What Happened To The Mistborn Movie?
Fans of Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn fantasy novels have long wanted to see them made into a movie, and the good news is one is already in the works. The not-so-good news is that it has already been hit with delays. For context, let’s take a look at the history of this fantasy franchise.
What Is The Mistborn Series?
The Mistborn movie will be based on the epic fantasy novel series by Brandon Sanderson that began in 2006 and is published by Tor Books. The first trilogy in the series included The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension, and The Hero of Ages, all of which were released between 2006 and 2008. The second series, a quartet, was published between 2011 and 2022 and includes The Alloy of Law, Shadows of Self, The Bands of Mourning, and The Lost Metal. The novella Mistborn: Secret History also came out in 2016, and Sanderson has stated he plans to write more books, comprising a third and fourth series.
Much of the story in the Mistborn series, which will be very interesting to see in movie form, concerns Allomancy and Feruchemy. Allomancers have a genetic ability to absorb or “burn” metals and draw various magical powers from them. Feruchemists, on the other hand, draw magical powers from metal by first infusing the metal with a power and then wearing it in some fashion so that it is in contact with their skin, allowing them to draw and use the magical ability stored in the metal.
The original Mistborn trilogy, which we assume will be the movie’s starting place, concerns a secret collective of Allomancers who attempt a coup against a dark empire. The idea of a world where a dark lord had won and a chosen one had failed came to Sanderson from the Harry Potter books, which, of course, feature the typical version of the Chosen One narrative that Sanderson sought to subvert. Beginning his story after a devastating defeat for one who was supposed to be the savior of the world put his characters in a unique position that he found inspiring.
Audiences have agreed and have not only continued reading Mistborn books and asking for a Mistborn movie but engaging with the universe in other media as well. Sanderson, who has maintained control of all Mistborn output so far, developed a role-playing game for the series, which was released in 2011 in PDF, paperback, and hardcover. A 2016 Kickstarter campaign led to the release of a Mistborn board game designed by Kevin Wilson and developed by Crafty Games, which was released in 2017 with an expansion following in 2018.
The Complications Behind The Mistborn Movie
All of this seems like good momentum for the Mistborn movie, though each of these projects has had its share of delays. A planned video game was in development for several years but was eventually canceled, though a Mistborn character did end up appearing in Fortnite. As for the film, Sanderson has been working on making it happen for quite some time.
Rights to make a Mistborn movie were optioned by one company, lost, and purchased again by another company between 2010 and 2016. By 2020, Sanderson said he was at work on the screenplay for Mistborn: The Final Empire. Since then, information on the development of the film has not been forthcoming, leaving fans questioning when, if ever, the cinematic adaptation will be completed.
Mistborn takes place in a world where evil won and the Chosen One was soundly defeated.
In a Reddit comment, Sanderson assured fans that the Mistborn movie is indeed still happening but that development is moving slowly. Not only have the recently ended WGA strike and the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike slowed development processes across Hollywood, but significant problems in recent years have caused production gears to turn less quickly, particularly in the fantasy genre. In his comment, Sanderson cited the financial failure of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, as well as the declining returns for investments made in Lord of the Rings content and disappointing numbers from streaming, as all having an impact across Hollywood.
Nonetheless, Sanderson declared he is certain the Mistborn movie will be made but that it will take longer than expected. He stated over a year ago that he expected to be on set a year from then. That prognostication has not come to pass but Sanderson has said that expectations for when the film will be released will have to be adjusted, and quite a bit.
