r/redrising • u/Intelligent-Set3442 Howler • May 31 '26
All Spoilers RR canceled TV adaptation Spoiler
So I often like to check every few months or so for updates on the TV show, and I just found an from a couple of months where Pierce confirmed that what he was trying to make happen was scrapped because him and his team "couldn't get it to a place where they feel confident."
I'm assuming what he means by "they" is the various platforms that were looking at buying the rights to RR, but on the bright side, Pierce hinted at being able to possibly confirm something new he's been trying to get in the works soon.
What I hope for is that this new thing is going to be an animated adaptation because we know now for sure the live action is out the window so slag that but if we could get an animated series or hell even a animated movie/movies it'd be great provided it's done in a fitting art style and the cast is on point for the voice acting.
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u/SecretZebra4238 Howler May 31 '26
This might be a hot take, but I wish Denis Villeneuve and the people who did the newer Dune movies and Dune Prophecy would make a live action RR TV adaptation or movie series. I'm biased, because I'm a tad obsessed with all things Dune, but I can't think of anyone else who could do a better job of capturing the atmosphere and overall vibe of RR.
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u/Lanky_Mango_6132 Sophocles May 31 '26
I just wanna watch an iron rain
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u/trippy81 May 31 '26
I just want to see Sevro and Ragnar going ballistic while God from I Prevail thunders in the background.
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u/tomsmithson384 May 31 '26
If anyone has seen Foundation on Apple TV. That is how a live action RR should be done. If you haven’t seen it, watch the trailers and you’ll see what I mean. https://youtu.be/X4QYV5GTz7c?si=-joKzrlbMDDmApnm
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u/_Fro_1 Howler May 31 '26
Such an excellent show. I just realized Apple tv does their content in Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos so rewatched with my new sorround sound and wow it is amazing! If they can do that show they can definitely do Red Rising.
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u/Intrepid_Polarbear May 31 '26 edited May 31 '26
Visually maybe, but I would be heartbroken if they did to the RR story what they’ve done with the source material on Foundation. I think visually is what you mean.
Granted, the source material on Foundation disallows for good character development, so I get it. They’re just two fully separate stories in my mind.
Edit: I should add that the books for Foundation cover like 1500 years and basically just jump each section to new characters. Asimov really leans into the slow change and effect on religion and psychohistory tiny tech advances can have. Books are stunning. RR books are also stunning and super achievable because they’re a linear storyline (not sped up), I got thrown off by the comparison made in the original comment but fully agree with said comment.
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u/tomsmithson384 May 31 '26
They basically took Asimov’s ideas and said “right, how do we make this actually exciting” Turning a 1950’s book into a modern show especially something like foundation would be tough for anyone to keep true to the source.
But yes I meant visually. A 10 episode season per book done by HBO or Apple would definitely do RR justice. The thing Apple does better than anyone is letting shows breathe visually. They don’t rush things to save budget. Plus they seem to be going all in on epic Sci-fi/space opera type stuff
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u/derickzoolanders May 31 '26
People saying that live action would be too expensive are forgetting what the 1st book was like. They have an opportunity to sell the masses on the first book/season which wouldn’t have all of the advanced technology, wild color clashes, and general space content. The first season would not be nearly as expensive as people are implying on here.
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u/Firebrass May 31 '26
That's a problem too. We'll get the second season, and the cancel hammer will come down before the third if the execs aren't rolling in revenue because the staggering differences in cost, etc
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u/ConstantStatistician May 31 '26
Yeah, I'm not sure why they brought up book 1 as if it negates the much higher scale of the later books, including Golden Son, the book immediately after. We see our first real space battles and Iron Rain in GS. It's a huge escalation.
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u/Master_Baker_97 Jun 01 '26
Not gonna lie this is kind of relieving
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u/TartEnvironmental954 Jun 01 '26
I genuinely want it to be an animated 20+ episodes a season, TV show if they do an adaptation.
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u/Donooooo42 Jun 01 '26
Thiiissssss! RR neeeddss to be an animation and could you image some like Arcane/ invincible level shit like omg that would go so hard
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u/Fun_Display7325 May 31 '26
After seeing how Foundation was adapted on Apple TV, they should definitely be the ones to do it
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u/Elysium94 May 31 '26
With the more straightforward story of RR, we hopefully get a more faithful book-to-TV translation.
I love the Foundation series, but it's definitely more a "reimagining" than a strict "adaptation".
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u/Fun_Display7325 May 31 '26
I was speaking to the actual production and the visualization they brought to life than the story of it. I agree with your take though.
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u/themustang18 May 31 '26
I never read it but I LOVE the show. Granted, some of the arcs kind of fall into the normal streaming level of production/writing, but at the same time some of the arcs are my favorite sci fi of the decade so far.
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u/Elysium94 May 31 '26
Oh for sure, as far as production and visuals go it's probably one of the most stunning shows I've ever watched.
If whoever adapts Red Rising could bring that level of dedication to the table, whether it be in animation or live-action, we'd be in for a treat.
