—so advanced that it allows anyone in the world to telepathically communicate their thoughts, emotions, and vision with anyone else. At least, it does until the network collapses. But there is one man who has resisted the Feed…and he just happens to be son of one of the network’s founders.
Status: The series premiered on Amazon Prime Video on November 22, 2019.
The Flash (Television, The CW)
Adapted from: Flash Comics by Gardner Fox (writer) and Harry Lampert (artist)
Originally published: 1940, DC Comics
What it’s about: Crime scene investigator Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) uses his newly-gained super speed to help put criminals behind bars.
Status: Season 6 premiered in October 2019.
The Handmaid’s Tale (Television, Hulu)
Adapted from: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Originally published: 1985, McClelland and Stewart
What it’s about: Offred (Elisabeth Moss) is a handmaid, or concubine, belonging to a wealthy couple in the totalitarian Republic of Gilead. She narrates the story of how Gilead came to be, as well as her small and large acts of sedition within the established hierarchy, and her search for her missing family.
Status: Renewed for a fourth season in July 2019.
HAPPY! (Television, Syfy)
Adapted from: HAPPY! by Grant Morrison (writer) and Darick Robertson (artist)
Originally published: 2012, Image Comics
What it’s about: After a shootout lands him in the ICU, ex-cop-turned-hitman Nick Sax (Chris Meloni) gets visited by a tiny blue horse named Happy (Patton Oswalt)… the invisible friend of a girl being held captive by a child murderer dressed as Santa Claus. As Christmas bells begin ringing, Sax must team up with this figment of a child’s imagination to find her. Morrison and writer-director Brian Taylor co-wrote the pilot and are set as executive producers.
Status: Series cancelled in June 2019 after two seasons.
The Haunting of Hill House (Television, Netflix)
Adapted from: The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Originally published: 1959, Viking
Optioned for: Television (Amblin TV/Netflix)
What it’s about: “Flashing between past and present, a fractured family confronts haunting memories of their old home and the terrifying events that drove them from it.”
Status: Season 2, titled The Huanting of Bly Manor, is expected to premiere in 2020. Season 2 is an adaptation of Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw.
His Dark Materials (2019)
Adapted from: His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
Originally published: 1995, Scholastic UK/1996, Alfred A. Knopf
Optioned for: Television (BBC One/HBO)
What it’s about: Lyra, an orphan, and her trusty dæmon Pan travel through parallel universes in order to learn the truth about her parents, prophecies about Lyra’s place in the fight against celestial beings, and the meaning behind the mysterious Dust.
Status: The BBC partnered with New Line Cinema (who produced the movie version of The Golden Compass in 2007) to adapt all three books for television, with author Philip Pullman drawing comparisons to Game of Thrones and The Wire. Jack Thorne (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child) wrote the teleplay, under the watch of producers Jane Tranter and Julie Gardner (Doctor Who). The cast includes Logan’s Dafne Keen as Lyra, James McAvoy as Lord Asriel, Ruth Wilson as Mrs. Coulter, Ruta Gedmintas as Serafina Pekkala, and Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda as Lee Scoresby. The show premiered in November 2019 in both the US and UK, and production on Season Two has already begun.
Krypton (Television, Syfy)
Adapted from: various Superman comics by various writers and artists
Originally published: 1938, DC Comics
What it’s about: “Set two generations before the destruction of the legendary Man of Steel’s home planet, Krypton follows Superman’s grandfather (Cameron Cuffe, The Halcyon)—whose House of El was ostracized and shamed—as he fights to redeem his family’s honor and save his beloved world from chaos.”
Status: Series cancelled in August 2019 after two seasons.
Legends of Tomorrow (Television, The CW)
Adapted from: various comics by various writers and artists
Originally published: various, DC Comics
What it’s about: Characters from Arrow and The Flash, as well as from various DC Comics series, travel through time to fight baddies and fix anachronisms throughout history.
Status: Season 5 is set to premiere in January 2020.
Lucifer (Television, Netflix)
Adapted from: The Sandman by Neil Gaiman (writer) and Sam Kieth (artist), and Lucifer by Mike Carey (writer) and Scott Hampton, Chris Weston, and James Hodgins (artists)
Originally published: 1989, Vertigo
What it’s about: Bored of Hell, Lucifer (Merlin’s Tom Ellis) abandons his throne for Los Angeles, where he opens a nightclub called Lux. But it’s not all fun and games of making people express their darkest desires; when a starlet gets murdered, he decides to team up with the LAPD, even as he’s dodging angels demanding he return to the underworld.
