With everything going on right now, and more people staying at home, I’ve gone back to my roots, and I’m doing more reading. And it brought a number of series back to my attention. In particular, it brought ones I’ve always wanted to see come to television. Now, there are others I’ve wanted to see brought to television, but the last thing I want as a traditional book over movie adaptation is a Game of Thrones-esque situation where the television writers end up writing an ending that no one believes should have been the end. So I’ve only brought completed series to the list.

Kate Daniels Series By Illona Andrews

The Kate Daniels series brings us a unique perspective on an apocalyptic world. Andrews’ world involves shapeshifters, magic, technology, and several personable characters. Andrews takes three elements of literature and provides a new look for them. Shapeshifters can take the form of any animal in the wild. Magic and technology switch through the world in phases, and when one is active, the other doesn’t work. This offers unique challenges for the characters involved throughout the completed ten book series and several spinoffs. Kate Daniels is a powerful woman, with a ton of appeal to female readers currently. The romance in the novels is absolutely something to fall in love with. You’ll cry, aw, and fight for your favorite character all in the same book.

The shapeshifters and magic may be the series’ biggest challenge in obtaining a screen adaptation. Warner Bros. would be a great studio to adapt this series, with imagery like Game of Thrones, and Aquaman to back up what I’d like to see happen best here. Illona Andrews is actually a wife and husband author duo: Illona and Gordon. Illona brings the feisty Russian side, and Gordon brings his knowledge of the military to every book. With some oversight from them on script development, Kate Daniels would be a hit for sure.

The Inheritance Cycle By Christopher Paolini

The Inheritance Cycle has already had one attempt at an adaptation by Stefen Fangmeier and 20th Century Studios with 2006’s Eragon. But when it came out and failed beyond proportion, the producers threw out plans for a franchise. It certainly did not help that the film completely failed to follow the spirit of the books. It’s completely understandable that not everything can remain intact with a film adaptation. But when the changes impact how the characters act towards each other, when following the book would have lined up in the time frame just as easily, that’s where things break.

I intended to talk about how I hoped HBO could bring a better adaptation, with effects similar to Game of Thrones. But one of my close friends Isak Wolff brought to my attention the potential of having it adapted in a similar fashion to anime, from a studio like Madhouse. The animation style is brilliant and would enable no compromising on design aspects simply due to the limits of CGI. Madhouse is one of the top tier anime studios, and they’re very good at adapting material. This could be a great option for The Inheritance Cycle book series, though the only downfall is that 20th Century Studios still holds the rights.

Codex Alera By Jim Butcher

I’d like to finish this list off with one of my favorite comfort read book series. Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden series had a life on television, and it’s high time this had one as well. Codex Alera is a coming of age series, with a basis on Roman culture. Originally, Butcher wrote this on a bet that he could not combine The Lost Roman Legion with Pokémon. It has a similar concept to Avatar: The Last Airbender in that every person has the ability to control elements called furies. They can control one or multiple, which often determines their well-being in the land of Alera. That is, except for one: the leading character Tavi.

Codex Alera would do well as a more adult animated series, or potentially taking a live-action spot on Apple TV+ with the producers of SEE. There’s violence, magic, elements, and passion. It is predictable, following a traditional coming-of-age story with an unusual person at the forefront. But the story is executed so well, it’s easy to forgive taking familiar tropes, in pursuance of a play on Roman culture. –Katie Gilstrap

What do you think of these three series being adapted to television? Do you have another series you would like to see adapted to television? Let us know in the comments below!