According to TVLine, Prime Video’s Fourth Wing adaptation series has taken on Moira Walley-Beckett (Flesh And Bone, Annie With An E), a former EP for Breaking Bad, as showrunner. The series is based on Rebecca Yarros’ (In The Likely Event, The Last Letter) Empyrean book series.
The novel series description on Yarro’s website reads, “Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.”
The book series currently has two released novels, Fourth Wing and Iron Flame, with a third book, Onyx Storm, coming out on January 21, 2025.
In October 2023, Amazon MGM Studios and Michael B. Jordan’s (Creed, Black Panther) production company Outlier Society acquired the rights to the Empyrean book series. Yarros is set to work as a non-writing executive producer. The series has yet to be picked up, but will stream on Prime Video if it is.
Prime Video appears to be successfully leaning on a number of series adaptations to grow it’s viewership. Their most watched show, The Boys, is a loose adaptation of Garth Ennis’ (Get Fury, Crossed) comic series of the same. Their second most watched show is Fallout, which, while not based on a comic book or novel, is based on a video game series of the same name. Other adaptations of their include Reacher, The Terminal List, The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power, The Wheel Of Time, Daisy Jones & The Six, My Lady Jane and The Peripheral.
Many of these series have been received positively, with The Boys sitting at a 93% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, Fallout at 94%, Reacher at 95%, The Terminal List at 94%, Daisy Jones & The Six at 82%, The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power at 83%, The Wheel Of Time at 83%, My Lady Jane at 94% and The Peripheral at 79%. It seems that this connection to existing audiences has paid off.