The hybrid genre of “romantasy” (a term that combines romance and fantasy) has taken the publishing world by storm in recent years (thanks in large part to #BookTok), ever since the runaway success of the A Court of Thorns and Roses novels. During a time when we could all use an escape from the day-to-day, readers have turned to high fantasy novels with steamy love scenes and can’t get enough. It’s no surprise, then, that Hollywood has caught onto the trend and put several of the most popular romantasy books into development, either as movies or television series.
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Here are the top 7 “romantasy” novels that are being developed into hype-worthy TV shows and movies:
7) Ninth House
One of the most grounded entries on our list, Ninth House‘s setting is one we’d all recognize: Yale. But when the troubled youth Alex Stern mysteriously gets a full ride to the prestigious university, she’s tasked with monitoring the school’s secret societies, and who is practicing dark magic and necromancy. Stephen King called Ninth House, the first of two books in the Alex Stern series, “the best fantasy novel I’ve read in years.”
Author Leigh Bardugo also comes with a Hollywood pedigree – her Shadow and Bone YA series was adapted into a Netflix show, which is why we’re excited to see how Amazon Prime will tackle a more grounded, adult world in the Ninth House TV adaptation.
6) Plated Prisoner
Fans of fantasy and Greek mythology are particularly pumped for the television adaptation of the six-book Plated Prisoner series, which provides a new spin on the myth of King Midas, a man who had the power to turn anything he touched into gold. The novels, however, follow Auren, a teenage girl and Midas’s “precious,” who is made of gold except for her irises and teeth, as she sets out on a daring adventure to become her own person and escape the King’s control as war looms on the horizon.
A few months back, Mandalay Television announced that Kate Rorick will showrun the series adaptation, and given that she’s written on shows like The Librarians and Marvel’s Cloak and Dagger, we feel Auren and her gilded world are in good hands.
5) From Blood and Ash
Amazon Prime is also developing the From Blood and Ash book series for TV. A lush, steamy fantasy novel, From Blood and Ash follows the life of Poppy, who was chosen at birth to be the savior of her fallen kingdom. Yet what Poppy really wants is to be with her guard, Hawke, and their dangerous mixing of desire and duty sets off a world-changing turn of events.
We can’t wait to see author Jennifer L. Armentrout’s complex world-building on screen, as well as whatever hunk they cast as Hawke when the series debuts on Prime Video.
4) Alchemised
Based on a Harry Potter fanfiction that went viral on TikTok, Alchemised follows the imprisoned Helena, a member of the Resistance in a corrupt world where necromancy and alchemy exist. Helena is sent by her captors to a lair of powerful necromancers who hope to extract the Resistance’s secrets from her mind.
The book’s film rights sold for a reported $3 million to Legendary in a contentious bidding war, so you know that the studio will be pulling out all the stops to bring Helena’s dark but romantic story to life.
3) Powerless
Amazon MGM also leapt on the chance to adapt the Powerless trilogy, where people who have special abilities are the Elites and those who do not, the Ordinary, find themselves spurned from society. Paedyn Gray is an Ordinary, but when she saves a prince’s life masquerading as a psychic, she finds herself not only thrown into a fierce competition against Elites she’s ostensibly no match for, but also falling for the prince, who has no idea she’s powerless.
We feel like fans of The Hunger Games and Divergent will particularly enjoy Powerless when it hits the small screen sometime soon.
2) Quicksilver
In another heated bidding war between studios, Netflix shelled out seven figures to get the rights to Callie Hart’s Quicksilver, which puts the 24-year-old human Saeris Fane in the world of the Fae, previously thought to be only myth and legends, and binds herself to a handsome fae warrior Kingfisher, who despite his shady past and abysmal attitude is Saeris’s only way back home.
Netflix is no stranger to high fantasy, given their adaptations of properties like The Witcher, and we’re excited to see how they’ll continue to pull out all the stops for a story that’s written from the female gaze.
1) Fourth Wing
Rebecca Yarros’s Empyrean series kicks off with Fourth Wing, a heart-stopping, fantastical journey about the quiet, fragile Violet Sorrengail, who is forced by her military general mother to become a dragon rider as their land is at war. As Violet fights to see the next sunrise during her time at Basgiath War College, she suspects that its leadership is hiding a terrible dark secret.
With the news that Locke & Key creator Meredith Averill is taking over as showrunner for Amazon’s upcoming TV adaptation, we’re thrilled that this series full of dragons and political intrigue is still very much a priority for the streamer.
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