Watch out HBO as Apple has landed an unprecedented deal with hugely popular fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson, and is planning to create an on-screen universe that could grow bigger than Game of Thrones.
The streaming giant has landed the rights to Sanderson's Cosmere book series, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter. The saga includes book series Elantris, Mistborn, Warbreaker, The Stormlight Archive, White Sand, Tress of the Emerald Sea, Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, The Sunlit Man, Isles of the Emberdark, as well as short stories featured in Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection.
Sanderson's Cosmere universe is set around a mysterious being called Adonalsium from Yolen who was killed by conspirators, causing its power to shatter into sixteen different Shards. Sixteen of the conspirators then took a shard and traveled to new worlds, but each Shard has a different intent, such as Ruin, Ambition, and Honor, and so each world controlled by the shard bears that certain quality.
Apple is already looking to adapt the books Mistborn into a series. The first Mistborn book series follows a group of metal-ingesting sorcerers who attempt to overthrow a dystopian empire, and the next trilogy jumps forward 300 years and follows a character who investigates kidnappings and robberies. The third and fourth series, which have not been written yet, will be set in the '80s and in space.
The streamer also wants to turn The Stormlight Archive into a TV show, and already has producers attached. The Stormlight Archives spans over five books, with more on the way. The stories are set in a world where knights and monsters control magical storms and use them as a source of strength and power.
Sanderson will hold control over the screen translations, write, produce, and consult on each adaptation. Not even George R.R. Martin has this type of control over HBO's adaptations of his work, including Game of Thrones or House of the Dragon. Apple's Cosmere universe will surely create some competition for HBO's Game of Thrones series, which has expanded this year with new spin-off show, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
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