FX adapting Octavia E. Butler’s classic sci-fi novel Kindred

FX is making a pilot based on Kindred, Octavia E. Butler’s novel about a woman who time-travels between 1970s America and an antebellum plantation.

Octavia E. Butler is one of the most decorated science fiction writers of the past 50 years, consistently putting out new work from the early 1970s through her death in 2006. One of most enduring and popular novels remains Kindred, a 1979 novel about a Black woman who finds herself yanked back and forth in time between her life in the ’70s and a plantation in antebellum Maryland. Along the way, she learns about her family, the realities of slavery, and how it relates to modern life.

And now, FX is adapting the book as a pilot written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, who was a producer on HBO’s Watchmen. “Since my first encounter with the novel nearly two decades ago, there have been few, if any, books and even fewer authors who have meant as much to me as Kindred and Octavia Butler,” he said in a statement. “It has been the highlight and honor of my career thus far to try and finally bring this timeless story to life – and especially at FX, whose catalogue of bold, thought-provoking, and cutting-edge television has been an endless source of inspiration and delight.”

The Butler estate also weighed in:

"The Octavia E. Butler Estate was thrilled and grateful to have placed Kindred with Courtney Lee Mitchell at the outset, who brought it to Branden Jacobs Jenkins (a young writer who shares with Octavia the rare honor of being a MacArthur ‘Genius’ Award recipient) and then to the terrific people at Protozoa. FX could not be a better or more enthusiastic partner, as evidenced by the brilliant creative team they are building, and the legendary slate of shows they have produced. We can’t wait to see this beloved work take its place among the stars in the FX universe."

There’s no guarantee that FX will actually pick up the Kindred pilot to series, but the network is really upping its sci-fi bonafides lately. It’s also adapting Brian K. Vaughan’s sci-fi comic Y: The Last Man.

There’s no time frame for when we might see Kindred on our screens.

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