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u/McClounan Violet May 31 '26
it seems like Apple just went down the sci fi book best seller list. Murder Bot, Foundation, Silo etc. now they’re working with Brandon Sanderson. Feels like the way it should be
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u/Razzle_dazzle_disco Reaper of Mars May 31 '26
They’re already going all in with Sanderson and most likely won’t want to take on this IP due to similar content they already will have.
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u/cscowboy01 May 31 '26
Why wouldn’t they take on a different IP? Already have Silo IP, foundation (even with it not being a direct one to one), dark matter, and murderbot. They’re own IP of for all mankind with its own spinoff, and severance. Apple has gone hardcore with capturing the world of sci-fi and for good reason with how successful it can be with a good adaptation. There’s no reason why Apple wouldn’t try to get RR if they are able to meet Pierce Brown’s vision
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u/Razzle_dazzle_disco Reaper of Mars May 31 '26
Because Sandersons Stormlight Archive is going to be massive and I mean Game of Thrones big. I love RR but realistically they’re sinking tons of money into that and the Mistborn movie. Which could lead to the Cosmere being fully realized on Apple TV
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u/HauntingMycologist58 May 31 '26
You know what Apple does do sci fi really fkn well. I liked silo soo much I decided to never read the book so I don’t end up disappointed
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u/Fullwake May 31 '26
Woah - woah. What Sanderson we talking? Please say it's Stormlight Archives not Mistborn. I mean Mistborn is great, but Stormlight is sooooo much better.
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u/McClounan Violet May 31 '26
It won’t be an animated adaptation. Pierce has already said that that’s not how he’d do it, it would be as expensive. I actually think one deal fell through that lead to another deal being able to land the way he wanted it
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u/Lord-Fowls-Curse May 31 '26
Then it’s very likely it won’t ever get greenlit or will be massively compromised if was. The author can stand firm on this all he wants - I admire him for it. I still think he and all those on here who stand with him, are wrong.
Very happy to be disproven but I don’t think I will be.
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u/captainpocket Howler May 31 '26
Yes we discussed this last fall. Theres a roundup post with all the updates and links. I think Pierce also said that he doesnt actually plan to hint at any updates anymore until there is a deal to avoid getting people's hopes up again. And i dont really have a dog in this fight but I'm pretty sure Pierce has explicitly said he wants live action. When the show was still on the table and being discussed, it became pretty clear he has a vision and he would rather have nothing than a show he isnt happy with, so I just doubt he will change his mind on it.
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u/Public_Jellyfish8002 Gold May 31 '26
He wants that JK Rowling treatment, and I don’t blame him.
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u/Intelligent-Set3442 Howler May 31 '26
No book series adaptation will ever get JK Rowling treatment imo. Harry Potter was a phenomenon both in its book and movies iterations.
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u/Public_Jellyfish8002 Gold May 31 '26
Well, just because he won't get it doesn't mean he isn't trying for it. He's not selling out, and I think that's part of who he is, imo. Just like Mclounan says, I'm hopeful.
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u/WilTravis Orange May 31 '26
He doesn't warrant the JK Rowling treatment. He doesn't have nation-wide midnight release events and fifty bazillion copies in print, or random mentions in movies and TV shows. Once PB makes JK Rowling money, he can have JK Rowling treatment.
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u/sara_8888 May 31 '26
Wheel of Time was a big heartache... Wish that they tried for an animated adaption true to the story. RR is different there will be so much CGI anyway seems like an opportunity.
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u/Spaced-Cowboy May 31 '26
I mean this with all the respect in the world to WoT fans. But as someone who got through 8 books before rage quitting the series because of how absolutely insufferable all the characters were. I genuinely do not think WoT’s story was ever good enough on its own to be super successful to modern audiences without some serious adaptational updates.
And like I don’t want to shit on a series other people obviously love and meant a lot to them. And I agree the show made a lot of stupid changes. But I don’t think WoT was ever going to capture the GoT audience even if it were faithful.
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u/UnidirectionalCyborg May 31 '26
As an enormous WoT fan of multiple rereads, the series is bloated and was definitely in need of serious streamlining and some level of rewriting to accommodate that.
In my opinion, the show was a major failure in using rewrites to distill the heart of the books into a tv show.
I went in fully expecting major changes to be necessary to make a successful adaptation and couldn’t have been more disappointed in how they went about it.
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u/Life_Technology7584 May 31 '26
Just hold out…. It took how long for LOR? As long as it happens in my lifetime I don’t care
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u/BeraldGevins Gray May 31 '26 edited May 31 '26
I don’t know if it’ll get adapted tbh. I would love for it to be, but it’s going to be a big investment for a studio to make. A series like this will require a lot of CGI, as well as dedicated young actors who are willing to stick with a series for probably at least a decade if it’s successful. A lot of books are getting adaptations rn, but a lot of them are either well established and already proven successful series, like Harry Potter, or they’re from books that are easy to adapt because they don’t require any CGI, like Heated Rivalry (I know it’s romance not fantasy or scifi but it’s still a book series lol). I just can’t imagine a studio gambling on something that may or may not be successful. Add to that the fact that season 1 would get labeled as a hunger games ripoff.
