After Brandon Sanderson, Apple TV Has The Perfect Opportunity To Build Another Fantasy Multiverse

Credit: Tor Publishing / Danny Schlitz Published Aug 16, 2026, 4:30 PM EDT El is a Junior TV Features Editor for ScreenRant, with previous experience as The Mary Sue's UK and Weekend Editor. She holds a Bachelor's in International Media and Entertainment Management, as well as an MA and Ph.D. in Creative Writing. There is little she loves more than discussing her favorite TV shows with fellow fans. One day, she hopes to publish an original fantasy novel. Sign in to your ScreenRant account Apple TV's unprecedented deal with fantasy titan Brandon Sanderson paves the way for the streamer to pursue another major genre franchise. At the start of this year, The Hollywood Reporter announced that Apple TV had won the rights to Sanderson's sprawling, interconnected fantasy universe, the Cosmere. This isn't an ordinary adaptation deal, however. Both Sanderson and Apple TV have described it more as a partnership, with Sanderson given near-complete creative control over the project. Starting with a Mistborn movie saga and a prestigious Stormlight Archive TV series, Sanderson will be involved at almost every level. Essentially, he'll be the "architect of the universe," from writing to production and casting approvals. Per his website, he's already finished drafting the first Mistborn screenplay, though further developments are currently being kept under wraps. Sanderson's deal gives him more creative power than even George R.R. Martin has ever had with HBO's Game of Thrones franchise. Most of the time, authors sell their rights and have little say in what happens next; they might be brought on to consult or produce, but not much else. As such, this deal is a dream come true for fans. Sanderson is one of the hardest-working fantasy authors today. If anyone can juggle the responsibilities of building an on-screen fantasy universe and continuing to pump out books, it's him. The deal with Sanderson isn't just a major moment in his career, however. It's a major moment for Apple TV as well. While the streamer is well-known for high-profile science fiction adaptations and originals, including Severance, Silo, and the upcoming Neuromancer series, Apple has yet to break into the fantasy genre, lagging behind competitors like Netflix, Prime Video, HBO, and Disney+. If Apple TV really wants to bet on fantasy beyond Sanderson's work, there's another major bestselling author who has previously spoken about their desire to have a deal equivalent to Sanderson's, one who has a similarly sized fanbase and is currently looking for a new adaptation home: Sarah J. Maas, author of a multiversal, interconnected franchise consisting of three fantasy epics: Throne of Glass, A Court of Thorns and Roses, and Crescent City. Apple TV Can Create Another Fantasy Franchise With Sarah J. Maas' Books Custom Image by Yailin Chacon Sarah J. Maas is viewed by many as the current "queen of fantasy." In 2024, Time reported that her books had sold over 38 million copies worldwide (for comparison, The Hollywood Reporter wrote in January 2026 that Sanderson's books had sold over 50 million), with two long-awaited installments still to come within the next six months alone. The YA/NA fantasy saga Throne of Glass consists of eight books; A Court of Thorns and Roses currently has five books out; Crescent City currently consists of three massive, 800+ page tomes. Each series offers a different fantasy experience. Throne of Glass and A Court of Thorns and Roses both have roots in fairy tales; Throne of Glass, for instance, follows renowned assassin Celaena Sardothien as she fights for her and her world's freedom under a tyrannical king's command, while Crescent City is an urban fantasy, starting with a murder mystery conspiracy in which ancient magic meets modern-day tech. Much like Sanderson's Cosmere universe, Maas' work is interconnected, though the author has built her stories within a multiversal framework rather than within a singular, Star Wars-like universe. This was confirmed in the Crescent City novels, which, without revealing too many spoilers, are directly connected to A Court of Thorns and Roses and open a path for direct connections within Maas' work through magical portals and ancient, universe-hopping beings. Like Sanderson, Maas' franchise has long been stuck in development limbo. Hulu originally owned the rights to A Court of Thorns and Roses until they officially dropped the project earlier