Amazon MGM Studios has acquired the adaptation rights to Rebecca Yarros’ buzzy fantasy series “The Empyrean,” and will start by adapting the first novel of the series, “Fourth Wing,” into a new TV show, TheWrap has learned.
The show is set to be coproduced by Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society under the production company’s overall deal with Amazon, and Yarros is slated to executive produce alongside Liz Pelletier for Entangled Publishing.
Released in May of this year, “Fourth Wing” has lit the internet aflame on social media as it rose to become Amazon’s No. 1 bestseller. The adult fantasy epic centers on 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail as she enters into her first year in the Rider Quadrant of Basgiath War College, where danger follows its students until they graduate. To complicate matters further, Violet’s mother, who ranks as a commanding general in the kingdom, orders her to rise into their society’s elite rank of a dragon rider.
“Fourth Wing’s” follow-up sequel, titled “Iron Flame,” is slated be released on Nov. 7, 2023.
If the first adaptation is a success for Amazon, the studio has floated the possibility of adapting each book in the series into a separate TV series, according to Deadline, who first reported the news.
The news of Amazon MGM Studios’ plans to adapt “Fourth Wing” come amid a flurry of IP acquisitions from the studio, including Vanity Fair’s story surrounding a Texas serial killer, titled “True Crime, True Faith: The Serial Killer and the Texas Mom Who Stopped Him,” as well as Marisa Meltzer’s nonfiction book “Glossy,” which centers on the success story of Glossier founder Emily Weiss.
In addition, the studio is also leveraging IP from its 2022 acquisition of MGM, including recent news that Amazon MGM Studios would adapt 1982 film “Poltergeist” into a new TV series. In addition to “Poltergeist,” the studio also has plans to develop several MGM titles into new TV or film projects, including “Robocop,” “Stargate” “Legally Blonde,” “Fame,” Barbershop,” “The Magnificent Seven,” “Pink Panther” and “The Thomas Crown Affair.”
