Given that it's adapting Patrick Rothfuss' popular fantasy adventure book series and features the talents of Hamilton man Lin-Manuel Miranda as executive producer and TV/movie veteran John Rogers as showrunner, we're not exactly surprised to see The Kingkiller Chronicle quickly ending up with a home on the small screen. US cable channel Showtime has picked it up to develop it into a series.
Though the plan had been to launch the adaptation as a movie with the show filling in narrative gaps and expanding the world, Variety's report makes no mention of the big screen version. Instead the series will develop under Rogers' watchful eye, with Miranda working on music for the show, which feels right, since the stories are so full of tunes.
Rothfuss’ series, which kicked off in 2007, includes an anchor trilogy (with the third book still to come) and three novellas set in the same world. The focus is told in three time streams: the present, in which the protagonist, Kvothe, is dictating his life’s story to a historian of sorts; the past, a first-person account of Kvothe’s life, and lastly, in chronologically cloudy parables and stories peppered throughout the books. If done correctly, this could represent Showtime's answer to the likes of Game Of Thrones.
"Showtime has always championed bold storytelling," said Miranda in a statement. "Pat Rothfuss' Kingkiller series is some of the most exciting storytelling I have ever read. I could not be more thrilled to help bring the sights and sounds of his wondrous world of Temerant to the screen." Naturally, we don't yet know when it might hit UK screens, but we're keeping our fingers crossed it A) makes it out of development hell and B) finds its way over here.
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