this year. In a rare interview with the Call Her Daddy podcast, Maas said that "getting the rights back to all [her] things" had been a "big part of [her] journey in recent years" and went on to explain how she wanted to be involved in any potential future movie or TV adaptations. "I look at any TV, movie adaptation as kind of like another facet of the worlds that I've created, and it's something that I want to be in charge of. I'm a type A control freak a little bit, but I want to know everything about how it gets made, not because of that control, but just because I love movies. I love TV. I want to be a part of that, and I want to see everything adapted the way I envision it and the way I know fans want it." If Apple TV is willing to offer Sanderson that kind of creative freedom, they might be willing to offer the same to another author with a similar level of power in publishing and Hollywood. The two series would never really compete with each other, either. While there are sure to be many fans who have read and enjoyed both franchises, the magic systems, world-building, storytelling, and themes are vastly different. If anything, they'd complement each other. Adapting Maas' work alongside Sanderson's would give Apple TV a real advantage not only in fantasy as a whole but also in arguably its most popular subgenre: romantasy. Adapting Sarah J. Maas Would Allow Apple To Compete With Streaming's Romantasy Push Custom Image by Yeider Chacon While all of Maas' work contains strong elements of romance, A Court of Thorns and Roses can most obviously be classed as "romantasy." In the world of Prythian, the eventual romance between Feyre and Rhysand largely drives the narrative forward. This is different from a story like Crescent City, for instance, in which the romance is more of a subplot (an important one, but still a subplot) within the leading character Bryce's quest to discover who murdered her friend and tear the entire system down. Apple TV shouldn't ignore the potential here. Romantasy is one of the biggest drivers of sales in the publishing industry. Streamers are falling over themselves to snatch up the rights to the most popular books labeled as such. Netflix bought the rights to Callie Hart's Quicksilver in an eye-watering seven-figure deal. Prime Video is working on TV series adaptations of Rebecca Yarros' mega-selling Empyrean saga and Lauren Roberts' Powerless trilogy. From Westeros to Middle-Earth to the Continent · Eight Questions How Well Do You Know Fantasy TV? “The night is dark and full of terrors.” 🪨Game of ThronesWinter is coming 👑Rings of PowerOne ring to rule 🗡️The WitcherToss a coin ⚢Wheel of TimeThe Pattern weaves 👻The SandmanLord of Dreams UNROLL THE SCROLL → 01 HBO’s Game of Thrones — the pop-culture juggernaut that made fantasy TV prestige — premiered with the episode “Winter Is Coming.” Across eight seasons it picked up a record 59 Emmy wins. In which year did its first episode air? A2009 B2011 C2013 D2014 ✓ Correct! 2011 — April 17, to be exact. The unaired pilot was so notoriously poor (after a friends-and-family screening, novelist George R.R. Martin reportedly told showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss they had a real problem) that nearly all of it was reshot before broadcast. The retooled premiere immediately became HBO’s biggest hit since The Sopranos. The series ran 73 episodes across eight seasons through 2019. ✗ Wrong. The answer is 2011. 2009 is when the original pilot was filmed (and largely reshot). 2013 is when Season 3’s Red Wedding episode aired. 2014 is when Season 4’s “The Watchers on the Wall” reset what TV could do with effects. GoT debuted April 17, 2011. NEXT → 02 Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon and the upcoming A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms are all adapted from the sprawling A Song of Ice and Fire universe. Name the author whose unfinished novels (the next book has been pending since 2011) underpin every adaptation. ABrandon Sanderson BGeorge R.R. Martin CPatrick Rothfuss DJoe Abercrombie ✓ Correct! George R.R. Martin (born 1948). The first ASOIAF novel A Game of Thrones came out in 1996; the most recent in the main sequence (A Dance with Dragons) in 2011. The Winds of Winter is now over 13 years overdue. Martin has remained heavily involved in the HBO universe through House of the Dragon, the upcoming A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (2026), and an in-development Aegon’s Conquest series. ✗ Wrong. The answer