Upcoming Brandon Sanderson Show From One Piece Studio Will Officially Save A Dying Genre

An upcoming adaptation of a Brandon Sanderson novel from the studio behind One Piece, Tomorrow Studios, is just what a dying genre needs to be revived. Brandon Sanderson, the prolific author of beloved high fantasy and science fiction series like Mistborn and The Stormlight Archive, is one of the biggest names in contemporary fantasy literature.

The author who took over Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series after he passed away, Sanderson has recently made some noise in the TV and movie spaces. Apple TV announced in January that it had secured the rights for his Cosmere universe, which includes Mistborn and the Stormlight Archive.

Even more recently, it’s been announced that Tomorrow Studios is in the process of adapting Sanderson’s 2018 young adult science fiction novel, Skyward, for television. The first book in the Cytoverse series, this adaptation could be a sign that we are reentering a time of successful YA fantasy adaptations.

The young adult fantasy novel to on-screen pipeline has not been as strong as it once was in the days of Harry Potter and The Hunger Games. Shadow and Bone, Locke & Key, My Lady Jane, and more are all adaptations of young adult fantasy novels, and all failed to either find an audience or convince a streamer they were worth keeping.

Skyward could join a new cohort of young adult fantasy adaptations that will prove the genre is far from dead. Harry Potter is coming to HBO Max, Percy Jackson & the Olympians is staying strong on Disney+, One Piece is proving you can do anime in live-action, and now Skyward and Sanderson’s other stories could signal that the young adult fantasy is alive and well.

How Brandon Sanderson’s Stories Can Revive The YA Genre

Skyward is centered on a 17-year-old girl named Spensa, or “Spin”, a member of a group of shipwrecked humans in the far future who live on the ruined world of Detritus, and are constantly fending off attacks from mysterious aliens called the Krell. Her one dream is to become a fighter pilot in the planet’s rudimentary defense force.

Skyward, like a lot of Sanderson stories, weaves together fantasy and science fiction, and in the case of Skyward, adds in a dash of young adult drama and “chosen one” storytelling for something dynamic and worthy of a multi-season arc. It’s a wide-spanning galaxy with plenty of directions for a show to take.

There really hasn’t been a young adult fantasy adaptation like Skyward. Most of the ones we know of and that are popular revolve more around magic and contemporary fantasy. Star Wars has a real chokehold on the fantasy, sci-fi storytelling that Skyward is getting at, and this could be an opportunity for the subgenre to branch out from under that umbrella.

With four books in the series and three novellas and counting, there is so much story that the TV show could explore, and the creators of One Piece, Tomorrow Studios, have proved their adeptness at bringing unusual storytelling to live-action. It’s the perfect collision of story, studio, and public interest.

With Mistborn and The Starlight Archive also getting adaptations of some sort for Apple TV, Sanderson-style stories could be taking over streamers. That’s not a bad thing, because books like Skyward are exactly the kind of fresh tales that are going to help revive the young adult fantasy genre.