It’s hard not to be familiar with Rebecca Yarros’ “Empyrean” series about dragon rider Violet Sorrengail at this point.
When “Onyx Storm,” the third book in the romantasy series, was released in January, it became the fastest-selling adult novel in 20 years.
Yarros is taking a break from the “Empyrean” series before writing the fourth installment, but in the meantime, we’re getting closer to a series adaptation of “Fourth Wing.”
‘Fourth Wing’ is becoming a TV show
In October 2023, Deadline announced that Amazon MGM Studios and Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society were developing “Fourth Wing” into a Prime Video series. Yarros is an executive producer for the show.
Outlier Society produced Jordan’s “Creed III” and is developing a slate of other series and films in addition to “Fourth Wing.”
In July 2024, Outlier Society announced it had hired Moira Walley-Beckett, who worked on shows like “Breaking Bad” and “Anne with an E,” as the showrunner for the series. In a January interview with Variety, Yarros said Walley-Beckett was “great” and “phenomenal,” but in July, outlets like The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline reported that Walley-Beckett had exited the project. Jac Schaeffer, best known for her work on Disney’s “WandaVision” and “Agatha All Along,” is rumored to be in talks to step into the showrunner role.
When BI contacted Amazon MGM Studios for this story, the company said it had not announced a showrunner for the series yet and declined to comment further.
Deadline also reported in October 2023 that Amazon MGM Studios had bought the rights for the whole “Empyrean” book series. In the same Variety interview, Yarros said she had shared the “five-book arc” for the “Empyrean” series with Amazon.
“They have the five-book arc, which went a little awry in Book 3 just because the positioning, but they already know that,” she told Variety. “But they have the five-book arc and the general big points of what happens in between each book, but they don’t have the specifics between Book 4 and Book 5, because I’m getting ready to go to my crazy plotting board and and plot out every single event that happens in each book, so that I make sure that I’m within my two books there.”
Neither Amazon nor Outlier Society has made any casting or release date announcements for the series as of July 2025.
Yarros talked about the series’ pilot while on a book tour for ‘Onyx Storm’
Although details about the series are limited, Yarros made a few comments about the show while promoting “Onyx Storm.”
Speaking at an engagement on January 24 in New York, Yarros told fans she had read the pilot for the “Fourth Wing” show — and loved it.
“I read the latest version of the pilot last week,” she said. “It’s really nerve-racking when you read something like that because you’re really — you’re trusting someone else with your baby, right? And you’re trusting someone else to say, like, ‘Hey, this is important in your work, and this isn’t,’ and you kinda get your guard up.”
“But guys, I, like, kicked my feet the whole time,” she said. “You’re gonna love it.”
Yarros also praised Walley-Beckett at the event, calling her a “brilliant writer” and saying she maintained the integrity of the book in the pilot. It’s unclear how the pilot might change with Walley-Beckett’s exit from the project.
Yarros has shared some thoughts on casting
Speaking at an event in London on August 30, 2024, Yarros said casting will ultimately fall on the show’s staff, not her. She also said she intentionally hasn’t shared any specific actors she hopes will be cast in the series.
“I will never say who my perfect fan cast is because the cast is so diverse, and I want to open that up to more diversity,” she said. “And I feel like the second I say who I think this character is, that’s who everyone will accept. That’s only who they will accept.”
“I kinda hope they find, like, an up-and-coming generation,” she added. “But I would never put my fan cast in your heads.”
Although she won’t be involved in casting the series, Yarros said at the same event that she has one hard-line casting request she has communicated to Amazon and Outlier Society.
“They know how staunch I am against whitewashing Xaden,” she said. “I think that’s the biggest thing.”
Xaden Riorson, Violet’s love interest in the series, is described as having “warm tawny skin” in “Fourth Wing” and “tawny-brown” skin in both “Iron Flame” and “Onyx Storm.”
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