So, you’re a huge fan of Game of Thrones’ shocking, gory deaths and sexposition scenes. You stumble across Jacqueline Carey’s equally intriguing series Kushiel’s Legacy, with its throne-stealing, bedhopping, and god-marked heroine. And you think, This sounds like it would be my new favorite high fantasy TV series! Why has no one adapted it?
Carey agrees! And you if you’ve ever tweeted her a question about it, she wants you to know that she’s already been thinking a lot about it.
Carey updated her website today, not because she had any particular news to report, but to address these very questions, which have been coming more and more frequently since HBO premiered Game of Thrones in 2011.
The long and short of it is: We’re still going to have to wait a long while to see anguisette courtesan/spy Phèdre nó Delaunay, her loyal protector and consort Joscelin Verreuil, and her onetime patron, the devious lady Melisande Shahrizai, loving as they wilt and journeying beyond the borders of Terre d’Ange. It’s a bit of a catch-22: With the popularity of The Tudors and Game of Thrones, this couldn’t be a more perfect time for such a sex-positive series—and lush fantasy world—to be adapted. However, thanks to those same series, no network is biting at the moment.
Even GRRM himself wants to see Kushiel’s Legacy be the next big series to binge-watch. Although all eyes seem to be fixed on GoT, as Carey explains:
In fact, when I ran into George R.R. Martin at WorldCon a couple of years ago, he asked, “So when are they going to make a series out of your books?” I laughed and said, “Apparently, there’s this Game of Thrones series that’s sucking up all the oxygen!” He squinted at me and said, “No! It was supposed to open doors!”
Carey concludes the update on a cautiously optimistic note, reiterating that the time is now for even more people to discover her books:
After having watched three seasons of Game of Thrones (I don’t have HBO, so I catch up by binge-watching DVDs), I will say this: I now believe that Kushiel’s Legacy could be made into a pretty damn awesome series, one that gets the delicious nuance of the intrigue, the epic scope of the plot(s), the pageantry of the battles, and that confronts the erotic aspect head-on.
That said, she did express some reservations about how Phèdre’s first-person narration would translate to TV (where “you’re looking at the characters”). She should comfort herself with the fact that the ASOIAF books juggled multiple perspectives, which the GoT showrunners have communicated pretty handily.
Oh, and she would want “the new Tatiana Maslany” to play Phèdre, to which we say, Yes.
Clearly, this just means the show will have to wait until Orphan Black is over and she can actually get Tatiana Maslany. Not that I want Orphan Black to be over.
OTOH, Phedre is supposed to be quite young at the start of the series; Maslany might be a bit too mature. (Not that I would care, I’d rather her than an inferior actress regardless of age).
Well, for starters, it’s because I haven’t heard about it. I am not a TV exec, but I read fantasy series, and I browse TOR.com almost daily, but obviously I missed something. Since I don’t frequent bookstores anymore I guess I missed it. Is this series as popular with a rabid fanbase like Ice and Fire? Is there a 1000+ page thread discussing the parentage of one single character? If not, that’s probably why it has not yet been adapted.
Still, my interest is piqued and I will check it out.
He squinted at me and said, “No! It was supposed to open doors!”
Love this bit.
She said “the next Tatiana Maslany”, not “the new”. Tooooootally different phrase.
DougL: I don’t think it’s as popular as ASOIAF, but it was in the top ten of Tor.com’s ‘Best books of the eleven-year decade’, so it must have quite a following.
Eva Green was always my dreamcast for Phedre.
Now Joscelin, I’ve never found a man I think beautiful enough to live up to that.
But Angelina Jolie was always my choice for Melisande
@DougL yes, there is a very devoted fan base that does things like get tattoos that replicate the tattoos described in the books. I recommend this series to everyone, especially when 50 Shades was in full swing. Kushiel’s Legacy has a much better command of sex (especially kinky sex) than anything written by E.L. James and it has all of the intelligence and intrigue of GoT.
@DougL
Very few fantasy series have as big a following as ASoIaF, but Kushiel’s Legacy has one of the larger ones below that level.
