Between A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, an Eragon series at Disney+, a Fourth Wing adaptation at Prime Video, and more, we’re on the cusp of an expensive new generation of fantasy shows. And when they all start airing, studios will have to deal with something that didn’t used to be a factor: the authors who wrote the books that these shows are based on are far more willing than they used to be to call the series out when they start deviating from the source material.
This newfound boldness has already created problems for several big-name fantasy series, but there’s at least one that’s trying a different, hopefully better approach.
Fantasy authors are going scorched earth on adaptations of their work
And studios are scrambling to do damage control
The Wheel of Time, House of the Dragon, God of War, The Witcher, Lanterns
One of the major fantasy shows on TV right now is The Witcher, on Netflix. Andrzej Sapkowski, the author who wrote the original Witcher books, is known to be a bit of a curmudgeon who doesn’t like adaptations of his work, but he’s mostly stayed mum about the TV series. “I would have to be an idiot to say,” he replied when asked to name what hadn’t been successfully translated from the page to the screen. “My name appears in the credits.”
Several of his creator colleagues haven’t been so diplomatic. In fact, several prominent authors have taken direct aim at adaptations of their work, including:
- In a since-deleted blog post, A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin called out what he saw as wrong-headed changes made to his book Fire & Blood for the HBO show House of the Dragon. It got so bad that HBO had to issue a statement in an effort to cool tensions. Martin now calls his relationship with House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal “abysmal.”
- Brandon Sanderson, who completed writing The Wheel of Time series after the death of original author Robert Jordan, watched the season 2 finale of Prime Video’s Wheel of Time TV show and picked it apart all the way through. He bemoaned that he wasn’t able to prevail on the producers to keep things from the book and predicted that while people might enjoy individual episodes, they won’t “come back.”
- David Jaffe, the original creator of the God of War video games, slammed the first-look image of Prime Video’s upcoming God of War TV show. “None of these characters look very interesting or appealing — they look just dumb,” he said. “Like if this was God of War: Dumb and Dumber edition.”
- In March, Lanterns showrunner David Lindelof jokes that they dropped the word “green” from the title of HBO’s upcoming superhero adaptation because “green was stupid, so now it’s just Lanterns.” Legendary comic book writer Grant Morrison took offense to that. “What is this jockish dismissal of superhero conventions intended to prove anyway?” he opined. Lindelof later released an apology.
It’s not as though authors disliking adaptations of their work is new: Ursula K. Leguin was not a fan of the Tales from Earthsea animated film, and Alan Moore — the writer behind hit comics like Watchmen and V for Vendetta — has hated pretty much every adaptation of his work. But today’s authors seem way more willing to make their displeasure known publicly. Maybe it’s because they have more of a platform thanks to social media, or maybe it’s because fidelity actually seems possible in a world where viewership is fragmented and studios don’t have to sand the edges off every movie and TV show to make sure they’re as appealing to as many people as possible. In any case, studios now have to think carefully before they make changes to source material, or else the authros could rile up the fans against them.
Apple and Brandon Sanderson will try to change things
Fidelity first and foremost
In January 2026, Apple revealed that it had struck a deal with fantasy author Brandon Sanderson to adapt his Mistborn books as movies and his Stormlight Archive books as a TV show. This is great news, because Apple has a history of taking projects like this seriously. With them on board, fans have reason to believe that these adaptations will turn out to their liking.
And Sanderson will likely make sure that they stay as faithful to the source material as possible. The author was able to secure a very favorable deal for himself; he will write, produce, and consult on the shows, and have key approvals. Even powerful authors like George R.R. Martin and Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling don’t have those kinds of privileges.
How did Sanderson manage to secure them for himself? Well, he’s the creator of a vast fantasy universe that has been ripe for adaptation for years. That would have given him some leverage, and we know he has strong feelings about adaptations that stray from their source material. He’s less likely to criticize a show that he had a huge hand in making.
Also, Apple may have realized that leaning into fidelity is the best option, so they could have been happy to give Sanderson what he wants. After all, the recent Game of Thrones prequel show A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms stuck very close to the source material and went over incredibly well with audiences (Martin is also a fan). Netflix’s popular live-action One Piece remake sticks very close to the original comic and anime, and has original creator Eiichiro Oda on board. Going back further, Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies stick close to the text of J.R.R. Tolkien’s books, and remain very popular. Allowing Sanderson to adapt his own work faithfully should result in a TV show and movie series that will please everyone.
Or at least, that’s the idea.
Sometimes change is good
And sticking to the source material might be the worse option
It’s true that there are plenty of fantasy adaptations that do well when they honor the text as much as possible…but there are also plenty that stray and succeed. The 1984 Neverending Story movie leaves out half of Michael Ende’s 1979 book, yet has become a cult classic. The How to Train Your Dragon movies stray very far from Cressida Cowell’s books and been rewarded handsomely for it at the box office. Roald Dahl despised 1971’s Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and P.L. Travers hated what Disney did with Mary Poppins, but both of those films are beloved to this day. Stephen King famously hates Stanley Kubrick’s movie adaptation of The Shining, but it’s now considered a horror classic. Meanwhile, King himself got involved with a 1997 TV adaptation of The Shining that stuck much closer to the text, and barely anyone remembers it today.
The truth is that making a good adaptation is more complicated than “fidelity = success.” There are plenty of examples and counter-examples.
HBO’s Harry Potter show will be a huge hit, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it
Who would’ve thought there’d ever be this much controversy over Harry Potter?
The grand experiment
Mistborn and The Stormlight Archive will be the great proving ground. Giving Sanderson this much control likely means that the adaptations will be uncommonly faithful to the text. But does that guarantee that they’ll be giant hits loved by all, or will they prove that sometimes you need to deviate to make a story work in a new medium?
There’s no release date set for either of these adaptations, but we’ll find out sooner or later.
- Producers
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Brandon Sanderson
- Franchise(s)
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Mistborn
