46
votes
Apple TV picks up rights to Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere books for adaption
Link information
This data is scraped automatically and may be incorrect.
- Title
- Brandon Sanderson's Literary Fantasy Universe 'Cosmere' Picked Up by Apple TV (Exclusive)
- Authors
- Borys Kit
- Published
- Jan 28 2026
- Word count
- 374 words
This is huge news! As someone who loves Sanderson books, I am blown away! We're years away from anything streaming, but this is going to make me renew/restart Apple TV when they drop.
Sanderson has also mentioned previously that he's been working bts to get deals like this done. One of his non-cosmere novels was being adapted to film and was close to being made. He said that the screen writers had come up with ideas that made the story better on film. So that gives me hope that he'll allow the show runners/directors/writers/other producers to make good changes for the adaptions, but remain faithful to the source.
This is pretty exciting for Brandon! He's in an enviable position where he doesn't need to accept any deals he doesn't like, and it's great to see Apple TV work with him to give him the creative freedom he wants. I worry that his book writing skills won't easily adapt to the screen, but I assume he must be smart enough to know his limitations as well, and accept feedback where needed.
Honestly Apple TV are probably the best possible platform for Cosmere TV shows.
Agreed, I'm actually hopeful for this as a huge Sanderson fan.
I cannot express how excited I am for this using only typed words. I am vibrating with excitement. My whole day has gotten immeasurably better, from being despondent about the state of my country (US) to being excited for this. Cosmere paraphernalia adorn my house. I have a 4ft framed painting of the cover of the Way of Kings on my wall. I have gone to the Dragonsteel convention the last 3 years, I have cosplayed as Szeth, Waxillium, and twice in full Shardplate, I have made full scale props of Jezrien's Honorblade and Nighblood, and created a full set of Bondsmith Shardplate. I. AM. SO. EXCITED.
Surely I'm not the only one that's, like, very interested in seeing these cosplays?
Fine fine, twist my arm 😁
Here's some highlights. I don't have any good pictures of my Wax unfortunately, I'll have to make sure to take some. https://photos.app.goo.gl/26gKc5pFrrjCcfQTA
Edit : I did not make the Windrunner cosplay, that was a borrowed outfit courtesy of the marvelous Miri who let me borrow a set of Plate she made.
And if anyone would like to print their own Nightblood and sheath, I posted the model on Printables: https://www.printables.com/model/1301737-nightblood-and-scabbard/
Holy cow, these are fantastic! That shardplate is WILD — you said you made the Bondsmith set yourself?? It has so many pieces haha. I love the scale of Nightblood, too! Really the whole Szeth cosplay is really spot on
TYVM! I did make the Bondsmith myself, based on Petar Penevs concept drawings from a few years ago. I designed and tested here and there for a few months, but did the actual building of it from Sept to Dec.
I'm glad you like them!
Every studio has dreamed of an MCU-style collection of intersecting franchises for years and very few have managed it. If anything has a good shot, it's this.
Woah! He’s been hinting that something big was in the works on his podcasts, but I didn’t expect this!
Its honestly kind of amazing that it took this long. We had Mistborn characters in Fortnite before we got a movie.
The reason it took so long is Sanderson has been adamant about how much control he wants over the product and he just didn't have the clout to demand that level of control until now. The recent Kickstarters and success of his own convention seem to have been what was needed to give him enough influence to get what he wanted.
Apparently the rights were with Epic for awhile and this is the first time since 2016 that he took the Cosmere to Hollywood.
Sanderson announcement on Reddit
I'm actually curious as to how certain things that would be easy enough to express in text will be adapted for a TV audience, such as the singer rhythms (as well as switching between them) and the glyph/script system from the Stormlight Archive.
The only Sanderson series I have read is Cytoverse. Enjoyed it well enough. I’m more of a sci-fi than fantasy person. Anything else worth checking out?
