Lin-Manuel Miranda no longer involved with adaptation of Patrick Rothfuss's KINGKILLER CHRONICLE series

Actor, writer and singer-songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda has confirmed he is no longer attached to the long-gestating attempt to bring Patrick Rothfuss's Kingkiller Chronicle to the screen.

Interest in the property began back in 2007, when The Name of the Wind was published to a rapturous reception and very high sales. It intensified in 2011, when the sequel The Wise Man's Fear was published.

In 2015, Rothfuss reached a wide-ranging and high-value deal with production company Lionsgate that included a feature film trilogy based directly on the novels, as well as a TV show which would act as a prequel and focus on Kvothe's parents. The following year it was confirmed that Miranda, the nuclear-hot creator of hit stage musical Hamilton, was working on the project as a songwriter for both the films and the TV series, whilst Lindsey Beer was working on the script for the first movie, based on The Name of the Wind.

In 2017, things really got moving when Showtime optioned the TV series rights, attaching John Rogers (Leverage, The Librarians) to write, produce and showrun. In 2018 Sam Raimi entered talks to direct the first film. A few months later, in 2019, John Rogers confirmed he had written all ten scripts for Season 1 of the show, which was entering pre-production. Things looked like they were going very well.

Then things collapsed, pretty quickly. In September 2019 Showtime abruptly halted all work on the Kingkiller TV series and returned the rights to Lionsgate. By that time it was clear that Raimi had passed on the movie project, and subsequently opted to direct Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness instead. The rumour in Hollywood was that Showtime has massively over-committed to its ambitious Halo TV series, spending much more than originally planned, and had to quickly divest itself of several other expensive shows, even ones that had been greenlit, in order not to have a huge budget overrun. Ironically, of course, Halo was moved from Showtime to Paramount+ and the financial issues sorted out behind the scenes, meaning that possibly the Kingkiller project could have moved forwards after all.

In November 2020, Lin-Manuel Miranda confirmed he was still working on the IP, but the plan to adapt the (gigantic) novels as single movies had now been abandoned and the project was being reconceptualised as a TV show based directly on the novels. Miranda cited his work on the HBO/BBC co-production His Dark Materials (based on Philip Pullman's novels) as giving him a "fresh perspective" on the complexities of adapting a fantasy trilogy for the screen.

Miranda's departure from the project seems to be down to two reasons. First, his own workload is through the roof. He is currently enjoying huge success from his work on the Disney animated movie Encanto, including his first-ever Number One single for "We Don't Talk About Bruno." His 2021 film Tick, Tick...Boom! has also enjoyed significant critical and commercial success. Secondly, it sounds like he had not found a way of adapting the books' structure satisfyingly, noting that it has an "insane Russian nesting doll structure," a reference to its multiple timelines.

An unspoken fly in the ointment is that the third novel in the trilogy, The Doors of Stone, remains incomplete after eleven years. Rothfuss's editor confirmed in 2020 that she had not yet read a single word of the book and did not believe any work had been done on it since 2016. Rothfuss has since spoken more openly about progress on the book, and read its prologue for the first time last year. However, no release date has been set.

Given the immense success of the books - reportedly well over 10 million and possibly closer to 20 million copies of the two books have been sold to date, easily making them the most successful debut epic fantasy series this century - it is likely an adaptation will eventually happen. However, it will not be in the near future and it sounds like it will be without Lin-Manuel Miranda's involvement.

KINGKILLER CHRONICLE adaptation still in limbo, being rethought as a TV project

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Lin-Manuel Miranda has confirmed that work remains on hold on an adaptation of Patrick Rothfuss's Kingkiller Chronicle novel series.

Lionsgate acquired the rights to Rothfuss's novels in 2015 and put a multi-pronged plan into operation, including a direct adaptation as a movie trilogy, a video game and a prequel TV series about the parents of the main character in the books, Kvothe. Work initially went very well, with Showtime picking up the TV project and Sam Raimi in talks to direct the film. Screenwriter John Rogers even completed the writing of all ten episodes of the planned first season of the show. Unfortunately, the project then collapsed last year. Showtime, facing massive budget overruns from its Halo TV series, cancelled the TV series and returned the rights to Lionsgate, whilst Sam Raimi withdrew from the film project.

