If the Mistborn movie comes to fruition, it could be the replacement audiences need for a $9.5 billion fantasy franchise that’s been stuck in a lull. Brandon Sanderson’s novels have become some of the most celebrated fantasy works of the 21st century, with series like Mistborn and The Stormlight Archive standing out as part of a grander fictional universe called the Cosmere. Given the popularity of expanded universes in movies and pop culture, they seem perfect for adaptation and could become an enormous cultural hit if they’re brought to the screen well.
A Mistborn movie adaptation has been discussed for several years, with a feature film coming the closest it has ever been to fruition in 2023. Sanderson, who’s known for being transparent with fans, sadly broke the news at the Dragonsteel Convention in late 2023 that the project was delayed again. This is most likely due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes in 2023, causing studios to take caution in diving into a big-budget fantasy epic. However, Sanderson specifies that Hollywood still sees the value in his stories, so it’s only a matter of time.
Mistborn’s Move Adaptations Could Make It The Next Harry Potter
Narrative Comparisons Between Mistborn & Harry Potter Mean It Could Reach Similar Success
One of the reasons Mistborn is such an exciting book to adapt is that it stands out as a unique fantasy experience, comparatively to what mainstream movie and television audiences are already familiar with. Mistborn offers some political complexity and character nuance like Game of Thrones and conflict of good vs evil like The Lord of the Rings, but it doesn’t bear too much similarity to either. The most comparable fantasy franchise would likely be Harry Potter in terms of Mistborn’s narrative structure and audience appeal.
Mistborn is popular, but it’s nowhere near the cultural force of the Harry Potter saga. However, a successful movie adaptation could set it along a similar path. In terms of its structure, Mistborn books offer a similar mystery intrigue to Harry Potter, where characters work together to unearth information about their Dark Lord foe, offering a compelling glimpse into the complexity of the series’ antagonists. Mistborn isn’t YA, but it can also appeal to younger audiences due to the age of its main protagonist, Vin, who’s in her late teens at the start.
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Forget Mistborn, This Even Bigger Book Series Is The Fantasy Adaptation I Really Need
A Mistborn movie sounds really exciting, but there’s another, even bigger fantasy series that we’d really love to see adapted by Hollywood.
Brandon Sanderson Was Inspired By Harry Potter When Writing Mistborn
The Lord Ruler Was Inspired By A Voldemort Hypothetical
Of course, there are enormous differences in the world-building in Harry Potter and Mistborn, but there’s a reason there’s so much similarity in the way the books explore their antagonists. The idea for The Lord Ruler came about by Sanderson questioning, “What if book seven of Harry Potter was Voldemort defeating Harry and winning?” (via BrandonSanderson.com). There’s a direct Harry Potter inspiration for the first Mistborn book’s main villain, and movie audiences love a complex bad guy.