Despite being a huge Sanderson fan and sci-do fan, I haven’t touched any of his sci-fi. But all his fantasy is top notch. As a sci-fi fan you may enjoy that his magic systems are hard in so far as the rules are very well defined. I think Mistborn is a great entry point because of its very interesting (albeit not super fleshed out) world and magic systems; the first novel is essentially fantasy Ocean’s 11. The second novel in the trilogy is a bit of a slog, but the ending makes the whole thing worth it and sets up the finale. The only drawback is that in retrospect he’s improved a lot since writing Mistborn, but I still think it’s the best entry point.
Having read the first era of Mistborn, and all of The Stormlight Archive, I think this can be said of many of Sanderson's novels to be honest. I found my interest waning during the middle two quarters, but the first and final quarters are usually excellent. The man really knows how to write a cinematic ending! He's a prolific writer; the worlds he builds are magnificent, rich with detail, and highly original. He clearly wants to spend a lot of time in these worlds, and who can blame him?
I'm excited to see his universe on screen, but I do wonder if his work isn't more suited to animation than to live-action production. I would be absolutely thrilled with an anime of The Stormlight Archive.
There are a number of scenes in Mistborn and Stormlight where I have a really tough time imaging them pulling off live action, but if they can it will be spectacular. Maybe we can get some spinoff animated stuff if we’re really lucky?
From your comment I'm not sure if you mean you want other scifi from Sanderson or that you might be willing to try some of his fantasy.
If you want to try some of his fantasy without getting into the whole Cosmere, The Rithmatist could be a good pick. It's got a clockwork-punk vibe with some magic mixed in. It's kind of more targeted at a younger audience but I'm an adult and I've enjoyed it twice.
If you do want to try some Cosmere then one of the standalones might work. Tress of the Emerald Sea, Warbreaker, Yumi and the Nightmare Painter.
The Cosmere is gradually moving into a more scifi era but the mainline stories (Mistborn, Elantris, Stormlight Archive) are still solidly fantasy.
If you want other scifi from Sanderson there aren't many options. Firstborn does comes to mind - is a short story that doesn't get much attention.
As for non-Cosmere stuff, The Reckoners is a really fun series. Also a Sanderson YA novel like Cytoverse. This is kinda Superheros if everyone who got powers turned evil.
For Cosmere, I always recommend Warbreaker. Great story and it's a standalone novel. So you're not jumping into a trilogy. But later books do reference characters from Warbreaker in the future
One addendum I’d have for Warbreaker - it starts out really slow, but it’s such a good book! Absolutely worth the setup.
I’ve thought about this for awhile, and while Apple could do it justice, I honestly think the way to do these shows that rely on major action set pieces with wild choreography will be animation.
You don’t have issues with actors unable to do the choreography or aging out. There’s SO much material to cover and all of it with a serious CGI budget anyways. I wish them luck and suspect it will be better than most (and could be the next GoT/Marvel) but it would’ve been so much easier if they’d give the Avatar/Castlevania route
You know, I could absolutely deal with a Critical Role Anime (The Legend of Vox Machina / The Mighty Nein) style Cosmere show. I think that would probably translate fantastically, pun intended.
Sanderson has said that he's heard people about anime, but he's never gotten into it for one reason or another. He'd rather do the series live action. Of course that could and can change, but I doubt it will be animated.
To be a bit difficult for the sake of clarity, large gulf between tonal expectations of Anime vs Western Animations, so i'd be curious which he actually meant.
I agree its unlikely, but I also think it's very likely to start strong and faceplant 2-4 years in when production bloat and the "reaping" of the IP kicks in. Like basically every other major prestige TV series.
I haven’t heard this term, what does it mean?
Basically the idea that you start strong. Let the V creatives do their job, build hype, etc.
Then rather than try to continue with quality you cash out and start cutting corners. People move away from the project, less care is put into quantity, but hey it’s cheaper to make and you’re still riding that hype from the initial seasons so you get even more profit.
It’s if course a very short term strategy but it’s also somewhat inevitable since there’s a lot of internal politics at play in these massive productions, and once the initial “my god look at well this is going” has worn off you get the bean counters asking “ok how can we grow our record breaking shows profit another 10%”