Sarah J. Maas’ A Court of Thorns and Roses has the potential to be a huge hit on TV, but right now it’s feeling a lot like Stephen King’s Dark Tower. As a romantasy favorite that’s sold tens of millions of copies, a BookTok hit, and boasts a dedicated fanbase, ACOTAR could be massive if the show gets everything right.
With five books and counting, ACOTAR’s tale about the human woman Feyre Archeron entering the faerie lands of Prythian would make a compelling TV series. Yet, plans to get the show off the ground have stalled, and it’s easy to see how many of its issues mimic the difficulties of adapting King’s similarly sprawling dark fantasy franchise to the screen.
While Maas and King have told different stories from a narrative point of view, the challenges of adapting such beloved literature for the screen remain the same. There’s a lot riding on ACOTAR’s television success, and eager fans are waiting with bated breath to ensure some essential aspects aren’t lost as it’s translated from book to screen.
Sarah J. Maas’ ACOTAR TV Adaptation Is In Limbo
ACOTAR Is No Longer In Development At Hulu
There has been a lot of hype around the TV version of A Court of Thorns and Roses since it was first announced in 2021. With Outlander creator Ronald D. Moore co-creating the show with Maas and Disney’s 20th Television producing for Hulu, things were promising for ACOTAR’s chances at breaking through with mainstream TV viewers.
It was announced that ACOTAR was dead at Hulu.
However, these hopes were quashed when it was announced that ACOTAR was dead at Hulu (via Variety), an announcement that didn’t come as a surprise considering the departure of showrunner Ronald D. Moore and a lack of updates from Maas around the project.
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While this was disappointing news, rather than being scrapped entirely, Maas has announced plans to shop ACOTAR around to different platforms once Disney’s option expires in the third quarter of 2025. This means there’s hope for ACOTAR yet, but so many issues before production has even begun recall the pain previously felt by The Dark Tower readers years before.
It Feels Like The Adaptation Of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower That Was In Development Hell For Years
It’s Important Not To Repeat The Mistakes Of The Past
Fantasy enthusiasts will be keenly aware of how much ACOTAR’s adaptation troubles echo The Dark Tower, which received a disappointing film version in 2017 and has struggled to get a TV series off the ground ever since. As a powerful lesson in how not to handle beloved book adaptations, the production issues that plagued The Dark Tower are notorious.
Years passed without much extra information being provided before Amazon decided not to move forward with the project.
In 2018, it was announced that Amazon had acquired the rights to The Dark Tower, and the series would be a reboot that would ignore the Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey film from the previous year. Years passed without much extra information being provided before Amazon decided not to move forward with the project, and it was being shopped elsewhere.
In 2022, hope for The Dark Tower was reignited when Mike Flanagan was announced (via Deadline) to be making the series for Amazon. As a filmmaker with a great track record for King adaptations, pairing Flanagan with The Dark Tower may be the secret ingredient to getting things right. This is an important lesson that ACOTAR should pay attention to.
The Key To Adapting Court Of Thorns & Roses Will Be The Same As The Dark Tower
Both Series Have The Same Adaptation Issues
The key to getting A Court of Thorns and Roses’ adaptation right is the same as The Dark Tower, as it requires those involved to truly understand the material they’re dealing with. Much in the same way that Flanagan has proven himself when it comes to King’s work, the ACOTAR series needs someone who intrinsically understands the appeal of romantasy.
Fantasy adaptations often fall flat on their feet because they usually require a huge budget in order to not look cheap, and ACOTAR will require proper financial backing to depict Prythian in a way that lives up to loyal readers’ expectations. The Dark Tower movie was a prime example of an adaptation getting all these important details wrong.
The complexities of both The Dark Tower and ACOTAR mean it’s easy to mess up a TV version, and the similarities in their production struggles make me hope that when Maas’s books are finally brought to the screen, they’ll have more in common with Flanagan’s King adaptations than the universally panned Dark Tower movie.
It’s disappointing that ACOTAR never moved ahead at Hulu, but it also gives me hope that Maas knows it’s better to go back to the drawing board when things aren’t working. There’s a chance now to learn some important lessons from this false start and return with an ACOTAR TV series that can truly capture the appeal of the books.
Source: Variety, Deadline
