Hulu close to adapting George R.R. Martin’s Wild Cards books as multiple TV shows

George R.R. Martin is everywhere. He has a hotly anticipated book on the horizon, an even more hotly anticipated book on the horizon beyond that one, a TV adaption of his novella NightFlyers coming on Syfy, and the final season of Game of Thrones hitting the airwaves in April. He’s basically a mogul now, and there’s more to come. The Hollywood Reporter has it that Hulu and Universal Cable Productions are nearing a deal to make not one but two TV series based on the Wild Cards anthology books, which Martin edits. Martin, co-editor Melinda Snodgrass, and Vince Gerardis would executive produce.

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Wild Cards is set in a world where, in 1946, a mysterious alien virus (called the Wild Cards virus, naturally) was released over Manhattan. Most of the people exposed died, some turned into grotesque monsters, and some developed superhuman powers. Generations later, the descendants of the infected still have unique abilities, and are still struggling to live their lives in a world where people have by turns worshipped, oppressed or ignored them. It’s kind of like X-Men, but with a playing card theme.

This announcement comes in an environment where every streaming service and premium network is trying to develop its own super-series, from Amazon’s Lord of the Rings show to Netflix’s Chronicles of Narnia to Disney’s multiple live-action Star Wars series and beyond. And with two planned shows, Hulu is doing more than most; THR even invokes the dreaded phrase “shared universe,” which exhausts me whenever I hear it. I love Game of Thrones and enjoy the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but sometimes it’s like…what hath they wrought?

Or maybe I’m being pessimistic and the show will be wonderful. There’s no release date yet set, so we’ll have to wait to find out.

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