With the Hunger Games series coming to a close this week, and The Maze Runner and Divergent films scheduled to end by early 2017, the market is opening up for new young adult film adaptations.

The 5th Wave will be the first new series to hit the big screen in 2016. Based on a novel by Rick Yancey, there are two sequel novels, The Infinite Sea and The Last Star. Sony Pictures holds the film rights for the whole trilogy.



Fellowship of the Ring and Sorcerer’s Stone both released in 2001, so it is arguable which franchise created the young adult fantasy book to film trend. But, what I can say for certain is that Harry Potter isn’t going away any time soon. With the spin-off film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, based on J.K. Rowlings’ 2001 “textbook” of the same name, releasing November 18, 2016. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child will continue Harry’s saga in a play written by Rowling. One can assume, if successful, a film adaptation would be desired by studios and audiences alike. Initial rounds of tickets sold out in hours.

James Dashner, author of The Maze Runner series, has written two prequel novels which could provide material to continue the franchise past The Maze Runner: The Death Cure in 2017. The Kill Order is set 13 years prior to the original trilogy, telling the story of how the world comes to be the dystopia established in The Maze Runner. The Fever Code, scheduled for publication in September 2016, takes place between The Kill Order and the original trilogy. As it is expected to feature some familiar characters from the trilogy, The Fever Code could be of higher priority to film before the actors age too far beyond their roles.

Lions Gate Entertainment has owned rights to Patrick Ness’ Chaos Walking trilogy since 2011. Most recent news comes from summer 2014 when Jamie Linden was announced as the screenwriter. The Waterfire Saga by Jennifer Donnelly is another popular young adult series ripe for franchising. Although published by Disney, the film rights have not yet been sold. Just this year 20th Century Fox acquired rights to the first two novels from the New York Times Bestselling series The Reckoners from Brandon Sanderson. The first film Steelheart is being adapted by Carter Blanchard and possibly directed by Shawn Levy (his company, 21 Laps, is producing the film).

The Chronicles of Narnia franchise still has plenty more novels to adapt, but after Walden Media lost the rights in 2011 development has been slow. False news stories were released that the first draft of the next installment, The Silver Chair, was completed this year. However, updates from the Narnia Facebook page state that production has not started, but the script is getting close. Past films have been successful at the box office, hopefully this record can be maintained long enough to see an adaptation of my favorite Narnia tale, The Magician’s Nephew.

NEWS: The GONE pilot script from @JoeBarton_ is f-ing brilliant. I am so pleased. So happy. Fingers crossed people. And hi there @netflix — Michael Grant (@MichaelGrantBks) November 11, 2015

Don’t just look to the big screen for your fix of young adult fiction. After the unsuccessful Mortal Instruments: City of Bones film adaptation, the Cassandra Clare novels will be coming to the small screen in Shadowhunters. Michael Grant’s popular book series Gone was acquired by Sony Pictures Television and a pilot script has been completed by Joe Barton.

What novel adaptations are you excited for? Which would you like to see? Tweet me @thecultofpop