According to Miranda, his stint playing Lee Scoresby on the BBC's His Dark Materials has given him "a new perspective" on the project, including the plan to adapt each of the three Rothfuss novels as a two-hour film. His Dark Materials is developing each of Philip Pullman's books across eight hours and even so has had to leave material out. To put this in context, the second Kingkiller novel, The Wise Man's Fear, is longer than all three Dark Materials novels combined by itself.

It sounds like the movie part of the project may therefore be dead, with a direct adaptation of the novels themselves as a TV show now the plan.

Despite this rethink, the project remains where it was with no TV channel or streamer currently attached. Reportedly Apple+ has passed on the project, meaning there aren't many more venues that might be interested. Netflix and Amazon have multiple fantasy projects (including The Witcher, The Chronicles of Narnia, Conan the Barbarian and a live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender for the former and Wheel of Time and Lord of the Rings: The Second Age for the latter) either shooting or in pre-production already and other potential partners might be holding fire to see how they pan out.

An additional problem is that the Kingkiller Chronicle remains incomplete. It's been almost ten years since the previous volume in the series, The Wise Man's Fear, was released and in July Rothfuss's editor confirmed she hasn't read a word of it and doesn't believe Rothfuss has touched the manuscript since 2014. Rothfuss himself has refused to discuss the status of the third book, The Doors of Stone, for many years, instead running online charity events and video game streaming events.

The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear are two of the biggest-selling fantasy novels of the past two decades though, having chalked up approximately 20 million sales of just two books (in comparison, Brandon Sanderson has sold around 30 million copies, but of more than two dozen books), with a formidable fanbase. If an adaptation could be well-made, it would likely be popular, but after the reception to the final season of Game of Thrones, potential partners might be wary of embarking on a similar project.

KINGKILLER CHRONICLE prequel TV show writer completes Season 1

Scriptwriter John Rogers has completed his writing for the first season of Showtime's Kingkiller Chronicle prequel TV series.

Rogers announced the completion of the writing on Twitter, and that he is now working on revising the overall season arc to make sure it all hangs together.

Showtime greenlit a TV series that will serve as a prequel to The Kingkiller Chronicle last year, although Rogers has been working on the project since 2016. The series is expected to be set decades before the novels and will feature Kvothe's parents as important characters. Lin-Manuel Miranda is serving as executive producer and composer for the TV series, and has already delivered several songs for the first season.

A trilogy of movies which will directly adapt the books is also in development, but suffered a blow when director Sam Raimi, who was being courted for the role, chose to move on to other projects. Without a major director helming The Name of the Wind, it's less likely that the project will move forwards. However, with the third and concluding novel in the series still unpublished, time is not a critical factor at the moment.

Rogers' previous credits include writing or co-writing the movies Catwoman, The Core and Transformers, and working on TV series such as Leverage, The Librarians and The Player.

According to Rogers, the first season of the show will consist of ten episodes. It will start filming before the end of this year for transmission on Showtime in 2020. The Kingkiller Chronicle is part of Showtime's aggressive plan to reassert themselves in the genre TV space, where they've been outshone by HBO (Showtime rejected the Game of Thrones pitch in 2007, presumably to their regret), Starz and AMC in recent years. As well as Kingkiller, they are working on a big-budget Halo TV series which is in the casting phase.

Sam Raimi in talks to direct NAME OF THE WIND movie

Lionsgate Entertainment is in talks with acclaimed horror and fantasy director Sam Raimi to helm the movie version of The Name of the Wind, the bestselling fantasy novel by Patrick Rothfuss.

Lionsgate are developing an ambitious, multi-media approach to adapting The Kingkiller Chronicle. They are simultaneously developing a movie trilogy which will directly adapt the three novels - The Name of the Wind (2007), The Wise Man's Fear (2011) and The Doors of Stone (forthcoming) - and a prequel TV series which will explore the adventures of Kvothe's parents. The TV series is in development at Showtime.

Lindsey Beer has written the script for the film, but the real reason things are moving is down to Lin-Manuel Miranda. Having achieved superstar status thanks to his Broadway musical Hamilton, Miranda has made the Kingkiller project his next priority. He is working on the music for both the TV series and films, including the in-universe songs, and is executive producing. With Hollywood keen to tap his talent, interest in this project has sky-rocketed.

The financial success of the novels has certainly helped: Patrick Rothfuss is the biggest-selling debut fantasy author of the 21st Century. The Name of the Wind, The Wise Man's Fear and spin-off novella The Slow Regard of Silent Things have sold well over 10 million copies between them in just over a decade.