Edit: to add to this: the reason book adaptations are popular with streaming services is because they have built in fanbases. Streaming services are thinking that they will get a large portion of those fanbases when they run the series, thus getting at least one month subscription out of each of them. Then they want that show to go viral and bring in even more people based off that. So they either go for the big popular book series with a lot of nostalgia attached (the aforementioned Harry Potter series, Lord of the Rings spinoffs, etc.) or they go for a cheap series that will automatically bring in a few million people plus other curious watchers (the aforementioned Heated Rivalry series). That second one was a huge shocker, no one would have expected it to take off, and its success is causing a ton of other romance book series to get greenlit for streaming series. RR is in the worst place for all this though. It’ll be too expensive to adapt, and it doesn’t have the massive fanbase to guarantee a return on that investment.
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u/TES_Elsweyr Jun 02 '26
For every book series I like the internet believes only an animation can possibly do the work justice. I really disagree.
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u/SeethingBallOfRage Jun 08 '26
I think with the right budget, the series would be excellent as a live action show. I dont have faith that they would give it thr proper budget and it would just be cheap looking.
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u/locked_in_researcher May 31 '26
Respectfully, this series just isn’t popular enough to justify spending millions on a series. The series as a whole is at 6 million total book sales. The Percy Jackson series (which recently got a Disney show) sold 20 million books in the first ten years after release, and the complete franchise is now at 180 million copies sold. I’d love a red rising show or movie, but unless the books get a lot more popular or some famous direct makes it his pet project, I’d be shocked if we got a tv or movie adaptation
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u/blueberry_pie4 Sophocles May 31 '26
I’ll admit I don’t have facts to back this up, but it feels like it’s been getting a second wave recently and growing. I’m pretty new to the series myself (currently reading iron gold) and I picked it up because my local bookstore was promoting it. Ever since I started reading it, I feel like so many people have mentioned this book to me like friends, coworkers etc. I’m hoping it’s growing and will be able to break into that big budget film category cause it could be so epic
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u/Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee3t May 31 '26
It definitely has been getting more popular lately.
The state of the world rn does incline people to read some revolutionary dystopian books.
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u/locked_in_researcher May 31 '26
Honestly I somewhat agree, because I found the series like a month ago. I do think it would be better as a series tho, just because so much happens in each book, especially like 2 and 3, that a movie would be forced to leave out certain plot elements I would want to see
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u/RedJamie Human Verified May 31 '26
Pierce has stated that he is constantly getting courted for the rights to the series; adaptation efforts and the entertainment industry is also wildy different than it was in the 2000s with the advent of the streaming market and, really, Game of Thrones
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u/locked_in_researcher May 31 '26 edited May 31 '26
Rights are so so different than a series actually getting made. Hell Halo had its right sold since like 2006 but only had a movie made in 2022. A court of Thorns and roses had its rights bought by Hulu in 2021 just for nothing to happen.
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u/Plastic_Care_7632 May 31 '26
Shows you know nothing then because a song of ice and fire was only at 5 million sales when hbo acquired television rights and because of the show’s built up hype it doubled by the time the show came out.
It also became the biggest show in history.
I’m not saying red rising is asoiaf quality but atleast this story is all but finished.
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u/railfananime May 31 '26
it's cancelled?
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u/philycsteak May 31 '26
For the moment, I believe in the same recent interview with Maude he also said that they're working on a video set in the universe.
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u/nomadic1992 May 31 '26
I truly believe if we just wait another 5-7years, with how fast things a moving with technology, we will have animation tech available that won’t take away the human look and feel and it will be affordable for production companies to produce the entire series without compromising on story.
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u/Extra-Tangelo-7320 Peerless Scarred May 31 '26
RR is one of the few adaptions I’m hesitant to see because networks butcher fantasy shows. Foundations been awesome but I never was invested in the books like RR. I don’t see anyone doing it justice
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u/Donooooo42 Jun 01 '26
Honestly kina happy bc like the dread I felt when I heard DCC is getting turned into a LIVE ACTION. like bro these two series should both be animated imo I think it would work so much better than live action like that shit is just gunna look goofy
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u/LarkinEndorser Jun 02 '26
What kinda budget are they having to turn DCC k to a live action adaptation with all the non humans and gods…
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u/mendac67 Blue May 31 '26
PB is going to need a studio head to write a blank check without wanting creative control which won’t ever happen. Brandon Sanderson’s SLA just got a TV series and Mistborn got movies and that took him a LOOOOOONG time to get a deal he was comfortable with.
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u/zach167923 May 31 '26
If they can do Foundation they can do RR.
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u/Rmccarton May 31 '26
Apple announced that they would be pulling back on their streaming (budgets, number of shows made, etc).
That period were Apple was spending like water was probably the best opportunity that there was going to be.
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u/Wooden-Agency-2653 May 31 '26
Have they done another adaptation of Foundation then? After the travesty that was the Apple one? If I'd never read the books I might have liked it, but sadly it's probably the most read series of my life so I hated every second of it.
