Over the weekend, author Tomi Adeyemi came on TikTok to tell us that she won’t be watching the film adaptation of her beloved novel, Children of Blood and Bone, that is set to come out in January of 2027.
Published in 2018, Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone has become a smash hit, with the novel and its two sequels, “Children of Virtue and Vengeance” and “Children of Anguish and Anarchy” (collectively known as the “Legacy of Orïsha” trilogy) spending weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List.
Since the adaptation was announced, it’s been a series of dramatic events so here is a timeline of all the events from the moment we found out about the adaptation till now.
March 2018: Fox 2000 (producers of The Percy Jackson films and The Devil Wears Prada) acquired the film rights to the book in a massive seven figure deal.
December 2020: The film rights of the book were transferred to LucasFilm, but it never really took off and ended up getting stalled.
January 2022: Paramount Pictures acquired the rights to the “Legacy of Orïsha” trilogy in a highly competitive bidding war.
December 2023: Gina Prince-Bythewood, director of The Woman King, was announced to direct “Children of Blood and Bone” and co-write the screenplay with Adeyemi, with casting as the next crucial step.
January 2025: Thuso Mbedu, Amandla Stenberg, Damson Idris and Tosin Cole were announced as the lead actors for the film and this was the beginning of the film’s troubles. There was a ton of backlash at the casting, especially the role of Princess Amari who is dark skinned in the book being given to Amandla. There were also complaints about the lack of local Nigerian talent in the casting. but Tomi was quick to defend Amandla’s casting and remind us that an open casting call would be held for Nigerian talent.
February 2025: Shooting for the film started, with the cast sharing photos from their location in South Africa.
March 2025: The results for the casting call were announced with Pamilerin Ayodeji and Shamz Garuba being announced as the newcomers. Along with them, Richard Mofe Damijo and Ayra Starr were also announced as part of the cast. This was met with online ridicule as Tomi had made such a big deal of the open casting call only for us to get two relatively new names and two already established stars.
June 2025: The director announced that shooting had been completed.
July 2026: The author made an announcement on social media distancing herself from the adaptation despite having producer and writer credits. She shared screenshots from an alleged conversation dated late February with Amandla where she warned her to never bring up her name again in any interviews.
This adaptation has been plagued with one controversy after another and this isn’t Tomi’s first online controversy. In 2018 she accused acclaimed romance author Nora Roberts of plagiarizing her book title. This led Nora Roberts to write a blistering blogpost after which Tomi retracted her accusations and apologized.
With all the issues clouding this adaptation, will you be watching the film come January next year?
What do you think about this?
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