The early 2010’s were a great time for guests to attend cinemas. March 23, 2012 brought the beginning of The Hunger Games era, and was later followed by other book to movie adaptations such as Divergent, The Mortal Instruments, The Host, The Fault in Our Stars, and others. These adaptations all came out in the span of three years. After Harry Potter ended in 2011, The Hunger Games filled that void of a popular franchise that people would want to follow. And since The Hunger Games was so successful, every major studio wanted to dip their toes in young adult adaptations. Since then, YA book to movie adaptations have seemed to fall off the map, and when there has been one, it has not been very successful. Things are starting to change however in this YA drought. A new show on the horizon might just bring us back into this early 2010 phenomenon.
On April 23rd, Netflix will be releasing their new series Shadow and Bone, based off of the popular trilogy by author, Leigh Bardugo. The books focus on Alina Sankov, an orphan who after discovering dormant powers, is thrown into a world of royalty and darkness. Will her powers be enough to stop the Shadow Fold, a dark scar on the map where monsters lurk? The series will also be acting as a prequel to Bardugo’s duology series, Six of Crows which focuses on magical heists with an incredible cast of characters. These two series are combining to create something that seems truly spectacular.
Bardugo’s original series came out in 2013 and has such a strong fanbase that is constantly abuzz on all corners of the internet. The trailers seem to stay very close to the book and looks like a show that anyone who wasn’t already a fan of the books will love anyways. There is so much excitement surrounding the show that it has already been rumored to have been picked up for a season two. It seems the hype will only increase once the show is released and will lead to yet another hit for Netflix.
The Shadow and Bone Netflix series was announced on January 10, 2019. Since then, there have already been some book to film/television adaptations that have been announced.
If you are missing The Hunger Games series, there is no need to fear. Lionsgate is currently in the process of adapting Suzanne Collins’ prequel book The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes which follows a young President Snow as he works as a mentor for the 10th ever Hunger Games. The film was announced roughly one year ago, though no announcements on casting or dates have been released.
It was just announced on March 26th that the popular A Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J. Mass would be adapted for Hulu with Mass co-adapting the show with Ron Moore, who adapted the Outlander books for STARZ. The internet is split in terms of whether or not the show should be made. With half excited to see the worlds they imagined on screen, with the other half terrified of any actors trying to live up to the ideas of the characters that readers have been creating in their heads.
Another popular YA novel Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi, is being adapted by LucasFilm in partnership with 20th Century Studios. This was announced on December 12, 2020 during the annual Disney Investor Day. The book was met with rave reviews and hopefully with LucasFilm at the helm, the adaptation will be great as well.
As we can see, many YA adaptations are in development. With the potential success of Shadow and Bone on Netflix, it will be interesting to see what other books will make an attempt to hit the big and small screens. It has felt like too long since we last got a great YA fantasy adaptation, so hopefully we will have more in the future.