Dragons. Romance. Dragon riders falling in love. A whole dragon society where, yes, dragons also fall in love. If you don’t know what series this is yet, maybe you missed one of the biggest romantasy book phenomena of the last five years. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros was published on May 2, 2023, changing the whole game for romantasy fans. Goodbye fae, hello dragons.
Fourth Wing follows Violet Sorengail as she is forced to enlist in the Riders Quadrant of Basgiath War College. Violet always planned on joining the Scribes Quadrant, as her body is chronically weak and fragile. Yarros drew upon her own experience with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) when developing Violet’s character. As Violet endures her education, she slowly unravels life-altering secrets her kingdom has kept buried.
Since Fourth Wing released, Yarros has followed up with two more wildly successful entries in her Empyrean series: Iron Flame and Onyx Storm. The fourth book in the series is untitled with no release date available yet, though Yarros has revealed she plans for the series to end with book five. Fourth Wing is being adapted for television by Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society production company.
Read Fourth Wing: Empyrean, Book 1
Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society Is Uniquely Suited to Honor Fourth Wing’s Commitment to Diversity and Disability Representation
Jordan is a prolific actor and producer who got his big break when he received critical acclaim for his portrayal of Wallace in HBO’s The Wire. Jordan is best known for roles in Marvel’s Black Panther, Fruitvale Station, and the Creed franchise, and he made his directorial debut with Creed III.
In 2016, Jordan founded Outlier Society with the goal of bringing more diverse stories and voices to the market. Three years later, Jordan launched the Outlier Society Fellowship, supported by the Obama Foundation and My Brother’s Keeper. The Outlier Society Fellowship extends the production company’s mission of creating more opportunities for underrepresented backgrounds or communities, with its goal being to develop the next generation of media, arts, and entertainment industry leaders.
Why Diversity and Disability Representation Matter for the Fourth Wing TV Adaptation
The Fourth Wing books feature inclusive world-building, so the TV adaptation needs to honor Yarros’ source material. Fans are especially concerned with the casting of Xaden Riorson, Violet’s love interest, since Yarros has explicitly said he is a person of color in the books. Because Outlier Society uses inclusion riders in its productions, fans have high expectations for Xaden’s casting.
Disability representation is also crucial for the Fourth Wing TV series. The main character has a chronic physical disability. The logistics and physicality demanded of dragon riders in Yarros’ world are brutal, and unprecedented accommodations are made for Violet in the story so that she may have a fighting chance when battling on the back of an airborne dragon.
Dragon Rider Stories Are Dominating TV, From HBO’s House of the Dragon to Disney+’s Eragon
It’s no secret — dragon riders are it right now, due in no small part to Game of Thrones and its prequel series House of the Dragon. George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series is an epic fantasy series, and the Empyrean series is classified as adult romantasy under the larger new adult fiction genre. But dragon rider novels span genres and demographics.
"This is Not My Story Any Longer": HBO Confirms House of the Dragon Will Only Get 1 More Season
House of the Dragon will be officially over with the end of Season 4.
Christopher Paolini’s popular book series The Inheritance Cycle is receiving a brand-new screen adaptation titled Eragon (after the first book) at Disney+. Though the books are classified as middle-grade fantasy and sometimes YA, there is sure to be interest across demographics. Many of the adult readers who love Fourth Wing today grew up reading The Inheritance Cycle and felt robbed by the 2006 Eragon movie adaptation. The Eragon film received infamously low ratings and is currently sitting with a 15% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Michael B. Jordan Shares Promising Update on the Fourth Wing TV Series
In a recent interview with Deadline, Jordan discussed his Oscar nomination for horror film Sinners, his upcoming film The Thomas Crown Affair, and gave an update on how production is going for Fourth Wing.
“We are making sure that this is going to be an exciting show that delivers on all of the things the fans want and some of the things that they won’t be expecting either,” Jordan said. “But trust me, I know how beloved this franchise IP is and we’re diligently… We’re in the lab, we’re cooking up. We got it. It’s coming. It’s early stages, but I feel how much people care about this one. It’s not lost on us.”
Continuing the trend for authors to be highly involved in the screen adaptations of their creative works, Yarros is serving as the Fourth Wing TV show’s executive producer. Meredith Averill is attached as showrunner. Averill’s previous credits include Netflix’s Wednesday, Jane the Virgin, and The Good Wife.
There is no release date for the Fourth Wing show at this time.