Status: The series was cancelled by Fox after three seasons, and resurrected by Netflix. The fifth and final season will consist of 16 episodes, but word on a premiere date.
The Magicians (Television, Syfy)
Adapted from: The Magicians by Lev Grossman
Originally published: 2009, Viking
What it’s about: In this adaptation of Lev Grossman’s bestselling series, Quentin Coldwater (Jason Ralph) discovers that the magical world he read about as a child is real when he is accepted to the prestigious (and very secret) Brakebills University. Alongside old and new friends, Quentin learns that magic is just one part of a curriculum that goes live work play study screw drink cram… drink.
Status: Season 5 is set to premiere in January 2020.
The Man in the High Castle (Television, Amazon Studios)
Adapted from: The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
Originally published: 1962, Putnam
What it’s about: The Man in the High Castle presents an alternate history where America loses World War II and is split between Nazi Germany and Japan. Juliana Crain (Alexa Davalos) receives a mysterious film reel from her sister, who is then murdered; the film reel contains glimpses of an alternate reality in which the United States won the war. Juliana sets out to find the person who created the reel—The Man in the High Castle. Read our review.
Status: The fourth and final season premiered on Amazon in November 2019.
Mr. Mercedes (Television, Audience Network)
Adapted from: Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King
Originally published: 2014, Scribner
What it’s about: When a killer dubbed “Mr. Mercedes” (Penny Dreadful’s Harry Treadaway), due to the grisly nature of his automobile crime, taunts retired detective Bill Hodges (Brendan Gleeson) with a series of lurid letters and emails, Hodges must stir himself from his depression to stop Mr. Mercedes from killing again.
Status: Season 3 premiered in September 2019.
Outlander (Television, Starz)
Adapted from: Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
Originally published: 1991, Delacorte Books
What it’s about: On a second honeymoon in Scotland in 1945, former WWII nurse Claire Randall (Caitriona Balfe) is transported back in time to Scotland in 1743, where she falls in love with Highland warrior Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan).
Status: Renewed for fifth and sixth seasons, with the fifth season set to premiere on February 16, 2020.
The Passage (Television, Fox)
Adapted from: The Passage by Justin Cronin
Originally published: 2010, Ballantine Books
What it’s about: Federal agent Brad Wolgast (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) must protect young Amy (Saniyya Sidney) from being experimented on by the government to test a new virus—a virus that “could either cure all disease or cause the downfall of the human race.” As Cronin’s trilogy is about vampires, you can guess what winds up happening.
Status: Cancelled in Spring 2019, after its first season.
Riverdale (Television, The CW)
Adapted from: Archie Comics by Mark Waid (writer) and Fiona Staples, Annie Chu, and Veronica Flash (artists)
Originally published: 2015, Archie Comics
What it’s about: Based on some of the more daring Archie Comics issues of recent memory, Riverdale (executive produced by Greg Berlanti, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, and others) looks to be a mashup of Pretty Little Liars and Twin Peaks: The usual high-school angst and love triangles are all still here, but set against an ominous backdrop that begins with the mysterious death of Riverdale’s golden boy. Watch the first trailer!
Status: Season 4 premiered in October 2019.
Roswell, New Mexico (Television, The CW)
Adapted from: Roswell High series by Melinda Metz
Originally published: 1998, Pocket Books
What it’s about: “After reluctantly returning to her tourist-trap hometown of Roswell, New Mexico, the daughter of undocumented immigrants discovers a shocking truth about her teenage crush who is now a police officer: he’s an alien who has kept his unearthly abilities hidden his entire life. She protects his secret as the two reconnect and begin to investigate his origins, but when a violent attack and long-standing government cover-up point to a greater alien presence on Earth, the politics of fear and hatred threaten to expose him and destroy their deepening romance.”
Status: Season 2 is set to premiere in March 2020.
Runaways (Television, Hulu)
Adapted from: Runaways by Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona
Originally published: 2003, Marvel Comics
What it’s about: Upon discovering that their parents are supervillains, six teenagers steal or embrace newfound superpowers and fight to right their parents’ wrongdoings.
Status: Season 3, which will be the show’s last, premieres December 13, 2019. You can watch a trailer here.
Supergirl (Television, The CW)
Adapted from: Supergirl comics (character created by Otto Binder and Al Plastino, 1959)
Originally published: 1959, DC Comics
What it’s about: As Supergirl, Kara Danvers (Melissa Benoist) works with the DEO (Department of Extra-Normal Operations) in National City while trying to juggle a normal job and life.
