A Thousand Tomorrows author Karen Kingsbury confirmed the true story influences and real-life inspirations of the rodeo-based romance. Karen Kingsbury's A Thousand Tomorrows originally debuted on Great American Pure Flix in 2023 before ultimately ending up on Netflix in the U.S. on September 1 of this year.
The series is based on Kingsbury's first novel in the Cody Gunner book series (released in April 2005). It follows the romantic to-and-fro of two rodeo champions, their faith, and a secret battle with a debilitating disease that could bring both their careers to a screeching halt.
While the series feels incredibly authentic to viewers at home, setting itself firmly in the world of professional bull riding and depicting a real-world struggle as one of its main characters struggles with cystic fibrosis, it does not necessarily mean it is based on a true story.
Karen Kingsbury's A Thousand Tomorrows is now streaming on Netflix in the U.S. It stars Colin Ford as rodeo champion Cody Gunner, who falls in love with and eventually becomes willing to give up his very own lung to save fellow bull rider Ali Daniels (played by Rose Reid). Despite Season 1 having come out more than two years ago, a second batch of episodes is reportedly still in the works, with more of Kingbury's literary world set to come to the screen.
Is A Thousand Tomorrows TV Series a True Story?
There are definitely real-world influences present in A Thousand Tomorrows' gripping drama; however, it is not technically based on a true story.
The streaming series is based on author Karen Kingsbury's 2005 book of the same name, which kicked off the Cody Gunner trilogy of novels that ran from 2005 to 2009.
While the series is a work of fiction, Kingsbury previously confirmed that she got the idea for the story from a few true story inspirations.
In a 2023 conversation with Crossmap, Kingsbury disclosed that the book stemmed from her love of rodeo, which her husband introduced into her life. "He would take me and kids and we would go," she admitted, saying she loved the sport because "anything could happen:"
"My husband grew up in Santa Maria, California, and he loves rodeo. So he would take me and kids and we would go. I had to watch bull riding like this. I would have to cover my eyes because it’s so scary. Anything could happen."
She continued, positing that the true drive of this story originally came from a conversation with a friend, where this confidante detailed a tale of her daughter-in-law who had died from cystic fibrosis despite being given a lung donation from her son:
"But what happened for this story, I was talking to a friend and she was having a really hard day, and she told me that it had been the one year anniversary of her daughter-in-law’s passing. And she went on to explain that the daughter-in-law had passed from cystic fibrosis. And then she added another layer. She said, 'Not only that, but my son gave her one of his lungs.' And I said, oh my goodness. He gave her a lung and it didn’t work. And she said, 'No, it actually did. It worked. And they always said it would only bother them for three years.' So then I couldn’t get that thought out of my head. Three years?"
So, for A Thousand Tomorrows, Kingsbury honed in on that feeling of "you would love someone so much that you would give them a lung" to keep them in your life:
"So, for 'A Thousand Tomorrows' it was like that you would love someone so much that you would give them a lung for a thousand tomorrows. And I knew I needed to write that story somehow. I didn’t know where it would end up."
Pulling the curtain back further, the acclaimed author then explained that it was not until she "shared a flight with one of the top rodeo bull riders in the world" that she discovered the setting for her story:
"And then I shared a flight with one of the top rodeo bull riders in the world. He was decked out in his gear. And I ended up just kind of talking to him and interviewing him about what that was like, and how could you get on a bull and get through those eight seconds? It was so fascinating.
And when I got off the plane, it was like the Lord said, 'There’s your guy. You have to write about a bull rider.'"
Kingsbury thought professional rodeo was perfect for A Thousand Tomorrows because it gave her character, "a girl with cystic fibrosis...embracing life" and an "angry bull rider," the perfect place to come together:
"And so of course, a girl with cystic fibrosis who would be a barrel racer would mean that she was embracing life, knowing it would be less than a number of days in the quality of what I was calling her to do. So, there’s the angry bull rider who had some issues with his dad and the sick barrel racer. It became this love story that became one of my favorite ones I’ve ever written about."
That is to say, A Thousand Tomorrows may not be based on any specific true story or real-life inspiration. Instead, it takes elements from several places and mashes them together for its rough-and-tumble romance.
