Fourth Wing, AKA the hottest fantasy romance novel to have enamoured #BookTok this year, has had the rights to a TV show snapped up by Amazon. I am frothing at the mouth as we speak.
Amazon and Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society have acquired rights to the hit Empyrean series, of which book two is about to be released.
Rebecca Yarros, the author of Fourth Wing, is listed as a non-writing executive producer, according to Deadline, meaning we don’t have to fear the dreaded shit-adaptation toooo much. Though no promises, I think we’ve all been through enough to know better.
If the TV show goes well, Deadline reckons there’s potential for every book in the series to be adapted for the small screen.
In case you live under a rock (or just haven’t been sucked into #BookTok yet), Fourth Wing is a fantasy romance that has everything: a Hunger Games-style battle royale element, dark academia, a stellar enemies-to-lovers romance, political intrigue, and DRAGONS.
Here’s the blurb of the book, if you’re interested:
20-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to live a quiet life among books. Now, the commanding general — also her mother — has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders. With fewer dragons than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter — like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.
Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret. Alliances will be forged. Lives will be lost. Traitors will become allies or even lovers. But sleep with one eye open because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.
It’s legit good — a claim I feel qualified to make as the co-chair of PEDESTRIAN.TV’s bookclub Litty Committee, but one that’s backed up by its best-selling status (it spent 25 weeks on the New York Times’ Bestseller list, 13 of those being at #1) and the hype for it on TikTok.
The book also boasts a diverse cast — Violet, the main character, has a physical condition that leaves her body prone to injuries, which many believe to be representation for those with chronic illness and invisible disabilities, and plenty of the characters are non-white. The bar is low in fantasy novels, so not having an all-white cast is actually exciting these days.
However, I do have one qualm — there’s always a risk when you turn a book series into a TV show before that series complete. Especially given only one book out of this five part series is out. I’m traumatised from Game of Thrones so this tidbit of information is not reassuring.
While we await more news on the TV adaptation (OMG, just think of the TikTok fan casts), Fourth Wing fans can get their hands on its sequel Iron Flame, which comes out on November 7.