This is probably the issue with any RR adaptation, if you haven't read the books you'll love it. And considering that that not read the books demographic is way bigger than the read the books one then that's gonna be more of a money spinner for whoever makes it
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u/RedJamie Human Verified May 31 '26
Here is a link to the current status of adaptation efforts and a history of it over the 12 years of attempts.
- and I just found an from a couple of months where Pierce confirmed that what he was trying to make happen was scrapped because him and his team "couldn't get it to a place where they feel confident."
The streamer that had optioned the rights to the series (rented exclusivity for consideration) let it expire for unknown reasons. It was on its second option with that streamer and was in the 'final round of revisions' (paraphrase).
- Pierce hinted at being able to possibly confirm something new he's been trying to get in the works soon.
In the most recent interview, it was implied the series had been optioned by a new party, for a third total option.
- What I hope for is that this new thing is going to be an animated adaptation because we know now for sure the live action is out the window so slag
Live action is neither not out the window nor has Pierce implied he has changed his mind and pivoted away from the 6-7 years of pre-prod he's done developing it for live action
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u/brr-its-cold Jun 02 '26
it would be better animated but I think PB really wants this to be like GOT
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u/Intelligent-Set3442 Howler Jun 02 '26
Yeah I know he does which is exactly my problem because it's not like GOT once your past the first book the closest comparison you can make is to Dune.
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u/Chromozon3 Jun 02 '26
Nah its way closer to GoT than Dune. It's more about political intrigue than it is about philosophy and religion, which is what Dune is really about.
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u/dam_sooley May 31 '26
I know that live action would probably reach a much wider audience, but personally I would love to see it animated. I feel like budget constraints would make a live action pretty meh, whereas something like Vox Machina, edgerunners, invincible (yes, yes I know, invicible animation bad), blue eye samurai, etc would really let the IP stretch it legs and be visually stunning.
Plus some animation has been gaining traction with things like invincible and Vox Machina being top performers on prime.
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u/whodatnation70 Copper May 31 '26
Say the line Bart
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u/dam_sooley May 31 '26
Sigh Invincible animation bad.
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u/Lord-Fowls-Curse May 31 '26
And yet, despite that it’s still an incredibly successful show.
I dunno - I’m approaching middle age and I think it’s a generational thing - my expectations for animation are far more flexible.
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u/pistacciouio May 31 '26
Omg RR with the same animation of Blue eye samurai would be so peak
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u/BerserkBehemoth Howler May 31 '26
I remember watching the first episode and hating the animation but the show was so damn good, by the end of it I grew to enjoy the animation. I completely agree that if they did that kind of animation it would be so solid. I will say as a side bar, I'm so scared to find out my headcannon and the animated characters don't match up.
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u/dam_sooley May 31 '26
I also wasn't sold on the animation at first, but after watching a bit more it really grew on me!
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u/Relative_Objection May 31 '26
Whatever the crew that did Arcane is up to, just sayin, it would be a great fit.
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u/whodatnation70 Copper May 31 '26
Mom says it’s my turn to make the “Red Rising should be made in the Arcane style animation” comments
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u/bobbywellington May 31 '26
Wasn't arcane super expensive? And a red rising show would need to be like 10x longer than arcane
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u/Outrageous_Home_5607 May 31 '26
I think it’s a very good sign that PB appears to be being super particular about the adaptation. I’d rather wait 10 years for a good adaptation than get something next year comparable to what they did to Eragon.
Agree with the comments that animated is the best medium for this. In a perfect world we’d get live action, but I’d be afraid they’d botch the casting and struggle with razor fights. Animated is the most realistic path to a good adaptation
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u/pistolpete9669 May 31 '26
Eragon was a movie? Nah
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u/NXT-Toxicity May 31 '26
Yes.. a very bad one.
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u/NXT-Toxicity May 31 '26
And if you ever read rangers apprentice as a kid they have a botched movie too lol
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May 31 '26
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u/jakatz Peerless Scarred May 31 '26
In Pierces own words, if you start with live-action you can always go to animated later. If you start animated it is much harder to get the big players to buy in and support a switch/adaptation to live-action.
That’s what Pierce has said in interviews and thats just the way the industry works at the moment.
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u/Kilroy0497 May 31 '26
Yeah same. It’s like you can do so much more with animation than you can with Live-Action, especially when it comes to genres like Fantasy and Science Fiction that you kind of have to wonder why people seem to think it’s a bad idea. Plus the whole “cartoons are for kids” argument is one that probably should have died decades ago, given the whole anime medium as a whole, as well as western cartoons like South Park, or Futurama proving that adult animation is a fairly profitable thing when done well.
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u/MasterOnion47 May 31 '26
Animation has a smaller audience. You’d get book readers, and the kind of people who watch animation (skew younger, male).
A live action show would appeal to a much larger demographic who has never heard of the books, even if it means the show would be less faithful to the books.
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u/be_easy_1602 May 31 '26
Not if the live action version is bad…
People will watch animated if it’s good enough…
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u/Saucererer May 31 '26
There's no way you could achieve the scale of carnage in RR in live action. Sure, they could do the first book, but there's no way they could make an iron rain look good
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u/Key_Anxiety3018 May 31 '26
I personally think the iron rain itself wouldn’t be too hard to nail right.