is George R.R. Martin. Brandon Sanderson is the Cosmere/Stormlight Archive author (and the writer Robert Jordan’s estate hired to finish Wheel of Time). Patrick Rothfuss is the Kingkiller Chronicle author with his own infamous-publication-delay reputation. Joe Abercrombie writes the First Law series. ASOIAF is Martin’s. NEXT → 03 Netflix’s The Witcher (2019–) adapted Andrzej Sapkowski’s novels with a lead actor who’s a famously hardcore fan of the source material — he wore the white wig, did much of his own swordplay, and personally pushed back against Lauren Schmidt Hissrich’s scripts before departing after Season 3. Name him. AHenry Cavill BLiam Hemsworth CAidan Turner DSam Heughan ✓ Correct! Henry Cavill. He played Geralt of Rivia for three seasons before exiting in 2022 over creative differences with the show’s writers’ room (the books-vs-show approach being the open wound). Liam Hemsworth was announced as his replacement and takes over from Season 4 (2025). Cavill’s exit was widely treated as a major moment of fan-vs-streamer tension and contributed to the late-2022/2023 Netflix-fantasy-slate scrutiny. ✗ Wrong. The answer is Henry Cavill. Liam Hemsworth replaces him as Geralt from Season 4 (2025) onward. Aidan Turner played Kili in The Hobbit films. Sam Heughan is Outlander’s Jamie Fraser. The Witcher’s original Geralt is Henry Cavill, through Seasons 1–3. NEXT → 04 House of the Dragon — the Game of Thrones prequel chronicling the Targaryen civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons — is set how long before the events of the original series? A~50 years B~100 years C~200 years D~500 years ✓ Correct! Approximately 200 years before A Game of Thrones (172 years before Robert’s Rebellion, more precisely). The series adapts material from George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood (2018), a fictionalised in-universe history of the Targaryen dynasty. House of the Dragon premiered in August 2022, drew 9.99 million viewers across HBO’s simultaneous-platform debut and Season 2 followed in 2024 with the Battle of Rook’s Rest as its climactic setpiece. ✗ Wrong. The answer is ~200 years. The Targaryen kings featured (Viserys I, Aegon II, Rhaenyra) reign during the Dance of the Dragons (129–131 AC), which is roughly 172 years before Robert’s Rebellion in the original series. Martin’s Fire & Blood is the in-universe history that the show mines for source material. NEXT → 05 The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power — reportedly the most expensive TV series ever made, with a five-season commitment from its streamer at well over $1 billion total budget — is set in Middle-earth’s Second Age, thousands of years before The Hobbit. Which streaming service is it on? ANetflix BHBO Max CAmazon Prime Video DApple TV+ ✓ Correct! Amazon Prime Video. Amazon paid $250 million just for the rights from the Tolkien Estate in 2017, then committed to a five-season run with reported per-season budgets of $400–$465 million on Season 1 alone. Showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay were given access to the appendices of The Lord of the Rings (specifically the Second Age material) but not The Silmarillion proper, leading to many adaptation choices that have divided Tolkien purists. ✗ Wrong. The answer is Amazon Prime Video. Netflix has The Witcher and Sandman. HBO Max has Game of Thrones and HotD. Apple TV+ has Foundation. Rings of Power is Amazon’s flagship original drama and reportedly its single biggest production-budget bet. NEXT → 06 Amazon’s The Wheel of Time (2021–) is adapted from a 14-novel epic fantasy series running from 1990 to 2013. The series’ original author died in 2007 after completing only 11 of the planned books; Brandon Sanderson was hired by the estate to finish the final three. Who was the original author? ARobert Jordan BTerry Brooks CRaymond E. Feist DTerry Pratchett ✓ Correct! Robert Jordan — pen name of James Oliver Rigney Jr. He started The Wheel of Time in 1990 with The Eye of the World and worked on the series for 17 years before dying of cardiac amyloidosis in 2007 with three books left to go. His widow Harriet McDougal hired Brandon Sanderson, then a young Mistborn-era novelist, on the strength of a eulogy he wrote for Jordan; Sanderson finished the series across The Gathering Storm, Towers of Midnight and A Memory of Light. ✗ Wrong. The answer is Robert Jordan (James Oliver Rigney Jr.). Terry Brooks wrote the Shannara saga. Raymond E. Feist wrote the Riftwar Saga. Terry