However, work on the project may be dependent on Rothfuss releasing the third novel in the series: despite claiming the trilogy was complete over a decade ago and releasing pictures of the apparent manuscript for The Doors of Stone in 2013, the book is still has no release date set.

Sam Raimi is an interesting choice to helm the movie: although his reputation was made in gory horror movies (such as the cult Evil Dead trilogy, its remake and the ongoing Ash vs. Evil Dead TV series), Raimi achieved his greatest success with his three Spider-Man movies starring Tobey Maguire. He also directed Oz the Great and Powerful in 2013 and has been looking for another feature film project since then.

Creator of HAMILTON working on NAME OF THE WIND TV series, movie and...stage show?

Lin-Manuel Miranda has gained recent fame as the creator, writer, songwriter and star of hit Broadway musical Hamilton, based on the life of Alexander Hamilton, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. His next project will be epic fantasy, with him tapped to work on on Lionsgate's multimedia Kingkiller Chronicle project.

Lionsgate bought the film, TV and video game rights to Patrick Rothfuss's fantasy trilogy, The Kingkiller Chronicle, a year ago. Their plan was to directly adapt the novels as a trilogy of movies, as well as using a TV show to explode side-stories and characters. Apparently they are also considering a stage show based on the trilogy.

Lindsey Beer is writing the script for the first movie, based on The Name of the Wind, and Miranda has been hired to write original songs and work on the soundtrack. Those familiar with the novels will now that the main character Kvothe is an accomplished musician and songwriter, so this is a surprisingly good match. Rothfuss will also be working on the film and TV show as a producer, with Miranda likely to serve as a musical director on the TV project as well.

The Kingkiller Chronicle consists of the novels The Name of the Wind (2007) and The Wise Man's Fear (2011). Together they have sold over 10 million copies, making Rothfuss the biggest-selling debut fantasy author of the century so far. The much-delayed third volume, The Doors of Stone, is expected in 2018. Rothfuss's writing will next be seen in the video game Torment: Tides of Numenera, due early next year from inXile Entertainment.

Patrick Rothfuss's books to be adapted into many things

Patrick Rothfuss has struck a deal with Lionsgate over his Kingkiller Chronicles books, The Name of the Wind, The Wise Man's Fear and the forthcoming Doors of Stone. The deal will involve feature films, a TV series and a video game.

The exact details of the deal remain to be hammered out, but will include both films and a TV series that will adapt the books, as well as potentially telling new stories in the world of Termerant. Robert Lawrence, who worked on Clueless, Rock Star and The Last Castle, will executive produce the project.

The level of Rothfuss's involvement also remains to be seen. Rothfuss is finishing off The Doors of Stone for (hopefully) a 2016 release, so will be free of any immediate, announced obligations in the near future. Rothfuss also picked up some recent video game writing experience when he contributed characters, quests and dialogue to inXile's forthcoming Torment: Tides of Numenera.

It's unlikely we will see anything on screen before (at the earliest) late 2017/early 2018, but the level of commitment from Lionsgate is seriously impressive.

The news also confirms that the Kingkiller books have sold just over 10 million copies, making it easily the most successful debut epic fantasy series of the past decade.

Studios clash for Patrick Rothfuss book rights

Several major studios are engaged in an epic battle to win the film rights to Patrick Rothfuss's Kingkiller Chronicles series of epic fantasy novels. Rothfuss invited the studios to pitch to him at Comic-Con in an unusually public display of bidding ferocity.

Rothfuss welcomed the opening bid for the film rights to his books, even if it was less than what he'd originally hoped.

The first two novels in the series, The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear, were released in 2007 and 2011 respectively. The concluding volume, The Doors of Stone, is expected in 2016. The imminent conclusion to the trilogy is probably what sparked interest from movie companies after several previous attempts to bring the project to the screen failed.

Warner Brothers, MGM and Lionsgate are believed to be leading the charge for the rights, with Fox and Universal also believed to be interested.

Patrick Rothfuss's NAME OF THE WIND optioned for television

It has been announced that New Regency Productions and Fox Television have optioned the TV rights to Patrick Rothfuss's novel, The Name of the Wind. If successful, the series would also adapt the other two books in The Kingkiller Chronicle trilogy, The Wise Man's Fear and the forthcoming The Doors of Stone.

