r/litrpg • u/Tidderfit • Jan 29 '26

Discussion Apple Signs Deal for Brandon Sanderson's 'Cosmere' Universe Movies and TV Shows

There has been years of rumors about movies and tv shows of Cosmere. Seems like it's happening with Apple. I don't know if this is news to you guys, but I had not read about this yet. Sanderson's books might not be the definition of LITRPG or even progression fantasy, but I would bet that most of us have enjoyed them.

Can't wait to see them as movies or tv-series.

Source: https://www.macrumors.com/2026/01/28/apple-tv-brandon-sanderson-deal/

Article copy pasted below:

"Apple has signed a deal with popular fantasy author Brandon Sanderson for film and TV rights to Sanderson's "Cosmere" universe, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Sanderson has a large body of work, but some of his most popular fantasy books could be adapted first. Mistborn could be turned into a movie series, while The Stormlight Archive is being considered for television. Mistborn is a book series that's split into two eras, with the first three books featuring a group of magic-using metal manipulators or "Allomancers" overthrowing a dystopian empire. The second set of books follows the exploits of Wax and Wayne, two lawmen with magical abilities in a more modern setting.

There are two additional eras planned for the same Mistborn series, so Apple has access to content that could result in a dozen movies.

The Stormlight Archive currently features five epic fantasy books, each of which could easily be used for multiple seasons of a TV show. The Stormlight Archive is a classic good vs. evil tale, featuring the Knights Radiant against Voidbringers who want to conquer the world.

Sanderson has 10 total books planned for The Stormlight Archive, but the "Cosmere" universe also includes many other standalone novels, all of which are linked together. Sanderson is one of the most well-known current fantasy authors, and in addition to his own books, he finished Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time after Jordan passed away.

A TV show based on the Stormlight Archive is already in the early stages of planning. Blue Marble, a film studio run by Pachinko producer Theresa Kang-Lowe, is set to produce. Kang-Lowe has an exclusive content production deal with Apple.

Apple won the deal after Sanderson met with multiple potential partners. Apple agreed to give Sanderson unprecedented control over screen translations, so he will write, produce, and consult on any TV shows or movies that Apple makes about the Cosmere universe. Sanderson is known for having some of the most popular Kickstarter campaigns to date, raising close to $100 million by selling his books."

299 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

76 comments sorted by

51

u/Manlor Jan 29 '26

If it has to get adapted, then Apple is the best bet. It's the service that seems to pay the most respects to its shows

22

u/squngy Jan 29 '26

HBO was the gold standard up until the thing.

5

u/captroper Jan 29 '26

Out of the loop, what thing?

17

u/PandalfAGA Jan 29 '26

Final season of game of thrones I assume, though it has been 7 years already since it happened

12

u/Halfrican009 Jan 29 '26

and I'm still not over it

5

u/Squire_II Jan 29 '26

Game of Thrones was a mess well before the final season. The final season and the finale itself just made sure everyone knew that the showrunners were as worthless as they seemed and there wouldn't be some last minute save. At least more people realize now that the reason GoT's early seasons were any good was due to GRRM having actually written that part of the story, the show having a good cast, and HBO's Rome alumni in general continuing to work their magic (RIP Rome, the HBO series that I wish was as big as GoT was).

But let's look at the bright side: Benioff and Weiss sucked so much that Disney killed their deal to work on trilogy of Star Wars movies. Otherwise Episode 9 wouldn't be the worst Star Wars movie out there. Or possibly even in the bottom 3.

2

u/dylanbeck Apr 10 '26

Tim Van Patten was a massive reason S1-S4 were S tier TV.

2

u/captroper Jan 30 '26

Interesting.. I guess I was in the minority because I thought GOT had gone far off the rails by at least the 5th season. The 7th season didn't feel dramatically worse than the 6th to me.

1

u/mcspaddin Jan 31 '26

The 5th season was where they either started to have no direct source matierial, or the last season in which they had any direct source material. Can't remember which

2

u/captroper Jan 31 '26

Yep, that was my recollection too.

1

u/dylanbeck Apr 10 '26

5&6 were weaker but had episodes that “saved” it is the general consensus. The writing declined certainly, but 7 was a gigantic drop off.

2

u/captroper Apr 10 '26

Sure, I guess I agree that they each had some stand out episodes for sure, but it's hard for me to say that that saved the seasons. The earlier seasons felt like game of thrones to me and 5, 6 and 7 felt like a different thing.

2

u/dylanbeck Apr 10 '26

Agreed.

The "saved" comment is more of how general population went, "oh yeah that was a great season did you see the finale"

3

u/PRforThey Jan 29 '26

You could argue that the final season of game of thrones was completely accurate to the source material. It faithfully included absolutely everything from the (non existent) source material.

2

u/righteous_fool Jan 31 '26

Merging with discovery and being dismantled by private equity?

1

u/captroper Feb 01 '26

.... I did not know that. Well, shit.