Status: Season five premiered in October 2019.
The Terror (Television, AMC)
Adapted from: The Terror by Dan Simmons
Originally published: 2007, Little, Brown and Company
What it’s about: In 1847, a Royal Naval expedition crew searching for the Northwest Passage is attacked by a mysterious predator that stalks their ships and crew.
Status: Season 2, which will apply the “ghost haunts historical period” format to Japanese internment camps during World War II, as well as the Japanese-American community in Southern California at the time and the Pacific theater, concluded on October 14, 2019.
Titans (Television, DC Universe)
Adapted from: Teen Titans by Bob Haney (writer) and Bruno Premiani (artist)
Originally published: 1964, DC Comics
What it’s about: The TV series follows a team of young superheroes, led by Dick Grayson, a.k.a. Robin (Brenton Thwaites).
Status: Season 2 premiered in September 2019. The series has been renewed for a third season.
The Umbrella Academy (Television, Netflix)
Adapted from: The Umbrella Academy by Gerard Way (writer) and Gabriel Bá (artist)
Originally published: 2008, Dark Horse Comics
What it’s about: “The Umbrella Academy is a dysfunctional family of superheroes—The Monocle, Spaceboy (Tom Hopper), The Kraken (David Castañeda), The Rumor, The Séance (Robert Sheehan), Number Five, The Horror (Ethan Hwang), and The White Violin (Ellen Page)—who work together to solve their father’s mysterious death while coming apart at the seams due to their divergent personalities and abilities.”
Status: The producers released photos and video of the Season Two table read on June 16, 2019; no word on a S2 premiere date yet.
Van Helsing (Television, Syfy)
Adapted from: Helsing by Pat Shand (writer), Tony Brescini (artist), and Fran Gamboa (artist)
Originally published: 2014, Zenescope Entertainment
What it’s about: “Van Helsing is set in the near future, where vampires have risen and taken control. Vanessa Van Helsing is humanity’s last hope, as her unique blood composition gives her the ability to turn vampires human. With this secret weapon, Vanessa becomes a prime target for the vampires.”
Status: The fourth season concludes on December 20, 2019. No word yet on a renewal for season five.
The Walking Dead (Television, AMC)
Adapted from: The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman (writer) and Tony Moore (artist)
Originally published: 2003, Image Comics
What it’s about: In the aftermath of the zombie apocalypse, Rick Grimes and his found family try to survive and retain their humanity.
Status: Season 9 (star Andrew Lincoln’s last) premiered October 7.
Watchmen (2019)
Adapted from: Watchmen by Alan Moore (writer) and Dave Gibbons (artist)
Originally published: 1986, DC Comics
Optioned for: Television (HBO)
What it’s about: HBO’s logline: “Set in an alternate history where ‘superheroes’ are treated as outlaws, Watchmen embraces the nostalgia of the original groundbreaking graphic novel while attempting to break new ground of its own.”
Status: Damon Lindelof writes and executive produces the series, alongside director and EP Nicole Kassell (The Leftovers). That the series is a “remix” set in present day, with the events of depicted in the comics reverberating through the lives of the characters—some of whom are new creations, and some who’ll be familiar to fans. The show has been envisioned as a nine-episode standalone series, but Lindelof has said he’ll be open to a sequel if the show gains an audience. Watchmen stars Regina King, Don Johnson, Jeremy Irons, Tim Blake Nelson, and Jean Smart, and premiered on October 20, 2019.
Wynonna Earp (Television, Syfy/IDW Entertainment)
Adapted from: Wynonna Earp by Beau Smith
Originally published: 1996, Image Comics (currently published by IDW Publishing)
What it’s about: The great-granddaughter of Wyatt Earp, saddled with the family curse and a six-shooter, fights the demonic Revenants—ghosts of the criminals Wyatt once put down—in her hometown of Purgatory.
Status: Renewed for a fourth season; IDW Entertainment, SEVEN24 Films, Space, and Syfy announced on July 2, 2019, that a 12-episode fourth season would begin production in 2019, with a premiere planned for 2020.
Young Justice: Outsiders (Television, DC Universe)
Adapted from: various DC Comics by various writers and artists
Originally published: various
What it’s about: A group of teenage superheroes and sidekicks (including Nightwing, Superboy, Artemis, and more) form “The Team,” a covert operation group that aids its older counterparts, the Justice League.
Status: Season 3 concluded in August 2019; production is underway for a fourth season.
This article has been updated since its original publication in April 2016, and continues to be updated based on new information and suggestions in the comments.