Eric Heisserer will be writing the script. Heisserer's previous credits include Final Destination 5 and the unnecessary prequel to The Thing, as well as the reboot of A Nightmare on Elm Street.

There is no word on what network or channel this will air on yet. It's also only an option. A script will need to be written and then greenlit before it moves into production. Given Rothfuss's well-known love of the works of Joss Whedon, which have had 'problems' with Fox in the past, it is surprising that he's agreed to sell the rights to them. Some have suggested that Fox may be intending this project for their FX channel (which is more forgiving of low ratings and usually givest its shows a fairer shake than Fox itself), though that is pure speculation.

It will also be interesting to see how the story is translated to TV. Most of the story is from Kvothe's POV, and in fact there are strong hints that Kvothe is colouring his story for his own ends. How this would be translated onto screen remains to be seen.

Rothfuss recently said that The Doors of Stone should be published some time in 2014.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

The Name of the Wind is the debut novel by American author Patrick Rothfuss. It is the first volume in The Kingkiller Chronicles and has arrived on the back of an immense amount of publicity, comparable to that which accompanied the release of Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora last year. It is also an accomplished book which I greatly enjoyed reading.


The Name of the Wind is really two stories told in parallel. In the present-day tale we meet 'Kote', an innocuous barman running a nice inn in the middle of nowhere. However, his ability to single-handedly take on an infestation of spider-like demons soon hints that he is more than he seems. The arrival of 'Chronicler', a man searching for a legend, soon reveals the truth to us: that our flame-haired innkeeper is really Kvothe, a warrior and spellcaster of powerful repute. The bulk of the novel then proceeds in flashback as Kvothe tells his life story to Chronicler.

There is nothing particularly new in this story. Kvothe is born amongst a travelling people and lives the bucolic dream until events take an unexpected turn etc. He then grows up learning various skills and eventually becomes an apprentice spellcaster at the great Commonwealth University, where things threaten to go a bit Harry Potter-shaped (although Rothfuss on his first novel is already a far more accomplished writer than Rowling after six) for a few chapters until Rothfuss takes the story in a more compelling direction.

What is unusual and somewhat refreshing about the story is its relaxed feel. There are moments of high drama, of confrontations and skirmishes and terror, and Rothfuss handles all of these with the skill of a seasoned writer, but for the most part the story is allowed to unfold at its own pace. Rothfuss' writing is quite rich and draws you into its smokey taverns, its music halls and wild windswept bluffs with ease, a far cry from the furious pace some othe recent fantasy stories have unfolded. In fact, when the novel comes to an end it's a slight surprise that it's not with a bang, but a simple pause before Kvothe unveils the second part of his life story.

The reason for this is that The Kingkiller Chronicle is actually one huge single novel that was broken in three for publication, and no attempt has really been made to make the individual parts stand alone. Those used to the 'standalone novel which is simultaneously part of a larger story' approach recently favoured by Scott Lynch or Steven Erikson may find this move slightly frustrating, as the second part of the trilogy is still a year away from publication.

Another flaw in the novel is that Rothfuss gives occasional winks to the audience letting them know that he knows about the cliches of the genre, and indeed he does a great job of subverting them on several occasions to good effect. However, on at least one occasion he oversteps this with a post-modern passage about Kvothe noting how his story sounds like a traditional campfire yarn and how his audience shouldn't get too comfortable just yet. Amusing, yes, but it took me out of the story. Not a good move.

Despite these minor problems, this is still an excellent fantasy novel, especially for a debut. The writing is very crisp and clear, with rich detail and some vivid characters. Rothfuss has done his homework and the University sections of the novel work very well, with mathmatics, metal-working, chemistry and music all forming part of the story in a very intricate manner. Rothfuss' magic system is also highly accomplished and original in conception and execution. I would recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of Tad Williams, Joe Abercrombie, Scott Lynch or good, solid epic fantasy in general. Rothfuss hasn't necessarily done anything new here, but he's done it with a confidence and ability rare in a first-time novelist.

The Name of the Wind (****) is available now in the United States from DAW Publishing. A UK edition (with a frankly superior cover to the US editions) will be available on 20 September 2007 from Gollancz. Pat's Fantasy Hotlist reviews the book here. SFFWorld review the book here. Nethspace has a review here. The author has a website here. The author has also taken part in a Q&A session on Dragonmount.com which may be of some interest.