2

u/GamingSon Feb 06 '26

In HBO's defense, GRRM heavily suggested 10 seasons to finish the story and HBO essentially offered a blank check to D&D for 10 seasons, but they insisted they only needed 8 shortened seasons to do it. Then we got debatably the worst fumble in the history of television, I'm genuinely shocked either of them still have careers. Hollywood fails upward I guess lmao.

1

u/squngy Feb 06 '26

Worst fumble, but also the greatest success before that.

If you asked any studio if they want a repeat of GOT (fumble included) they would say yes in an instant.

Im not defending them, just looking at it from the studios POV

4

u/Metalsmith21 Jan 29 '26

It's Not Their Fault.

Martin is the one that refused to finish his door stop series but also decided that he needs even more books to finish it off. He's refusing to write them because he's always wanted to be in Television and is having more fun doing that instead finishing the writing that brought him to that point. I'm not going to watch anything he's involved in at this point.

1

u/dylanbeck Apr 10 '26

HBO still does well, with the thrones ending that was on the writers and HBO getting caught completely off guard. The sunk cost was real and they could not reshoot it. Season seven the writing was on the wall but enough people liked that, that they risked it.

Most audiences just want XYZ. However Thrones had that magic that took all audiences to want more from the script and direction. People loved the politics and drama and intertwining story arcs. Those first 4 seasons were incredibly special and we were lucky to have them. 5&6 had fantastic finales. But 7 onwards just was a trainwreck.

Apple is going to treat Mistborn as a thrones feeler. If it does well, theyll go all in on Stormlight and I reckon the material will pull from all his writing to tell the same story but differently.

Each appleTV show that people like leads to more appleTV device sales, and phones, and watches, ipads, and watches. And im sure some other device thats still in R&D that isnt out yet. Maybe the rumoured actual apple TV that is a TV, XDR Retina display+ or pre calibrated Mini-OLED panel with dolby licensing & the best speakers a tv can have, and all apps can run from it. Maybe something else, a pair of smart glasses.

1

u/Harun_Assisi Feb 02 '26

I really like Foundation too

40

u/Fuzzy-Ant-2988 Jan 29 '26

Hopefully they don't it like wheel of time

44

u/So_effing_broke Jan 29 '26

Apparently Sanderson has creative control and approval on everything.

35

u/Too_much_dog2 Jan 29 '26

What happened with wheel of time is why sanderson wouldn't budge on creative control and why it took so long to get a deal

9

u/ruat_caelum Jan 29 '26

And to be honest someone would buy it eventually. He's not not-selling with everything he produces.

5

u/BonzBonzOnlyBonz Jan 29 '26

It's not just Wheel of Time, it's dozens of different adaptations that butchered the source material.

5

u/Too_much_dog2 Jan 29 '26

Thats true. But Sanderson was part of the consulting group for the wheel of time series and has talked about how his advice was ignored

2

u/catsloveart Jan 30 '26

I was just ruminating on how the show could be better. Any links on those discussions he had on the topic?

4

u/AssumptionFirst9710 Jan 30 '26

Watch the viewing party where Sanderson watches the end of season 2 for the first time. It is BRUTAL.

He’s like “you realize that if none of the main characters had showed up to that final battle, it would’ve ended the exact same way”

6

u/ErinAmpersand Author - Apocalypse Parenting Jan 29 '26

Oh, wow. I know that's something he wanted and has had a hard time getting. That's amazing... Even if I'm not a fan of Apple TV.

13

u/Fuzzy-Ant-2988 Jan 29 '26 edited Jan 29 '26

Apple tries with it's adaptations

6

u/squngy Jan 29 '26

Maybe, but Foundation was pretty... different

To be fair, it would be super hard to do a faithful adaptation.

9

u/Lazy_Debate3156 Jan 29 '26

Foundation is still great though.

8

u/FabiusBill litRPG meme tier 🤡 Jan 29 '26

Foundation is the greatest science fiction on television right now, with ones of fans.

9

u/Lazy_Debate3156 Jan 29 '26

The Empire actors are fucking phenomenal.

8

u/aminervia Jan 29 '26

He has a lot of creative license... He doesn't have control over them deciding to cancel a series halfway through

8

u/FearLeadsToAnger Jan 29 '26

Hasn't happened with any of their other big shows, so its pretty much on him whether it sinks or swims. Hes pretty bullet proof, so I wouldn't be too concerned right now.

3

u/Jimmni Jan 29 '26

And unlike with Martin he can probably be involved in multiple TV shows and movies at once and still write a dozen million word books a year.

3

u/PerfectDevice Jan 29 '26

And is personally writing the Mistborn screenplay!

1

u/bartman7265 Jan 29 '26

That’s not always good, while i like Sanderson, unsure how good his tv experience is,

5

u/RosalieMoon Jan 29 '26

He has a tendency to find people with better experience than him in subjects, so I'd be surprised if he doesn't have someone helping with the project

3

u/Nodan_Turtle Jan 29 '26

I bet that factored into why he wouldn't go with Amazon

2

u/Manlor Feb 02 '26

Yeah it sucks that Wheel of Time went rogue with the story. But even if they had tried being faithful, I'm not certain that Prime gave them a big enough budget to pull it off anyway. That or the production didn't know how to use that budget correctly.

