Apple TV is staking a claim to the entertainment world’s next big fantasy adaptation: Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere universe. (Sometimes, dreams do come true!) The streamer has acquired the rights to Sanderson’s Mistborn and The Stormlight Archive books, two key pillars of his sprawling fictional fantasy universe, as well as some of the most popular genre titles released in recent years.
The megapopular (and wildly prolific) author has sold over 50 million books and, in the process, has built a fandom so dedicated that he managed to raise over $41 million on Kickstarter to launch four books he wrote in secret. (All while still working on his other active series! George R.R. Martin, take notes!) Sanderson has long been resistant to the idea of studios or streamers adapting his works, but clearly, Apple TV has won him over.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, Apple TV is planning to turn the Mistborn series into feature films and the Stormlight Archive books into a television series. But what’s perhaps most exciting for fans is how much control Sanderson will reportedly have over the onscreen adaptations of his fictional universe. According to the THR report, the Apple TV deal “gives the author rarefied control over the screen translations, according to sources. Sanderson will be the architect of the universe, will write, produce, and consult, and have approvals.”
Not to put too fine a point on it, but this is certainly one of the more author-friendly adaptation deals in recent memory, and gives Sanderson more ability to direct the shape of his onscreen franchise than most. (Even Martin, whose Game of Thrones books have spawned three successful HBO TV series at this point and pretty much made him a household name, has openly feuded with some of the folks in charge of his shows.)
