James Islington’s Hierarchy series, which includes 2023’s The Will of the Many and the recently released The Strength of the Few, has been picked up by Sony Pictures for film adaptation.
The series takes place in a fantasy-infused version of ancient Rome and follows Vis, the prince of a kingdom recently subsumed by the Catenan Empire. Vis refuses to take part in the world’s magic system, where people give up some of their lifeforce (called the “Will” in the books) to those ranked higher than them. He goes underground instead, fights for money, and lays low. In the first book, he also spends time infiltrating a school that teaches its students how to wield the Will.
In a previous Reddit AMA, Islington had this to say about any potential adaptation: “Part of me thinks how amazing it would be for them to produce something off my stories—but on the flip side, the most successful ones tend to be those who have a really singular vision for what they’re doing. And if there was an adaption of my work, even understanding that it’s a very different medium, I’d want some level of input into how it was done too… so without sitting down and discussing specifics with them, it’s actually really difficult to say who’d be a good choice!”
It seems that Islington found in Sony a studio that matches his goals. According to The Hollywood Reporter, however, the project is still in its very early days. As such, there’s no director, producer, or screenwriter attached. Given the popularity of the books, however, odds are better than usual that this deal will result in a finished movie (or three) at some point in the future. It is also, as Reactor’s Cole Rush has written before, a book ripe for adaptation.