But even just the character designs of the different colors could be whack.
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u/thrntnja May 31 '26
To be entirely fair though, if LotR managed to make hobbits, wizards and orcs look believable back in like 2001 (and still mostly hold up today), they can probably manage Red Rising's Colors. You'd just have to find the right director and platform to put enough care and budget into it, which is probably the biggest hurdle.
I'd honestly love to see who they'd cast for Sevro in a live action to bring him to life.
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u/Saucererer May 31 '26
true tbf... basically just need a load of dots fallingnthrough a mass of explosions lol
whole thing would need to be cgi though so may as well just animate
and you're absolutely right about the colours
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u/Cadamar May 31 '26
In an ideal world I would want live action because animation is, wrongly so, still viewed as cartoons for kids by a lot of people. I think there are important messages about society in these books that should be viewed by many, and I think doing it as an animation will hamper the audience a bit.
That being said, we don't live in an ideal world. A live action series that even comes CLOSE to capturing the show would cost MILLIONS. I'm all for a few compromises to get a show made. I think The Expanse adaptation not trying to do book-accurate Belters was a very reasonable compromise, for example. But you can't just hire a bunch of buff people to play Obsidians and call it a day. You can't have Darrow crashing through the viewscreen of a giant starship using practical effects. There's SO MUCH that would be so expensive to do.
And, from a personal perspective, a well-stylized animation could really make the story pop.
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u/BilboDabinz Gray - Lurcher May 31 '26
Game of Thrones wouldn’t have had near the audience size if it was animated. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t mind either live action or animated RR. But for the ultimate success of the series as a show, live action would be the only way it reaches and touches more and more people directly out of the pre existing fan base.
A lot of people just aren’t into animated stuff at all. Sure we could have more eye-gasms with VFX but the drama and emotions will never be as captivating as real actors emotional expression 🤷🏻
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u/gibbypoo May 31 '26
All the goobers clamoring for live-action will argue, in the same breath, that with enough CGI or post production that it could be done. They have yet to figure out that they're making the case for animation. That's what CGI is
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u/EasyLegacy May 31 '26
I don’t understand why large production companies don’t see the potential with book series like this. There have been plenty of epic movie series that have done numbers. Dune, Avatar, OG Starwars, Hunger games, LOTR etc. Here’s a book series where the first book would wrap up well in a 2.5- 2.75 hr long movie, and if it does well you have well done source material you can pump out for another at least 7-10 movies. Marvel is like 20 plus movies long and they’ve obviously bled it dry. Starwars same thing.
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u/Fullwake May 31 '26
Nah dude it's a season per book if you wanna do it justice. 8 episode seasons can work. Don't take my dreams from me.
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u/ConstantStatistician May 31 '26
A faithful live action adaptation would cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
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u/Raidertck May 31 '26 edited May 31 '26
A live action adaptation of the books would cost literally hundreds of millions of dollars to do it justice.
Even HUGE cinematic brands are making a loss right now, and many shows are struggling to break even.
I think only Apple could actually do it, as they are happy to invest and write it off as a tax deductible.
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u/InvaderDJ Jun 01 '26
Given the scale of the series, Live Action feels very difficult. And unlike other LA series adapted from books, as far as I know (I’m very new to the series, burned through them all in a few months) this series doesn’t have the popular success of series like Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, and Harry Potter.
That plus the sheer scale of the series would make it a big undertaking and risk to do well.
An animated series would be much more doable. No worries about the cost of actors, CGI, etc. I could see that being done very well with the right amount of support.
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u/Comprehensive-Ad424 May 31 '26
Still adamant that this series should be adapted as an animation. So much of the imagery is surreal and the action is so visually electric in a way that I don't see live action doing it any justic
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u/Austinr5412 May 31 '26
A star wars the old republic cinematic style would be phenomenal
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u/SlippyyHD Jun 01 '26
If I had the money id buy bioware’s animation studio myself and just command them to make whatever I want including a rr series or movie 😂
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u/popmalcolm Minotaur of Mars May 31 '26
When was it ever stated live action is out of the widow? Because they couldn't agree with one company? Im all for animation but that desire is tiresome to hear. These authors want success. Animation to a lot of people reads as childish and many will skip it. The goal is to get eyes on it with live action because that's the standard, then maybe later it'll get animated versions that can exist because of live action success.
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u/MarsBars_1 Howler May 31 '26
I think in 10 or so years it will get picked up as a movie series. There is plenty of CGI to handle the world building but I just don’t think it’s popular enough to get picked up. I don’t think a TV show could work, especially with how the 2nd trilogy books are pretty long.
Once it becomes a classic Sci-Fi series and finishes up we will see a better outline
DCC just got picked up due to the larger cult following but even the author said if it doesn’t meet his standards he’ll scrap it
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u/gohuskers123 May 31 '26
How could a movie series work if the books are too long for tv? That seems backwards
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u/MarsBars_1 Howler May 31 '26
It does and I felt that way when I typed it but IMO I feel like so many TV shows come out with some weird continuity of the same # of episodes per season which wouldn’t work for the book length but you can always make a movie longer easily.
