Fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson is one of the best fantasy writers alive and yet, none of his works have been adapted into TV shows or movies. We will be finding out why that is the case and how close Sanderson is from having one of his works adapted!
With so many book adaptations, especially from the fantasy and sci-fi genre, it is hard to believe that none of Sanderson’s works have been adapted as of yet. He is an author that has sold over 35 million books and is only growing more popular with every passing year. So what gives?
In an interview with Polygon, Sanderson said that there have been a lot of offers and he has had to decline them.
“I have had a lot of offers for The Stormlight Archive, people wanting to make prestige television for cable networks or streamers. Very nice offers from very great people that I would want to work with. And I’ve said no because I don’t feel it’s the right time for Stormlight Archive yet. I am in the fortunate position where I can walk away from some of the best deals that might be offered to authors, and do what I think is best for the story.” –Sanderson
Sanderson has been hesitant to agree to any of the offers and he has good reason for it. He doesn’t trust these companies with his product. When asked what will convince him, this is what he had to say:
“The solid answer is: I don’t know. Hopefully I will recognize it when I see it. But the reason I don’t know is, I’m not convinced that we have hit stability in the streaming market. Streaming has had a big problem with epic fantasy, and this has me worried. Rings of Power and Wheel of Time have not gone as well as I would’ve hoped. Shadow and Bone lasted only two seasons, after a very strong first season. Streaming hasn’t figured out epic fantasy yet.
Maybe this is a holdover from network television days, where they’re trying to make the episodes fit into the structure of how episodic television used to work, rather than filming an eight-hour movie and showing it in chunks. But maybe that’s a bad idea. All I know is, right now we haven’t seen really great epic fantasy film television since the early, mid seasons of Game of Thrones. Fifty million dollars per episode has not done it, so it’s not a matter of the money they’re throwing at it. The other thing we haven’t seen is any of these shows really taking off to the extent that I would like with the general public.”
Unlike many authors, Sanderson doesn’t need the money and only cares about the adaptation being faithful to his books. That is why he would first like to adapt something that isn’t The Stormlight Archive or Mistborn.
“I would like to [adapt The Stormlight Archive through] films. Part of the reason I worry with streaming is, it’s mostly people who want to dual-screen, and epic fantasy just does not work with dual-screening. Eventually, I’ll give [adaptation] a try, but I want to learn more first. So my goal is to make some things that are not Stormlight Archive, that are not Mistborn. I’m really excited to make other things, and make them really well, and test some things out.”
When asked about what Sanderson would like without concern for money and if Sanderson can make the adaptation his way, he chose Stormlight. But even then, he has doubts because of what he has seen happen to other fantasy adaptations.
“Infinite budget, make it my way? I would absolutely pick Stormlight, and I would do it on one of the streaming services. With an unlimited budget and unlimited creative control, I think I could make something really good. But who knows? I mean, The Rings of Power essentially had that, and it’s not very good. It’s fine, but is it the thing that you want? I mean, I really think the key member is that visionary filmmaker. Epic fantasy has responded poorly to too much oversight from above. I think that was The Witcher’s problem. You had that visionary: It was Henry Cavill. And they didn’t want to listen to him. So, well, there you go.”
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