Google image search “Kusiel’s tattoo” to see just how dedicated its fans are. :)
I think doors may be opening and I hope opening for Kushiel’s Legacy. Outlander (based on the book series) will start in August on STARZ. If it does well, more TV execs might see the potential. That would be amazing and I will watch!
Carey’s Kushiel-series is my favorite epic fantasy, and I have been dreaming of a Tv series for ages!
The world is lush, sprawling and very intriguing. The characters are wsonderful. Melisande is a very intersting and mesmerising villainess – and, yes, Dame Angie has always been my first choice for her. Eva Green or Gemma Atherthon for Phedre. I feel that Joscelin doesn’t have to be played by a divinely beautiful man. It is much more important that the actor is talented and charismatic. I just can’t think of an actor that would be suitable at this moment.
Phedre is a wonderful and somewhat unique fantasy heroine, and not just because of her masochistic sexuality. She is intelligent, compassionate, brave and a highly educated scholar. She overcomes her trials by her wit, intelligence, endurance and compassion – and incredible courage. And it is great to see how she develops over the series, becoming more mature and starting to play the game of politics with greater and greater agency, even if she is god-driven.
I like that religion plays a real and meaningful role in the series – the people of Terre d’Ange are the descendants of rebel angels and the religion revers the concept of love in all its forms. The central tenet is “Love as thou wilt” and the sexual politics are more nuanced and healthy that what it is in Game of Thrones (both the Tv version and Martin’s books). Rape is heresy in the d’angeline religion and this is not just PC’ness. The series articulate love and hope as positive forces that has an impact in this world – through the god-touched Phedre (and the later protagonists in Carey’s d’angeline series, which number 9 books so far.).
I really like that this series has a more positive outlook that Martin’s border-line nihilism in ASOAIF. Yes, bad things happen, people are power-hungry, greedy and cruel. But people can also be hopeful, strong (and not just in a kick-ass way) and capable of extraordinary acts of kindness – just like in the real world, which IMO makes Carey’s series much more realistic in terms of human nature than Martin’s.
Strange that I never heard of it, I will definitely check it out, thanks guys.
@11, There is BDSM content, but it’s all consensual, no 50 Shades squickyness
@Kesper, The quote about Tatiana Maslany is way out of context. Carey gives most of a paragraph to explaining that she would want a wildly-talented unknown actress for Phèdre, like Tatiana turned out to be with Orphan Black.
She also notes that one of her newer books, Santa Olivia, would be far easier to adapt, but “Hollywood has thus far expressed no interest in a story with a biracial heroine and a girl/girl romance at the core.”
For an example of first-person narration successfully translating to screen, consult The Hunger Games. Carey’s series is complete so there’s no danger of overcoming the author in progress, and nine volumes is a lot of content to draw from even if it’s pared down. Another strong thing going for it: whereas Westeros is not a place I’d care to live, Terre d’Ange is the first fantasy world I’d book a ticket for.
@14, Yup, I’d live there if I could.
Some of her other books are really good, she recently started an urban fantasy series, Agent of Hel, that’s a lot of fun.
It doesn’t fall victim to the Exceptional Girl Syndrome of Laurell K Hamilton or Patricia Briggs, it does a much better job on the whole “use the supernatural as an allegory for social justice” thing than True Blood, and being Carey, there’s a good chance the romance resolution will end up in a poly situation rather than a “You must choose ONLY ONE” out of all these people panting over the lead character.
Am I the only one that hopes this never gets a TV adaptation? There are too many scenes that belong in the private mind, in my opinion. I really don’t need to see the spiked strap-on depicted on film, but at the same time don’t care for a neutered version of the story either. Energies would be much better spent on getting the Wheel of Time on screen once and for all.
I have been involved with Phèdre for the better part of 16 years. I keep rereading the books because I love them that much. I see everything play out before me as though I am watching a movie, or even as though I am she. A movie, or a series would have to be perfect. Some things from the books can be omitted, but there are something’s that are also vital to the series as a whole and thus cannot be omitted in any scene and then flashed back to at a later time for it could confuse people who have never read the books. Or even, ruin the experience. If a movie or series was in the works, I’d just love a chance to be there. Running through the streets, listening to the different languages… Even smelling everything (though I’m not too sure the water ways of La Serenissima would be pleasant)… It all just leaves a new world to be seen.