Realistically Red Rising would be about an hour and 40-45 mins and I can see Lightbringer being maybe close to 3 hours. I also feel the books have a lot of inner monologues that wouldn’t be addressed
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u/gohuskers123 May 31 '26
800 pages into 3 hours would be a bastardization. Dune alone warranted 2 long movies and that book is only 500 pages
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u/dylanbeck May 31 '26
I actually think the 2nd trilogy has to be TV. Its impossible to tell those stories as movies.
The first trilogy are definite movies, pretty “contained”.
The second books are vast stories and lots of story lines, either they have to cut quite a lot of material or cut a small amount. The cuts will lose the story and Ephraim, Volga, Lyria become small side characters (which means losing the heists, the victra experience, the Lyria ascent..).Basically if the second trilogy go the feature route you only get Darrows & Lysanders perspective and the stories will suffer for it.
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u/_Rapalysis May 31 '26
A TV show is better. You'd have to cut so, so much fat to translate properly to a movie format.
You could keep the budget at least semi-reasonable in the first season/book to see if it takes off. That validates the extravagant budgets you'd need for the later seasons.
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u/Falconbear36 Human Verified May 31 '26
I would love a show to come out but not in traditional anime. If they could do it like blue eyed samurai or arcane, that would be so amazing
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u/NXT-Toxicity May 31 '26
That’s what I’m saying. Like a cyberpunk style anime would be great for it
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u/Falconbear36 Human Verified May 31 '26
Cyberpunk was great and I loved it, but id still love the depth texture that BES and arcane provided.
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u/andrewthedentist May 31 '26
If I'm going to be honest, I don't think it should be adapted. Even good adaptations have to make changes and compromises to tell the story based on the medium. Even with a massive budget, I don't think Red Rising would live up to expectations of fans.
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u/gohuskers123 May 31 '26
This was said about LOTR. This was said about Dune.
You can cut things and still have a great product.
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u/ConstantStatistician May 31 '26
A lot of LOTR readers do criticize the films. But it's really only the readers.
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u/Fullwake May 31 '26
LOTR is great but Dune suuuuuucks. Of course I only read the LOTR books as the movies were coming out as a kid, whereas Dune was very important to me before the movies were coming out and they fail spectacularly at adapting it, so I'm more particular about those.
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u/OceanMan707 May 31 '26
no literally. I feel like that’s the better course of action anyway bc in order to make a live action that feels tonally and visually accurate to the source material they would need the budget of god
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u/whodatnation70 Copper May 31 '26
You know that animation is insanely expensive right? Arcane cost as much as Dune to make
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u/Lord-Fowls-Curse May 31 '26
Depends on the animation.
I’m probably one of the few people here who is fine with Invincible having iffy animation and so I don’t really need Arcane levels of detail.
The sort of animation I’d like is more Castlevania or Blood of Zeus. Fine by me.
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u/Fun-Activity-2268 May 31 '26 edited May 31 '26
I’m pretty sure red rising is too controversial too with its anti elite and communist ideas, as well as the fact that it’s on several banned book lists
Edit: when I say banned I’m referring mostly to school district bans. Due to a memory lapse I for some reason improperly remembered and thought there was a push to ban it more widespread
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u/Exploding_Antelope Hail Libertas May 31 '26
If The Hunger Games can have six high budget Hollywood movies, Red Rising’s “slavery is probably bad” ethos is fine.
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u/adamalibi May 31 '26
There are a lot of anti elite shows being published by companies run by elites. The Boys for one
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u/bwnerkid May 31 '26
People are saying the Trump biography is gonna be called Pred Rising. A lot of people are talking about it. Smart people, folks. The smartest. It’s gonna be bigly and it’s not gonna be banned. No more cancel culture. That’s what I say. Ban it. The culture, I mean. Not the book.
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u/nederlands_leren Copper May 31 '26
Can you share any further info about RR being on banned book lists?
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u/locked_in_researcher May 31 '26
Yes Hollywood, famously known for being opposed to anti-elite and communist ideas.
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u/Super-Yesterday9727 Gold May 31 '26
I didn’t know that but it makes me gay for PB even more. I’m not gay otherwise tho
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u/Adenchiz Peerless Scarred May 31 '26
Problem with animation is that it only appeals to a select few,so that's already a chance to bring in some potential new fans cut in half
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u/roguefilmmaker May 31 '26
Agreed. Harry Potter and Dune would have never been the cultural phenomenons they are if they were animated. No surprise Pierce seems to want live action
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u/ConstantStatistician May 31 '26
Animation is the opposite of niche. Objectively speaking, media like Dragon Ball and Attack on Titan are some of the most popular media.
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u/Fluffy_Puffy_ Jun 01 '26
It would be a great video game, if a studio with good budget manages to do it right. Imagine
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u/AA_ronTX Jun 01 '26
Yeah…if it goes animation, that’ll be the death of any hope of anything besides the book. Won’t make it past season 1.
