The Red Rising saga is slowly making its way from page to screen, though fans received a mix of encouraging and frustrating news from series creator Pierce Brown. Originally published in 2014, set in the far distant future, Red Rising follows Darrow, a miner on Mars, who rises within the ranks. The sci-fi series has produced five sequels, with a sixth on the way.
For the uninitiated, Red Rising being brought to a live-action movie or TV series has been a turbulent journey, with no clear finished product in sight. The Red Rising series was initially optioned for a feature film by Universal Studios between 2014 and 2016, but creative changes and a lack of control led Brown to reclaim the rights by 2018.
Between 2018 and 2021, Brown shifted focus to a live-action TV adaptation, assembling a creative team and courting interest from major streamers.
By 2022, with five books in the series now published, the project had been optioned and re-optioned by an unnamed streamer (rumored to be Apple TV), with plans for a $120-200 million budget.
Development continued through 2023 and 2024, including interruptions from the writers' strike, while Brown emphasized maintaining creative control and ensuring the project remained faithful to the source material.
Fast forward to 2026, and Brown provided a mixed bag of news on the adaptation when asked by book content creator Maude Garrett.
The Bad News About Red Rising's TV Series
The unfortunate news for fans of Red Rising is that the previously reported TV adaptation will not be moving forward.
Brown told Garrett that when a book is "optioned," it's safest to assume it won't happen, and there's a big difference between shopping for a buyer and actually being purchased:
"It's just best if something is optioned to assume it's not being made. I mean 99.9% of things are like that. So when it's optioned it goes into what's called development and it's not even been purchased yet. It's been optioned."
Despite years of development and careful planning, Brown revealed the studio wasn't "confident" in moving forward, calling the possible TV series being shared online a "corpse." A major update is that Pierce only learned about the project being shelved in October 2025:
"Unfortunately, we just couldn't get it to place where they felt confident... the thing that's online is a corpse...I only found out in October of last year that the project wouldn't be going forward."
He expressed getting "kept in limbo" for years, noting that it takes years to develop, sometimes with "no movement," and he hasn't been hiding any new information:
"You're kept in limbo...And so, you know, it's not like I'm hoarding all this information and not wanting to tell you. It's that for many years there can be no movement, and you're trying to get it made, and then you think you have a partner, and then you don't. And that sometimes happens."
As the past rumors suggested, Apple TV might be involved, and the company's recent focus on adapting Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere novels could explain the shift in priorities.
Apple recently acquired the rights to produce a Mistborn movie and a Stormlight Archive TV series, granting Sanderson unprecedented creative control over writing, producing, and overseeing the adaptations.
Pierce Brown Delivers Good News on Red Rising Project
The silver lining for Red Rising fans is that Brown revealed a new mystery project. He said that hopefully soon he'll "be able to announce something new that I have:"
"The fortunate thing is I think I'll be able to announce something new that I have... with regard to live adaptation, which is not that TV show."
While Brown confirmed that the previous TV project is no longer happening, a fresh opportunity is on the horizon. It's still uncertain whether this new adaptation will take the form of a movie or another TV series, but it represents the third time his Red Rising rights have been optioned.
Based on the interview, Pierce seemed more confident in this new adaptation, giving fans hope that the story of Darrow will be brought to screens in some form.
The greatest hurdle any studio would face is the budget required to bring Red Rising to life in a way that would satisfy fans. This makes the idea of a live-action project continually in question until there's an official announcement.
