Every Planned Brandon Sanderson Book Adaptation Explained

Epic fantasy author Brandon Sanderson has continually proved himself to be one of the most prolific authors in the industry today; his ability to juggle a half-dozen projects or more at a time never fails to impress, and his willingness to be transparent with his readers about that process is even more impressive. At the end of every year, Sanderson releases his "State of the Sanderson" address (via Brandon Sanderson), detailing what work has been completed in the past year – and Sanderson has written a huge number of books over the years.

This year's State of the Sanderson came with the unfortunate news of the Mistborn movie's cancellation, but also gave a first proper glimpse at some of the author's other projects that are beginning to make their way from the page to the big and small screens. Surprisingly, not all of those are part of Sanderson's expansive Cosmere multiverse; several of his more standalone works are making progress, too.

Title Confirmation Status Snapshot In development (at studio) Skyward In development (optioned for TV) Tress of the Emerald Sea Pre-development (waiting for TV option) Mistborn: The Final Empire Canceled

4 Snapshot

A Standalone Sci-Fi Detective Procedural

Snapshot is a standalone novella, published in 2017; it's a detective story set in a cyberpunk-esque future where investigators can create Snapshots, recreations of past events with accuracy down to the molecular level. When Anthony Davis and his partner Chaz enter a Snapshot to investigate a pair of seemingly minor crimes, they stumble upon a grisly mass killing that their superiors order them to ignore, and wind up on the trail of a mysterious serial killer only known as the Photographer.

Shooting a pilot may be the next step for Snapshot.

The rights for Snapshot were acquired by MGM in 2021, and according to Sanderson, production is relatively far along; while the studio has yet to fully greenlight production, the development process is well underway. Shooting a pilot may be the next step for Snapshot, but with no news available about what creatives or actors are attached to the project, it may still take some time before anything is at the point where it can be announced publicly.

3 Skyward

Book One In The Sci-Fi Cytoverse

Sanderson's 2018 young adult sci-fi hit Skyward is the first of four books set in the author's Cytoverse, a far-future space opera that the author described at a reading of it in 2017 as "How to Train Your Dragon, but instead it's a girl who finds a spaceship and goes to Top Gun school" (via YouTube). The main character is Spensa Nightshade, a young woman who has spent her whole life wanting to be a fighter pilot like her father, and defend her home colony of Defiant against the alien Krell.

Skyward was originally conceived of as part of Sanderson's massive Cosmere universe, but as it evolved it became its own independent story, as the story referenced the real Earth, which is specifically not part of the Cosmere.

Skyward has officially been optioned by a studio for a TV series adaptation, and is now looking for a showrunner to take the reins and work towards developing a pilot. There's no information yet available as to the scope of the show in terms of the broader Cytoverse, so Skyward may be adapted alone, or may lead into the subsequent books, Starsight, Cytonic, and Defiant.

2 Tress of the Emerald Sea

A Fairy-Tale Cosmere Novel

Released in January 2023 as a part of one of Sanderson's many Secret Projects, Tress of the Emerald Sea is a novel set in the Cosmere, written by Sanderson as a gift for his wife after she pointed out her dissatisfaction at the passive attitude of the character of Buttercup in The Princess Bride. The titular Tress, who has lived her whole life on an isolated island in the middle of a toxic sea, must venture forth and rescue her beloved friend Charlie from his arranged marriage to the Sorceress of the Midnight Sea.

Sanderson says that there have been talks with studios, and that he is eagerly awaiting an option offer from a studio to adapt Tress into an animated series.

Tress of the Emerald Sea isn't far along in the adaptation process, but Sanderson says that there have been talks with studios, and that he is eagerly awaiting an option offer from a studio to adapt Tress into an animated series. Since optioning a show is no guarantee of production, it's unlikely this project will leap to the screen any time soon, but this unique look at a small piece of the Cosmere may be the first glimpse viewers get of that strange multiverse, considering the fate of the Mistborn film.

1 Mistborn: The Final Empire

Book One Of The Mistborn Series, The Cosmere's Grim Industrial Fantasy Epic

Your changes have been saved Mistborn The Mistborn series, created by Brandon Sanderson, is a high-fantasy saga set in the world of Scadrial, where magic is powered by metals through a system called Allomancy. The series focuses on political intrigue, heists, and the battle between good and evil. The first trilogy, Mistborn: The Final Empire, follows the struggle to overthrow a tyrannical ruler, the Lord Ruler. Later books in the series, including Era 2, take place hundreds of years after the events of the original trilogy, expanding the story into new settings with new characters, all while maintaining connections to the original storyline.

Books:

Mistborn: The Final Empire (2006)

Mistborn: The Well of Ascension (2007)

Mistborn: The Hero of Ages (2008)

Mistborn: The Alloy of Law (2011)

Mistborn: Shadows of Self (2015)

Mistborn: The Bands of Mourning (2016)

Mistborn: The Lost Metal (2022)

Set on the ash-covered world of Scadrial, Mistborn tells the story of Vin, a young street urchin who falls in with the charismatic Kelsier and his motley crew of thieves and malcontents. Vin learns from Kelsier she is a Mistborn, someone with the ability to fully utilize the strange powers of Allomancy, and as he starts to teach her how to use her powers, he also convinces her to help him with the greatest crime ever – overthrowing Scadrial's tyrannical Lord Ruler.

Related 8 Harsh Realities Of Reading The Original Mistborn Trilogy, 16 Years Later Brandon Sanderson’s original Mistborn trilogy is an essential addition to the fantasy genre, but some harsh truths arise reading Era 1 years later.

Unfortunately, the Mistborn movie is officially canceled, at least in its current form. First optioned by a studio back in 2010, the Mistborn film has seen a complicated back-and-forth over the years, apparently getting relatively far in the process before studio pushback on the script saw Sanderson and his writing partners abandon that iteration of the project. While extremely disappointing, Mistborn's cancelation may turn into an opportunity, as it will allow Sanderson to reevaluate if Mistborn might work better as a TV series.

(Sources: BrandonSanderson.com, YouTube)