This Beloved Sci-Fi Novel Is Finally Getting Adapted After 12 Years, but It’s All Wrong

Published Nov 14, 2026, 4:08 PM EST Michael Hein has been covering entertainment, fandom news, and trending topics since 2016 on outlets including Rogues Portal, PopCulture.com, and ComicBook.com. He has provided live coverage of red carpet premieres, conventions, and up-fronts, and has interviewed major stars including Charles Dance, Patrick Stewart, and Chloe Sevigny. An avid fiction reader and writer, Michael has been diving deep into all the biggest book-to-screen adaptations of the last decade, from Game of Thrones to Foundation. After 12 years and at least two scrapped attempts, Red Rising by Pierce Brown is finally getting adapted for the screen. Last month, Paramount Pictures announced that it had purchased the film rights to the acclaimed science fiction series, and it had even assigned writer Justin Rhodes and director Francis Lawrence to the project. The news broke days after Paramount's parent company finalized its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, creating the conglomerate now known simply as Skydance. With that much new momentum behind it, things are looking pretty good for this project, yet many fans still feel it taking the wrong approach. Like other doorstopper novels, this story might be better suited to a series than movies, and it might actually look better if it was animated rather than live-action. These arguments have been made for several recent adaptations, and they've become increasingly popular among fans online. In this case, Brown actually spoke up about the idea of animation directly on social media. He told fans that he is simply trying to give the story its best chance at succeeding on the big screen, intimating that there are some very complex legal issues at play behind the scenes. Brown even suggested that an animated adaptation could come later if there's demand for it. 'Red Rising' Author Claims 'Animation is Still on the Table' Image via Del Rey Books In a discussion with fans on Instagram, Brown assured fans that he did not compromise his own wishes in this latest deal to adapt Red Rising. It sounds like the author himself has wanted a live-action movie from the start. He explained: "If the film works, everything is on the table. If the film fails, animation is still on the table. If animation worked... Goddamn you don't comprehend the legal/rights complexity it'd take to make it a film. If animation failed, it's dead." It sounds like Brown's pursuit of a live-action adaptation was at least partially motivated by the logic of sales. It's nice to see him assuring fans that he is not opposed to the idea of animation for this story. Red Rising is set in a distant future where humanity has colonized the entire solar system. It takes place on various planets, moons, and spacecraft, all with elaborate terraforming and engineering in place. On top of that, the characters are often flying, battling with advanced weaponry, or pulling off even more outrageous stunts that are hard to picture in live-action. A "live-action" adaptation of Red Rising will really be a mass of special effects and CGI, which is why animation is such a popular option for fans. If the most important elements of the story are going to be animated by artists anyway, why not simplify the whole thing with a more stylized look? However, Brown's comments seem to suggest that it would be extremely difficult to sell a live-action adaptation after an animated adaptation, especially if the animated adaptation was unprofitable. That means the franchise's current course is its best chance of succeeding on multiple fronts, and it leaves other doors open as well. Hollywood Needs to Take Animation More Seriously Image via Subterranean Press/Pierce Brown Just a decade and a half ago, the idea of a fantasy novel adaptation performing better as a ten-episode series than a movie would have sounded strange in Hollywood, then Game of Thrones came along. Today, many other long, epic fantasy and sci-fi novels are succeeding as series, and the medium seems to suit their stories better than movies would have. It may be that in a few years, we'll look back and talk about animated adaptations in the same way. Animation is a natural choice for many of the best sci-fi and fantasy books, especially if the adaptations are going to rely heavily on CGI. These stories could look beautiful in the hands of talented artists and animators, while voice actors could bring the characters to life. Sadly, animation is still seen as a medium for children, or for cheap, niche projects. If Hollywood can shift its attitude towards animation the way it did with TV adaptations, we could enter a whole new golden age of sci-fi and fantasy on the screen. This practice could reign in some of the unbelievable budgets monopolizing the industry and put creative control back in the hands of a small, nimble team again. That won't be the style for this upcoming adaptation of Red Rising, but it's good to know that the option is still there. So far there's no word on when the movie will start production or when it might hit theaters. In the meantime, there are six novels in the Red Rising saga available now in print, digital, and audiobook formats. Brown has been hard at work on the seventh and final novel, and could announce its publication date any day now.