Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series is set to be adapted for television, according to Variety. Pratchett’s production company Narrativia has signed with Motive Pictures and Endeavor Content to develop the project.
Variety notes that it’s not known which of the 41 novels will be adapted first, but that the adaptation will be “absolutely faithful” to them.
Narrativia said in a statement to The Guardian that “the spirit of this new alliance has been forged from a shared love of the source material and a commitment to create an epic series, which will kick off with some of the most iconic titles in Sir Terry’s fiercely incisive and satirical universe.”
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Should the adaptation go through—it should be noted that lots of projects are put into development—it’ll be the latest world of Pratchett’s to be adapted for television. In the pipeline is The Watch from BBC America, which has garnered some criticism from fans over apparent departures from Pratchett’s novels. That series is set to be released sometime this year. Last year, Amazon Studios adapted Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s novel Good Omens for a six-part miniseries.
A handful of Pratchett’s other Discworld novels have been adapted for television over the years: an animated version of his novel Wyrd Sisters debuted on Channel 4 in 1997, while Sky One produced a trio of TV movies: Hogfather (2006), The Colour of Magic (2008), and Going Postal (2010). Last year, director Daniel Knight produced a short film based on the short story Troll Bridge.
With the streaming market maturing, services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV +, Disney +, and the forthcoming Peacock and HBO Max are all on the hunt for original content to set their offerings apart to entice subscribers to sign up. With more than 40 novels that cover a wide range of genres and characters, Discworld could be an appealing franchise for one of them to snap up.
