One of the best parts about being a reader is getting the chance to see some of your favorite books come to life on the big screen or TV — that is, as long as the adaptation does the book justice and keeps it as accurate to the original work as possible. Now more than ever, books and plays are being turned into shows and movies, so let’s take a look at some of the most highly anticipated screen adaptions coming to us soon.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians
The show that I’m personally most excited about is Percy Jackson and the Olympians. This was one of my favorite book series growing up, though you may be thinking, “Wasn’t that book already adapted into a movie?” While you would be correct, both fans of the book and the author of the series, Rick Riordan, were not huge fans of the film adaptation because it didn’t follow the original storyline very well.
Riordan and his wife are both executive producers on this new adaptation, which gives fans hope that the show will be much better than the movie. The cast is filled with stars. The main trio will be played by Walker Scobell as Percy Jackson, Leah Jeffries as Annabeth Chase, and Aryan Simhadri as Grover Underwood. The first two episodes of the new show will be available on Disney+ on Dec. 20!
The hunger games: the Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
The prequel to the well-loved Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins is coming to big screens on Nov. 17. The long-anticipated movie will follow the same storyline as the book, depicting a young President Snow (played by Tom Blyth) mentoring Lucy Gray Baird (played by Rachel Zegler), a tribute from District 12 in the 10th Hunger Games. Olivia Rodrigo recently announced that a new song of hers, “Can’t Catch Me Now,” will be featured in the upcoming film.
It Ends With Us
Colleen Hoover’s famous novel It Ends With Us is in production to be a movie! It’s set to come out on Feb.9, 2024. The book became popular on BookTok, a community on TikTok that constantly talks about authors, books, and their adaptations. The adaptation will star Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, which caused some controversy as fans didn’t particularly love the casting choices. The movie currently doesn’t have any released teasers or trailers.
Wicked
While you may know the musical, which just celebrated its 20th anniversary on Broadway, Wicked was actually based on the book titled Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire. The movie will be broken up into two parts in order to show the maximum number of popular songs from the musical. It has a star-filled cast including Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, and Jonathan Bailey. The long-awaited movie will be coming out on Nov. 27, 2024, followed by Part 2 coming out in late 2025.
Whether you have read these books or not, these screen adaptations will be something to keep an eye out for in both 2023 and 2024!
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