Despite recent reports to the contrary, Hulu’s adaptation of Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses series is still in development. Mostly.
Last night, TV Line reported that the series was no longer in development, writing, “Sources confirm to TVLine exclusively that the high-profile project is no longer moving forward at the Disney-owned streamer. What’s more, we’re hearing that 20th Television/Disney is not currently shopping the potential series to other outlets.”
Variety then shared the news—but before long, the industry outlet updated their post to say, “Variety has now been told that technically the show is still in development at Hulu. But that’s semantics, as it is believed to no longer be in active development.” What? Variety‘s Jennifer Maas continued, in a parenthetical, “(In its current form, the show isn’t being shopped elsewhere. But that doesn’t mean the property owners might take ‘ACOTAR’ elsewhere, should it eventually be scrapped at Hulu.)”
The series won’t be an easy one to make, no matter where it might end up: While it begins as the story of Feyre, a hunter who winds up crossing the Wall between her normal world and a magical land of powerful faeries and terrible villains, by its third book the series has reached all-out war between the forces of good and evil. Things quiet down a little bit after that, but there are creatures and battle scenes aplenty.
In 2021, Sarah J. Maas announced the adaptation in an Instagram post that has since been deleted. At that time, she was working on the pilot with Ron D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica), who certainly seemed like an interesting and promising showrunner for the series. In a brief 2022 interview with The New York Times, the author described the process of hiring writers for the show via Zoom.
Last week, Disney Television Group president Craig Erwich answered a question about the adaptation by saying only, “That show has been in development, but I don’t have any news to share today,” according to Variety. But now, even Entertainment Weekly has jumped in to say that no news is good news: “Sources close to the situation confirmed to EW that the long-delayed project has not been scrapped and is still in development.”
What it all means is less than clear, but one thing is for sure: We won’t be seeing Feyre, Rhysand, and the rest on screen any time soon.
