Beloved author Brandon Sanderson pulled the curtain back on where the Mistborn movie stands in development.
The fan-favorite fantasy author has long-promised a movie adaptation of his acclaimed Cosmere universe, yet news on the project remains scarce.
That has not stopped Sanderson from venturing into the realm of TV and movie though, with the Wheel of Time series (a franchise he contributed to on later books) becoming an Amazon Prime Video show over the last several years.
Brandon Sanderson Provides Cosmere Movie Update
After months of silence on the subject, author Brandon Sanderson is being honest with his fanbase about the Mistborn movie.
Writing on his personal blog in his yearly 'State of the Sanderson' wrap-up, Sanderson revealed the upcoming Mistborn movie adaptation (set to be the first Cosmere universe film) is back at "step zero."
He divulged that, at points over the last few years, the film project has "got as close as step six/seven," before going back to the drawing board:
"'Mistborn' is at step zero right now, though recently it got as close as step six/seven as a live-action film. (It’s tricky to point to where it got because this project did a lot more internal development than is usual—so it had basically done all of Step Seven before going out to pitch to studios."
"It got offers of development deals from studios, but no production deal," Sanderson added, but "the partners [he] had did not want to go back to script after all the work they did:"
"It got offers of development deals from studios, but no production deal, and the partners I had did not want to go back to script after all the work they did. As the studio didn’t want to do it the way the producers did, it died at the end of Step Six. If it had gone as we wanted, we would have skipped Step Seven and Eight entirely, as the production deal would have included a greenlight. We then would have gone straight to Step Nine—which was why I was so hopeful I could do an announcement for you."
He said that this latest round of pitches had stars "attached" and that fans would "recognize some of the names," but more work needs to be done:
"Alas, it did not happen. (Yes, this means stars were attached. No, Henry C. was not one of them. Yes, you’d recognize some of the names. No, I can’t tell them to you.)"
Sanderson clarified these comments in a thread on Reddit, going into what exactly is taking the project so long.
He posited, "It would be much easier to get a Mistborn television show off the ground than a film;" however, he doubts television's ability to "[make] a lasting impact on popular culture:"
"I can tell you that it would be much easier to get a 'Mistborn' television show off the ground than a film. But here's my problem: what television properties, especially on premium cable, have made lasting impact on popular culture? Take a popular and well-made show like 'Shadow and Bone,' and compare it to an okay film series like, say, 'Maze Runner.' Do a google trends search on that right now, if you want."
"The audience of streamers is so fragmented," the Mistborn author explained, telling his fans he wants to make something worthy of his fantasy universe's name:
"The audience of streamers is so fragmented, and people double-screen so often, that things just don't get traction very often. You can even take something fantastic like arcane, and ask if your grandparents/parents would watch it. My mother would never be interested--but she went to the 'Lord of the Rings' films because they were EVENTS. Beyond that, budgets there are getting slashed in streaming too. Do we really want to make a 'Mistborn' series on a budget, to just be held up beside other shows getting five times the budget?"
Sanderson has seen some of his other work be adapted to TV (namely Wheel of Time which he co-wrote the final three books of with Robert Jordan), but thinks the Mistborn trilogy would be the "only one of [his] mainline books that could be adapted to a feature," so he is willing to take his time:
"It's a tough position. Plus, I think 'Mistborn' is the only one of my mainline books that could be adapted to a feature. But this could change for me at any moment. I've given serious thought to it over the years. I will say our plan for what we were doing was hybrid: a giant, big-budget, first film followed by a season of television covering the year between books one and two which would include all the cut content from film one that is in the books. Movie two would follow book two, then a season between."
He disclosed that there were once plans for a movie-TV hybrid for the Cosmere story, adapting the first book in a movie, doing a season of TV to fill in the time between a sequel based on the second novel in the trilogy; however, it never came to be.
Despite all these bumps in the road, Sanderson remains positive, hoping things "will go better moving forward:"
"Key actors were signed for both film and television season. But alas, we just could not get the greenlight. We picked the absolutely wrong time to be pitching a big, new, expensive IP to Hollywood. Hopefully, with things looking up this year, it will go better moving forward."
Will The Mistborn Movie Ever Happen?
The road to the Mistborn movie continues to be a bumpy one for author Brandon Sanderson, but the beloved fantasy writer maintains that it is going to happen.
While the outlook on a movie set in Sanderson's fan-favorite world feels a long way off, he seems too passionate to let it go. These updates are better than what he has said about the project in past years.
Last year, all Sanderson had to say about the film in his 2023 wrap-up was that development had hit a "hiccup" and was being put "on pause." And in 2022, he was even more vague saying he would tell fans about the movie when he could.
This newest update at least seems to indicate that movement is happening on the project again and Sanderson is out actively pitching it to people. It is just a matter of when and where it eventually lands.
In a world where studios are itching for known IP, one would assume a franchise like Sanderson's would be in high demand.
Just look at what Warner Bros. is doing right now. After already hitting the gold mine at the box office with a beloved name in fantasy literature in Harry Potter, the studio is now developing a retelling of the books in an HBO TV series to capitalize on the IP all over again (read more about the Harry Potter TV show here).
Mistborn is one of the most beloved names in modern fantasy, so a film adaptation feels like a no-brainer. Sanderson just has to find the right studio to back his vision and make it happen.
The Mistborn trilogy of books is available in bookstores now.