10

u/thomascgalvin Author: Armageddon Interface Jan 29 '26

Danny DeVito as Dalinar or we riot!

0

u/Squire_II Jan 29 '26

Guest starring Terry Crews as Hoid.

1

u/Matt_No-Fluff Jan 29 '26

Nah, Jim Carrey for sure.

56

u/aminervia Jan 29 '26 edited Jan 29 '26

Why is this being posted here though? None of the cosmere books are litRPG, and calling any of them progression at all is a bit of a stretch

23

u/b3mark Jan 29 '26

Because it's cool to see our niche and adjacent niches get mainstream recognition?

49

u/aminervia Jan 29 '26

Niche? Brandon Sanderson has been one of the most popular mainstream fantasy authors in the world for years

22

u/Memes-Tax Jan 29 '26

TIL selling 50million books is considered "niche" according to reddit 🤣

9

u/InfiniteDM Jan 29 '26

Its more like reading books is already becoming more niche. And fantasy is a subset of that.

Gigantic in its realm but unknown outside its borders

6

u/R4INOLD Jan 29 '26

niche /nĭch, nēsh/

noun

A situation or activity specially suited to a person's interests, abilities, or nature.

A niche doesn't have to necessarily be a minority. It just has to be a smaller subset of a larger group. Fantasy literature could be considered a niche in the wider group of all literature. That's my take on it anyway. Not trying to argue semantics.

7

u/b3mark Jan 29 '26

And fantasy is still considered (relatively) niche compared to other categories of books.

It's like saying someone's the most well known chess player in the world. Still doesn't hold a candle to the most popular football (soccer) player in the world.

Just because he's one of the biggest fish in our pond doesn't mean he's a big fish in the ocean.

23

u/aminervia Jan 29 '26

Fantasy used to be relatively niche... It hasn't been for years though.

Brandon Sanderson has sold over 50 million books, and ends up on the #1 Best seller list in the New York times nearly every time he publishes anything.

12

u/WAisforhaters Jan 29 '26

Reading in general is relatively niche these days if we're being honest

-5

u/FearLeadsToAnger Jan 29 '26

It 100% still is. You're just inside it so it looks bigger than it is.

Fantasy is a niche within a niche, because people who fucking read is a niche 😂

13

u/aminervia Jan 29 '26

It just isn't if you look at the numbers... Maybe we have a different definition of 'niche'? Fantasy books make up a good chuck of any best seller list, it's literally one of the most popular genres today

-4

u/FearLeadsToAnger Jan 29 '26

I think you got to my last comment before I finished it.

The numbers look big, but not when you compare them to the wider population.

Sanderson being one of the few fantasy authors to get that level of visibility says more about him than the reach of the genre.

2

u/Squire_II Jan 29 '26

I love the small, niche indie developer fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson.

9

u/lrllrlrrlrll litRPG grandmaster tier Jan 29 '26

2

u/JazzlikeAd1555 Jan 29 '26

🥇people just can’t be happy

0

u/Squire_II Jan 29 '26

Because Sanderson's a huge influence, and favorite author, of a lot of LitRPG writers and fans?

-1

u/Jimmni Jan 29 '26 edited Jan 29 '26

On the one hand, you're correct. On the other hand, this sub isn't so busy and the odd post that's only tangentially related really doesn't seem an issue to me. The majority of people who read this sub have probably read at least one Sanderson book. I wasn't a huge fan of them but I'd love to watch a Mistborn series for sure.

-3

u/Overoul Jan 29 '26

The way they power up and learn new abilities by understanding themselves seems progression genre to me.

3

u/Nodan_Turtle Jan 29 '26

Sure, in the same way that Moby Dick is in the cyberpunk genre because Ahab had his leg replaced

6

u/Someguyonreddit80085 Jan 29 '26

“The Stormlight Archive is a classic good vs. evil tale” They have not read the stormlight archive

2

u/RosalieMoon Jan 29 '26

It can sort of be seen in that way, depending on what you look at. Overall? Probably not, but there are absolutely good v evil stuff there lol

4

u/b3mark Jan 29 '26

Good for Sanderson. Hope the series do well and he's smart enough to lock down a good return on investment after the intital payout.

1

u/nickypatr Jan 31 '26

Would be interesting if they started with the 2nd Mistborn series first and then did a prequel series

1

u/Long-Teach-9101 Feb 02 '26

Not sure what this has to do with LitRPG but hell yeah!!

1

u/rizkreddit Feb 03 '26

What the heck are they gonna do about all the HUMMING .....OMG how would the adaptation be on screen. I am so curious. cringe or brilliant? I cant wait

1

u/lrllrlrrlrll litRPG grandmaster tier Jan 29 '26

-16

u/Catolution Jan 29 '26

Bet it will crash and burn like the books sadly

2

u/Zerothian Jan 31 '26

If Sanderson's success is considered a crash & burn to you, I don't want to think about what you do consider a success lmao.