Why Are Adaptations So White?
This has been a weekly discussion on the timeline that’s never been able to be flushed out online. “Why isn’t Hollywood adapting Black books?”
For every five white adaptations announced, we get one Black book announced for option and it rarely makes it out of the development waiting room. The book-adaptation watching public has suffered through the annual Colleen Hoover adaptation in theaters the past three years and have another one coming out in October. But now we have streaming taking the lead in the adaptation race. This past month, we’ve seen Prime Video have the internet’s attention with their announcements of book adaptations. Their YA slate for this summer is basically all white, with the exception 2 POC/Bi-racial leads and the light-skin supporting cast members.
The Off Campus (OC) series is out today and it’s both a popular BookTok favorite as well as stained with problematic writing. Specifically in regard to the fetishization of WLW relationships throughout the book series. I’m well aware that both people overlook this issue and/or are not chronically online to be aware of its discussion in the online book space. Despite that, the show got the rare greenlight for a second season before the first season even premiered. Black and POC YA shows aren’t afforded that luxury. Forever on Netflix, which is the re-imagining of Judy Blume’s novel by Mara Brock Akil, got renewed for season 2 a week after it’s premiere but the show’s development was at snail pace compared to the fast-tracking of the OC series in addition to large marketing budgets and a promotional tour.
We also have Prime green lighting series orders for The Windy City Series, The Wild Series, and The Fourth Wing Trilogy (FW). The FW series was optioned back in 2024 by Prime Video and Michael B. Jordan’s production company, Outlier Society, which cause many in the Black Film/TV and book space to give him the side-eye. The same reaction happened when it was announced Serena Williams would be partnering with Netflix to adapt the tennis drama Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid, a white woman who wrote this story about a Hispanic tennis player. The question arises: How do high profile Black talent advocate for diversity and inclusivity in their fields when they are actively participating in the problem?
I remember a while back that MBJ had the option for You Made A Fool of Death With Your Beauty but there was never an update on it. Later I found out the studios didn’t want to buy it. Last year at Black Romance Book Fest, Tia Williams revealed that new leadership at Prime Video shelved the adaptation of her book, Seven Days In June, after having the option rights for four years. The closest development update we had on that was the involvement of Will Packer and his production company. Studios participate in what I call “snatch and shelve”, buying the option for a popular series before their competition takes it and shelving it until the rights reverted back to the author. We’ve yet to have an update on the adaptation of Black YA series The Davenports since last fall when the screenwriters were announced. We can only hope there’s real development for the show or the rights revert back to author Krystal Marquis and she can go over to Universal/Peacock.
This isn’t just a Prime Video problem; this is a recurring industry issue that we are still fighting against. Now I’m not going to ignore the obvious, they want to make money. Hollywood has been in the red for a long time, even before the COVID-19 shutdowns in 2020 and the WGA+SAG strikes of 2023. Those two events lost the industry dozens of billions of dollars. (The number sounds excessive but those are the actual revenue numbers lost.) The studios are clawing to get out of the red, so what are the white executives in these high positions doing: Banking on white.
Poaching the BookTok audience and adapting book series that are bare minimum when it comes to actual storytelling and writing. As a book reader and someone who’s considered to be on the marketing side of entertainment, I’ve had the privilege to be given the tea on the ins and outs of acquisitions, productions, and marketing. It’s less about the numbness to industry politics and more about awareness of what battles Black creatives have to fight on a daily.
Now while all that has been said, there are Black book adaptations happening. The most high profile and monitored by the book space right now is Kennedy Ryan’s Skyland Series at Universal TV and Peacock. This was announced back in 2023, weeks before the writer’s strike took into effect. Universal and Kennedy have also partnered on a first look deal for developing IP under her banner, including Black titles that she plans on revealing soon. It’s rare to have a studio be an ally in this space but Universal is proving to be a real one. So much so, they’re sponsoring an adaptation panel at this year’s Black Romance Book Fest (I plan on giving yall the tea on that in my recap.)
We also have S.A Cosby’s All The Sinners Bleed being adapted at Netflix and is currently filming in Atlanta, GA. If I Ruled The World and This Ain’t Our First Rodeo both being adapted for series at Hulu. TV producer and screenwriter Felicia Pride adapting The Green Sisters Trilogy. Writing and producing sisters Tembi and Attica Locke adapting the Napa Valley Black romance Drunk on Love alongside Malcom D. Lee at Peacock. This is just a handful of adaptations in the works but there are more on the table and on the way.
With there being so few Black adaptations, there is constant pressure on Black creatives to have it produced and released in the next year at the sam pace as white adaptations. While also wanting them to meet every reader’s expectation for the original story on screen. While we do deserve quality content of our stories, the online critique of castings and hounding of authors on project status updates while they maneuver studio and industry structures is a lot to deal with. Creatives want these stories, they’re pitching every single one. It’s the studios that continue to be the gatekeepers. Authors can have varying positions on their adaptations depending on their deals. Either as a producer, consultant, or no involvement at all. It all depends on what the author sees is right for their story to be told.
Please give your favorite authors and creatives the space and grace to breathe while having awareness of the environment they are working in. It sucks that things are this but that’s the reality of the old guard in power and DEI rolling back so much progress in project developments. The best we can do as readers and TV watchers is continue supporting the stories that matter and platforming the adaptations that should be happening.
This is also makes me question/side-eye production companies owned by minorities. This would be a perfect route some of these companies could go. Also it just feels like there needs to be a stipulation added about the shelving issue. Just like residuals, writers rooms, holding the writer hostage, etc. This shelving issue is becoming a big thing and it’ll just keep growing.
I agree. It makes me feel a way. Like are they doing this to buried it.