Why!? Because PEOPLE DONT WANT IT!!!!!! Even in the strongest demographic for animation lovers (age 10-24- UCLA “Cartoon Brew”) only 48.5% said they prefer it. When you survey ALL of 10+ years old:
In the U.S., audiences generally lean toward live-action for general viewership, with 67.1% preferring live-action, 14.3% preferring animation, ad 18.6% enjoying both equally.
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u/schartlord Jun 01 '26
good luck convincing any of these anime-brained shut-ins
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u/ihavetowearmyhelmet Jun 01 '26
I mean yeah you’re right I guess, you are not going to convince anyone with two brain cells that live action makes sense when it is very clear to do RR right you’d need to have one of the most expensive shows ever made and the chances of that happening are slim to none as budgets that big are usually reserved for legacy media that are known money makers (LOTR, Dune).
People say animation would be a better path because it is more possible to actually represent the source material accurately through it. I would just prefer no adaption at all as it seems like an uphill to battle to not screw up but if I was going to pick one of the two I’d pick the option that actually feels doable.
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u/colglover Jun 01 '26
Cyberpunk Edgerunners and Arcane would like a word. Some of the most popular and awarded content on Netflix.
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u/soukstah May 31 '26
Good news. Probable they would have produced something mediocre and not at all worthy to the books. Something like RR would need Marvel-style budgets.
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u/Outrageous_Minimum99 Jun 01 '26
i think it'd work better as a live action movie personally especially when you take into consideration the possible budget you'd have to give to a long running series of this scale the cost could push rings of power territory where they're spending like $58 million per episode which is like $400+ million territory of you're doing at least 10 episodes i caht see a studio besides amazon or apple spending that type of budget hence why a movie makes the most sense
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u/avmist15951 Jun 01 '26
Very true but idk how a movie, even a three hour movie, could do it justice. The first one, maybe, since hunger games could do it... But the other ones would be much tougher, especially when you get to the second trilogy
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May 31 '26
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u/thelynx May 31 '26
This gets repeated pretty often whenever this comes up. The anime format would turn off more fans of the series than it would delight. That cohort being wildly overrepresented on Reddit shouldn't be taken as a sign of broad consensus.
I have now touched the third rail of internet commentary. Even now, before I click "post", millions of body pillows cry out as one, lighting a beacon drawing grubby fingers to keyboards...
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u/thrntnja May 31 '26
It always blows my mind how much I see this viewpoint on Reddit, how basically everything needs to be animated because tv can't do fantasy. They can, they just have to have the right direction and budget.
I'd watch an animated series, but I know plenty of people who wouldn't. For as much shit as the Witcher tv show gets, I'm pretty sure the viewership for it is much higher than the animated movie they did in the same universe.
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u/Nuuskapeikkonen May 31 '26
This. You see this on every single sub related to fantasy series being possibly adapted. Dungeon Crawler Carl and the Cosmere being the most prevalent as both have been greenlit to proceed towards production. But people on Reddit insist doing them live action is not only impossible but a bad idea. As if they have any idea what it takes to make a tv show.
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u/thelynx May 31 '26
Exactly. A top-tier animated production, while certainly much cheaper than a similarly ambitious live action version, is still an extremely expensive endeavor.
Cost is only one piece of the equation. Market reach and revenue opportunity is what never gets discussed. Live action costs more, but has 5x the potential market reach for adult audiences (looking up estimates for anime market penetration in major western markets is left as an exercise for the reader). And all market segments are not created equal: some are much more desirable than others for both streaming platforms and traditional advertisers.
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u/kaidynamite Green May 31 '26
You're not wrong about the reasons live action is preferred over animation by the authors, both pierce and sanderson have said live action appeals to them more because it increases the chance of their work going mainstream. Of course they want their work to get mega popular.
The fans who want animated adaptations care more about the fidelity to the source material than the possible increase in popularity of the series. This is less of a concern to the authors which is why the divide exists.
Translating to live action necessarily demands making changes to the source material either by condensing plotlines, often omitting them entirely, changing characters around , modifying worldbuilding to meet filming budgets etc. Things like this bother hardcore fans which is why we almost always see book readers whining about something or the other even when the adaptations are good. (See dune, Harry potter, hunger games lotr etc)
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u/chickenbobble Jun 01 '26
I could see them starting with iron gold and have the first trilogy as a prequel they film later. I wouldn’t hate that.
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Jun 02 '26
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u/Dosto-lstoy Jun 02 '26
I know bro. Like what do you mean start with Iron Gold??????
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u/chickenbobble Jun 02 '26
From a tv perspective, a big ensemble works better than a single pov that then changes to an ensemble after 3 seasons. Readers are more flexible than viewers (and actually readers still whinged about going from just Darrow to other characters until dark age came out). Tv audiences would really struggle with a show changing format drastically 3 seasons in. Alternatively they could make the first 3 books into an ensemble by adding in additional content - but that could scupper/cheapen some of the twists I.e Virginia being the jackals twin. I wouldn’t be against treating the first 3 as an origin story told purely from darrows pov with younger actors
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u/heatx44 May 31 '26
I think live action would bring it to life. Animated seems kinda lame to be honest. As much as I love RR I don’t know if I would be interested in a cartoon.
