Jumanji maker Radar Pictures is adjusting Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar literary universe for TV.
The organization, established by Interscope Records co-founder Ted Field, who is an executive producer on Amazon’s The Wheel of Time series, has gained the little screen rights to the books, which number 58 over 30 years.
Kit Williamson, who made Netflix’s LGBTQ parody series EastSiders, is adjusting with writer Brittany Cavallaro, who composed the Charlotte Holmes series of books. The pair reinforced over the books in school and will currently compose and create the TV variation.
The series will be chief delivered by Field, who has created films including the Jumanji establishment, the Riddick establishment, Amityville Horror and The Last Samurai. Anthony Tringali, Maria Frisk and Michael Napoliello will deliver for Radar.
The main season will be adjusted from the Last Herald-Mage set of three, including Magic’s Pawn, which was first distributed in 1989, Magic’s Price and Magic’s Promise.
The series revolves around transparently gay gallant hero Vanyel, the mistreated and mishandled child of a Valdemaran honorable, who discovers acknowledgment at Haven when he is Chosen by the Companion Yfandes. Associates like Yfandes are supernatural pony like creatures with the ability to bond with their Chosen and trigger the potential for mystic capacities—and wizardry.
In any case, Vanyel finds different things about himself at Haven too. He finds love in a startling spot, and loses it, and almost his own life. With Yfandes and his auntie, Herald Savil, he will go to the home of the secretive Hawkbrothers looking for recuperating and preparing and will develop from a grieved and sorrowful Trainee to turn into the most remarkable Herald-Mage throughout the entire existence of Valdemar—and the one expect Valdemar against an unyielding adversary keen on annihilating wizardry from the Kingdom totally.
Lackey said, “I have hoped for decades that The Last Herald-Mage would be adapted for television. Now that Radar has optioned the trilogy, I am nearly breathless with excitement. I could not have chosen a better organization to take my work in hand, and Kit and Bri, the producers, absolutely know both their stuff and the material. I love the fact that this is going to be a longform series: episodic TV gives the story all the room it needs. I hope our fans will be as thrilled to see their favorite characters come to life as I am.”
“Vanyel in The Last Herald Mage series was one of the first gay characters I encountered, and as a recently out 16-year-old I can’t stress enough the impact that these books had on me. The Valdemar series was far ahead of its time in the portrayal of LGBTQ characters, and Lackey’s writing afforded them a level of depth and complexity that is still very rare, especially in genre storytelling,” said Williamson.
“It’s an absolute dream to be adapting the Valdemar books alongside Radar Pictures and Kit Williamson. Twenty years ago, Kit and I became friends at boarding school, and bonded over our love for Mercedes Lackey’s work, and we’re so excited to begin the process of bringing it to the screen,” Cavallaro added.
Radar partner Michael Napoliello said, “Radar is honored to bring this series to life for its many fans.”
Radar Pictures is repped by United Talent Agency. Kit Williamson and Brittany Cavallaro are repped by Buchwald, and Mercedes Lackey is repped by Russell Galen at Scovil Galen Ghosh Literary Agency.
