Last time Rebecca Yarros put out a book in her popular Empyrean series, I was at a Barnes and Noble at midnight to pick up my copy. I’m in a book club that exclusively reads in the romantasy genre, and while I’m sure there are some Booktok girlies out there who are more widely read than me, I feel pretty good about being in the loop about what’s hot, though I was definitely out of the loop about one of my favorite series’ in the genre becoming an upcoming book-to-screen adaptation for streaming..
This week, I wrapped up reading Burn of the Everflame, the fourth –and long-awaited – book in Penn Cole’s The Kindred’s Curse Saga. People have had a LOT of thoughts about that ending, but no matter what you think about how the series wrapped, I do think a lot of people would be excited to see Luther and Diem (and I guess Henri) come to life on the small spring.
Much to my delighted surprise, this is actually something in the works at Hulu, and Penn Cole opened up about it a few weeks ago. She said in an interview with television showrunner Heidi McAdams the two confirmed the Everflame TV series is in active development, with Cole noting:
I’m so excited. Working with you has been incredible. You’ve kept me so involved throughout the entire process. Letting me read everything. Weaving in all of my feedback. Addressing every single concern that I have raised. I just can tell how much you really care about preserving the heart of the story, and my vision for these characters.
Hulu was the one to bring up the series for the first time back in April, but I was late to the party and I hadn’t read any of these books until my sister handed them off to me after wrapping on Burn. My last month has been spent fully immersing myself in Diem’s world and its intriguing world-building, and I am so interested in seeing Luther’s scar revealed in live action and more, including things like Diem's dress choices and what Sorae actually looks like.
Speaking of Luther, though, Cole also teased one scene with the character the fans are going to love.
I really love the approach you’re taking with Luther in particular. There’s one scene in the pilot – you know the one I’m talking about – that is chef’s kiss and when the readers see it, they’re going to lose their minds. It’s so, so good.
Listen, a romantasy series with this level of expansiveness has been a long time coming. ACOTAR and Fourth Wing have both flirted with TV series announcements, though the latter is the one that has started casting and is really getting off of the ground at Amazon Prime. ACOTAR unfortunately may be DOA, despite the sixth book coming, but it does look as if Hulu is still interested in showing up for the fans of this genre. .
I’m still very excited for Fourth Wing, but now that ACOTAR probably won’t be coming to those with a Hulu subscription, I’d love to see a competing romantasy series actually make it to the small screen. It feels like Hollywood is really not doing these types of series justice in recent years given the wild popularity of the genre (and the fact Hollywood has somehow managed to put out so many Colleen Hoover adaptations in the meantime). Women are not a monolith, but a huge swathe of the population has gotten invested in at least one of these series, and would doubtless show up to watch an adaptation. It’s just taking forever, and a lot of fans have felt this way.
I’m glad to hear though that there seems to be some forward momentum on both these projects, from the Fourth Wing castings to the script updates on Everflame. The sooner these hit our TVs, the better. I’d love to see someone capitalize on the wave before the allure of the genre dies off.
