The screenshot shows that Adeyemi had blocked Sternberg after sending this message back in February 2025. Around that time Stenberg posted a TikTok video addressing the colorism allegations over her casting in the movie. Stenberg discusses going to dinner with Adeyemi and claims that Adeyemi took inspiration behind the racist backlash Stenberg received for her role as Rue in The Hunger Games for this book series. Stenberg deleted this post from her TikTok page.
The specific details that influenced Adeyemi’s full departure from the project are unknown but is possibly a dispute over her involvement in the film’s script. The Hollywood Reporter previously reported on her win in the fight to write the screenplay amid the film’s shift from Lucasfilm to Paramount back in 2022, a shift Adeyemi heavily advocated for after Lucasfilm continually denied her request to write the script. When signing with Paramount, her writing the screenplay was reportedly a nonnegotiable term. Adeyemi posted multiple TikToks in March and April of 2025 sharing sneak peeks into her “life as a writer whose books are being turned into movies” seeming to be heavily involved and excited for the film. This makes her departure from the film unexpected for fans. Decisions must have been made between 2025 and now that made Adeyemi unhappy with the outcome of this film.
Today, Adeyemi posted another TikTok following stating that “Everything that has been occurring has been occurring behind the scenes since I was 24 years old. Young gifted child + Hollywood + massive capital interests = tragedy always. Add dark skin + natural hair and you have even more people who will do whatever they can to destroy you.”
The struggles of book to movie adaptations are not unique to Adeyemi, and many authors have historically been left unhappy or excluded from the production of their book’s take on film. When asked in 2004 if the 2003 adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time met her expectations, author Madeleine L’Engle replied, “Oh, yes. I expected it to be bad, and it is.”
Stephen King, an author who is no stranger to book adaptations, famously disowns The Shining despite it being a fan favorite. King had written a screenplay of The Shining but told The Paris Review “I doubt [Stanley] Kubrick ever read it before making his film.”
The processes of writing a book and producing a film are vastly different, sometimes making it hard for film producers and authors to completely mesh in these projects. The editing of a screenplay is also often more collaborative than a novel. The original script is edited heavily by multiple different aspects of the filming process like improv scene cuts, and the stakeholders involved are motivated by the film’s financial success, making the decisions making processes more of a group task rather than individual. Perhaps Adeyemi’s original screenplay was edited to an extent that she no longer recognized it as her own work, leading to her decision to remove herself from the promotion of the film and the people involved in the project.
