This Cult Classic Shapeshifter Saga Still Doesn’t Have an Adaptation After 23 Years And It Needs One

Published Nov 8, 2026, 2:36 PM EST Amanda Kay Oaks is a writer and lifelong book nerd. She has been writing about books on the internet for over 10 years, with prior bylines at Book Riot and ComicBook.com. Though she reads across most genres, Amanda Kay is particularly fond of romance, cozy fantasy, and books with strong female characters. Many of the most beloved YA fantasy series from the late 90s and early 2000s have been adapted for the screen, from Animorphs to Harry Potter and beyond. Some, like the boy wizard, became massive successes, while others, like Eragon, didn't quite live up to the source material. But one formative fantasy series for many young readers has yet to see an adaptation, and it desperately needs one. If you were a fantasy reader in the early 2000s, you most likely read at least one book by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes. The young writer first introduced their readers to a world filled with witches and vampires at war in their Den of Shadows ​​​​​​books. But while the vampire novels were excellent, the shapeshifter romance saga that began with Hawksong was ahead of its time in all the best ways. And this series desperately deserves an on-screen adaptation, for longtime fans and those who've yet to discover the series alike. The Kiesha'ra series is an epic shapeshifter saga that laid the foundation for modern romantasy in many ways. In the first book, readers are thrust into a world at war, where the avian and serpiente peoples are stuck in a constant struggle. The solution? An unlikely marriage between their royal families. What begins in this book unfolds into a complicated saga filled with star-crossed lovers, complex politics, and unexpected twists and turns. In other words, it would fit right into today's romantasy landscape. The Kiesha'ra Series Deserves More than Cult Classic Status Delacorte Nowadays, shifter romances are all the rage. While Omegaverse novels centered on werewolves tend to take center stage here, the growing popularity of romantasy has given us plenty of iterations on the theme. In that way, Hawksong and the rest of the Kiesha'ra series feels a bit before its time. We didn't call them "romantasy" then, but just YA fantasy novels with romance in them. But make no mistake: Hawksong and its sequels deserve a place on romantasy readers' shelves. The first book alone delivers on just about everything a romantasy reader could ask for. We've got an enemies-to-lovers story, featuring two people who have every reason to hate one another. One shapeshifts into a hawk, the other a cobra. And they enter a marriage of convenience to try to stop a war, sparking a saga that's full of complex political shenanigans, magic, and a few truly heart-wrenching twists of fate. Plus, it delivers a satisfying slow burn. Admittedly, the series does hail from a time when YA fantasy was a bit gentler on the spice. For some readers, though, that will no doubt be a feature, not a bug. It gives us that delicious slow burn in Hawksong, one begins an intergenerational saga full of tangled plots and unexpected complications. And it lets the fantasy and world-building shine, particularly in installments that are less focused on romance and more focused on the struggle for peace in a world plagued by war. But when we do get romance, Atwater-Rhodes really delivers. Danica and Zane's love story is enemies-to-lovers at its best, after all. But it's not the only star-crossed love in the series. In Wolfcry we get a sweet sapphic love story, making the series groundbreaking in a time when this kind of representation was still rare. Though not every book in the series centers on romance, it is nevertheless exactly the kind of series that is well overdue for a resurgence in the modern romantasy landscape. The books certainly aren't unpopular, with over 23,000 people rating the first installment on Goodreads. Given that Hawksong released before the platform existed, this suggests enough of a fanbase to keep discussion churning even years later. But given that the series delivers so much of what readers are eating up in series like ACOTAR these days, it deserves much more attention than it has. And what better way to spark a resurgence than to finally bring these shifters to the screen for the first time? You can purchase the entire Kiesha'ra series here. A Hawksong Adaptation Might Have Struggled in the 2000s, But Now is the Perfect Time Delacorte Despite being a cult classic for many YA readers back in the 2000s, Hawksong has never been optioned for an adaptation, as far as we know. That's honestly pretty surprising, given how many of the series' contemporaries have become movies, TV series, or even both. From Twilight to Eragon to The Hunger Games and beyond, Hollywood certainly wasn't scared to take some big swings on YA fantasy. And the trend continues to this day, with 2000s series like Uglies and Artemis Fowl getting modern adaptations for streaming services like Netflix. And yet, Danica and Zane have yet to fall in slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers, marriage-of-convenience love on screen. Fans have been hoping to see Hawksong on screen for ages. Discussions on Goodreads as early as 2008 bemoan the lack of a film adaptation for a story that has action, romance, and fantasy perfect for a movie. Even so, it's probably for the best we didn't see an adaptation back then. When the first book released in 2003, the technology for making an epic shapeshifter series wasn't quite there. Granted, that doesn't mean no one tried it. Animorphs got a TV series, after all, and we got some interesting CGI choices for the wolf shifters in Twilight. But by and large, I do think it's likely a Hawksong adaptation wouldn't have landed in the aughts. Now, though? That's another story. With the popularity of romantasy, and shapeshifter fantasy series in particular, an adaptation of this series would fit perfectly into the current market. More beloved fantasy books are being adapted for screen, including Eragon's upcoming second chance as a TV series. If Seraphina and Eragon can have another shot after a poor showing in the 2006 film, the Kiesha'ra series almost certainly deserves a first attempt. Given the epic nature of the series, and its large cast of characters as the books go on, a TV series feels like a natural fit here. Indeed, that seems to be the growing direction of many adaptations these days, over shorter films with runtimes that almost guarantee a watered-down version of beloved stories. With an existing fanbase who would no doubt love an excuse for a reread, plus a built-in audience waiting to discover their next shapeshifter saga obsession, the time for a Hawksong movie or TV series has never been better. Here's hoping someone finally makes it happen. It's about time.