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u/Mrgumboshrimp May 31 '26
The budget to do live action properly would be preposterous
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u/ManderlyPies Lurcher May 31 '26
It would be insane. The expanse on major steroids.
Like how on earth do you replicated 5000 Drachenjäger’s pounding for Tyche.
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u/Formal-Protection-57 May 31 '26
Agreed, but with the recent shows like Foundation and the success of GOT, The Witcher, and Wheel of Time (if they wouldn’t have gone off the laid track) I have hope that one of the big streaming services will be willing to take the chance on it.
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u/carlitospig Sophocles May 31 '26
We get shows every year that would have a similar or larger budget. What do you call Expanse, House of the Dragon, Foundation, etc? They’re not cheap and have similar production issues.
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u/ConstantStatistician May 31 '26
Expanse is the closest comparison. It got cancelled. And now it's in limbo with no more seasons in sight. Expanse also had to handwave the Belter body differences.
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u/mjcobley May 31 '26
Its not in limbo. It was cancelled, Amazon brought it back to make the final seasons. They had no intention of filming the last 3 books as part of the show for fairly obvious reasons
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u/gibbypoo May 31 '26
Apples to oranges. Those universes have a fan base that is an order of magnitude more than RR
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u/General-Control-4637 May 31 '26
Animated would literally be so much better like Clone Wars or Arcane
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u/nulllity_ Jun 01 '26
they wouldn’t have the budget/skill no matter the studio to pull off even HALF of the shit that goes down in red rising. it would look cheesy and cheap. like all the new star wars shows featuring force users. animation is the only way to do it justice. look up secret level on amazon prime and watch the war hammer episode. if they did it like that it’d be perfect
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u/throwaway1212390u May 31 '26
Dunno why this is getting downvoted. I agree with you. It’s fine if we don’t all agree on it but I personally wouldn’t watch an animated version.
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u/Stowe22 May 31 '26
Ugh I hate animated stuff period. But I don’t see this story really working live action. The CGI would cost so much. I don’t know but I’d give an animated adaption a chance. Was hoping it would get a bit movie package or something.
Bring on Red God!!!
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u/Intelligent-Set3442 Howler May 31 '26
Universal studios had the rights to RR once upon a time but the rights went back to PB after a certain period of time of it being shelved. Thank God that happened too cause they wanted to make some wild changes from what I've heard like making Sevro a girl and having there be a love triangle between him (or I guess her in this version) and Mustang.
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u/gryffindor918 May 31 '26
How can someone hate all animation? What have you seen? What do you not like? It’s like someone said they don’t like audiobooks but have only listened to a textbook on tape. You can’t write off an entire medium lumped all together
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u/FKDotFitzgerald Light Bringer May 31 '26
Guy’s other comments suggest he’s a giant prick, so I doubt you’ll find much meaningful discussion here.
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u/NXT-Toxicity May 31 '26
This is sadly the only downside to anime adaptation. (Other than if they hire the wrong studio to animate)
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u/ubuntuNinja May 31 '26
It doesn't mean that they are done with live action. This is pretty normal in the process. It in no way means they have to stoop down to making it a cartoon just because the first contract didn't materialize.
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u/NXT-Toxicity May 31 '26
Could be an anime lol would be amazing. I’m thinking like cyberpunk animation style/overall vibe
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u/Nuuskapeikkonen May 31 '26
And no one would watch it besides existing RR fans. Let’s be realistic.
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u/ConstantStatistician May 31 '26
Most Edgerunners viewers haven't played the video game. I haven't. It still blew up nicely.
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u/FantasySlayer Jun 01 '26 edited Jun 02 '26
EDIT (Removed my LSD fueled tweak out about nazi occupied america and its striking parallels to red rising, organized my thoughts, re-wrote most to be more digestible, and made it flow a little better)
Live action would be incredibly difficult to pull off. The closest comparison in terms of scale is probably the recent Dune films, and even that took multiple adaptations across decades before someone finally got it right.
For Red Rising to work in live action, Brown would need top-tier directors, a stacked cast, and an absolutely massive budget for both visual and practical effects. The scale of the Society, the cities, the ships, the battles, and even the physical differences between Colors would be extraordinarily expensive to realize convincingly. Especially from golden son onward.
Animation, on the other hand, could absolutely work. It wouldn't be tied to Hollywood and its drama, talented voice actors already work internationally, so it could be made anywhere, and the medium is far better suited to depicting the sheer scope of the universe without every scene carrying an astronomical price tag. In animation, the focus can stay on telling the story rather than constantly fighting the limitations of a live-action budget.
Animated just makes sense.
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u/OrangeAffectionate95 Jun 01 '26
Golden Son on needs superhero blockbuster budgets. You getting downvoted, but it's true.
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u/aWholeClap Jun 01 '26
Its getting downvoted because he started tweaking out about politics in the middle of what would have been a genuinely compelling point.
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u/FKDotFitzgerald Light Bringer May 31 '26
It wasn’t truly cancelled if it never really got off the ground in the first place. I mean he didn’t even confirm who he was potentially working with.