Pratchett wrote the Discworld series. The Wheel of Time is Jordan’s, with Brandon Sanderson finishing the last three books from his notes. NEXT → 07 Netflix’s The Sandman (2022–) adapts a beloved 75-issue DC/Vertigo comic that ran 1989–96 about Morpheus, the Lord of Dreams, and his troubled siblings — the Endless. Whose comics is the show based on? AAlan Moore BGrant Morrison CNeil Gaiman DMike Mignola ✓ Correct! Neil Gaiman. The 75-issue Sandman ran at DC’s mature-readers Vertigo imprint from 1989 to 1996 (with later spinoffs Sandman: Overture, etc.) and is widely cited alongside Watchmen and Maus as proof of comics’ literary potential. Gaiman’s direct involvement was central to the Netflix show’s development. Note that ongoing public controversies around Gaiman from 2024 onward have shaped the show’s future and Season 2’s framing. ✗ Wrong. The answer is Neil Gaiman. Alan Moore wrote Watchmen, V for Vendetta and From Hell. Grant Morrison wrote Doom Patrol, The Invisibles and All-Star Superman. Mike Mignola is the creator of Hellboy. Sandman is Gaiman’s. NEXT → 08 Netflix’s Shadow and Bone (2021–23) wove together the Shadow and Bone trilogy (Alina Starkov, the Sun Summoner) with the Six of Crows duology (Kaz Brekker’s Crows heist crew). Both source novel series are set in the same imagined Tsarist-Russia-coded fantasy world. Whose books are they? ASarah J. Maas BLeigh Bardugo CCassandra Clare DMarie Lu ✓ Correct! Leigh Bardugo. Her Grishaverse spans the Shadow and Bone trilogy (2012–14), the Six of Crows duology (2015–16), the King of Scars duology (2019–21) and various short fiction. Netflix’s adaptation merged plotlines from the two main series simultaneously and was cancelled after two seasons in 2023, with a Six of Crows-focused spinoff that had been in development at one point also abandoned. ✗ Wrong. The answer is Leigh Bardugo. Sarah J. Maas writes the Throne of Glass and ACOTAR series (the latter has a Hulu show in development). Cassandra Clare writes the Shadowhunters Chronicles (which also got a TV adaptation, on Freeform 2016–19). Marie Lu writes Legend and Warcross. The Grishaverse is Leigh Bardugo’s. REVEAL MY RATING → The Maester’s Verdict · Final Tally Your Realm Standing 🪨 / 8 Lord of the Realm — or smallfolk in the keep? ⤴ ANOTHER RAVEN There are other romantasy adaptations in the works, too. Amazon MGM Studios has the movie rights to Devney Perry's Shield of Sparrows. Starz is working on Lauren Palphrey's The Wolf King. Sony is developing Jennifer L. Armentrout's From Blood and Ash as a TV show. Warner Bros. is working on a movie of Tahereh Mafi's Shatter Me series. Red Sage Studios is working on Danielle L. Jensen's six-book The Bridge Kingdom saga, and Paramount is producing Rebecca Ross' YA romantasy bestseller, Divine Rivals. Clearly, there's no better time for Apple TV to get in on the trend, especially with a franchise as big as Sarah J. Maas'. In this case, it would be a win-win for both the streamer and the author. Maas has never been as popular as she is now, especially with her upcoming releases just a few months away. Maas Has Never Been More Popular Than She Is Now Custom Image by Ana Nieves "Maasverse" fans have waited a long time for a new A Court of Thorns and Roses book. The fifth and last one, A Court of Silver Flames, was published in 2021. The author hasn't been silent all that time, of course, publishing books 2 and 3 in the Crescent City series in 2022 and 2024, respectively, but ACOTAR is by far Maas' most popular series. When the author announced during that same Call Her Daddy interview that she was releasing not one, but two ACOTAR books within the next six months, the internet exploded. Both books are currently still untitled. Covers haven't been revealed, and yet, chain and independent booksellers in cities and towns across the globe have planned midnight launch parties. The sixth book, a modest 352-page installment, is due for publication on October 27, 2026. The seventh will be a whopping 928 pages and will be released on January 12, 2027. Both are available for pre-order now. Maas has also confirmed that an eighth ACOTAR book is in the works, which together will comprise a three-part story, alongside a fourth Crescent City novel. If Apple TV wants to ride the wave of Maas' success, the upcoming launches offer the perfect opportunity. With the streamer's budget, attention to detail, and commitment to quality over quantity, an Apple TV Maasverse adaptation could become something genuinely special. Apple TV