8 stories from Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere we need adapted onscreen

We live in a golden age of fantasy and sci-fi adaptations. Ever since the success of Game of Thrones, studios have rushed to produce their own huge genre shows. There have been successes and failures, shows which died early shocker deaths and shows that established themselves as forces to be reckoned with in their own right.

And there have also been baffling oversights. For instance, nearly four years after Thrones ended, we still haven’t gotten an adaptation of any of the works of Brandon Sanderson.

Sanderson is one of the most successful fantasy authors of our time, best known for the interconnected universe of stories called the Cosmere. While he’s written plenty of great books set elsewhere, many of his most popular stories lie within its bounds. And they’re begging to be adapted for the screen.

So let’s talk about all the major Cosmere stories we’d love to see adapted, ranked by how badly we want to see them at the movies or on TV! Starting with…

Tress of the Emerald Sea

Tress of the Emerald Sea is the latest entry in Sanderson’s Cosmere, and it’s very different than most of his other works. It follows Tress, a young girl who must embark on a seafaring voyage to save her princely love Charlie. Except since it’s a Sanderson story, the sea is made of buoyant spores, Tress pals around with a talking rat, and the whole thing is infused with a ton of whimsy and magic.

The style of the book is inspired by William Goldman’s The Princess Bride. It’s narrated by Hoid, the mysterious world-hopping character who appears in every one of Sanderson’s Cosmere novels. It’s an awful lot of fun, and could make for a blast as a movie.

The main reason Tress lands at the bottom of the list is because there are so many other Sanderson boooks that should be adapted first. This is essentially a fun side story. Still, it features some cool magic and shows off some interesting elements of Sanderson’s Cosmere. We’d love to see it, but not until some of the bigger Cosmere works find their way to the screen.

White Sand

White Sand is another interesting case. Despite introducing a few important elements to the Cosmere, including the character Khriss, it’s not one we’d pick for adaptation unless a bunch of other Sanderson stories were done first.

As with all of Sanderson’s Cosmere stories, White Sand is set on a world with a unique magic system and ecosystem. In this case, the world of Taldain is a tidally locked planet covered in sand; one hemisphere is constantly under harsh sunlight, while the other is blanketed in perpetual darkness. It’s on this planet that a young man named Kenton strives to rise through the ranks as a sand master, someone who can control the grains of sand on Taldain to perform incredible feats. It’s a classic Sanderson story, albeit not one of his more popular ones.

White Sand was one of Brandon Sanderson’s early novels which was never published as an actual book (though you can get a copy of his early draft by signing up for his newsletter). Instead, White Sand was finally brought to the masses through a graphic novel series which had a somewhat mixed reception among fans. The general consensus seems to be that the story itself is fine, but something got lost in translation in the leap between mediums. Would a screen adaptation work better?

We imagine it probably would. White Sand is worth checking out for any fan of the Cosmere, but we can’t see it being adapted before, say, Mistborn or The Stormlight Archive.

Elantris

While Elantris wasn’t the first book Sanderson wrote in his Cosmere, it was the first one published. It served as an entry point for many readers, and it’d make a pretty solid entry point for moviegoers, too. Elantris is a standalone fantasy novel which contains all the elements that make the author’s works so good, including great characters, an intricate plot, solid worldbuilding and inventive magic. But since it’s a standalone, it’s also decidedly easier to digest than some of his longer, more ambitious series.

The premise is that the magical city of Elantris (think Atlantis) was once populated by people with immense magical powers: the Elantrians. Anyone could become an Elantrian, though no one knew exactly how. But at some point, this magical empowerment became a curse; instead of gaining immense magic powers, people were afflicted by a debilitating magical disease.

From that point on, the city of Elantris became a quarantine zone, and anyone unfortunate enough to wake up one day and find themselves afflicted with the curse was banished there. The novel begins with Raoden, the crown prince of the nation of Arelon, awakening to find himself so afflicted. He’s banished to Elantris mere days before his betrothed from a neighboring nation, Sarene, arrives to cement a political marriage between their two peoples.

The gradually unraveling mystery of why Elantris fell and how it might one day rise again is a compelling political struggle. Elantris could work really well on the screen, and since it’s only one book long (though Sanderson has said he plans to one day write a sequel), it’d make a very solid movie or miniseries.

Mistborn: Wax & Wayne

Next up, let’s get into one of Sanderson’s longest-running and most popular series: Mistborn. As of this writing, there are two main sequences of books in the series: the original trilogy, and the Wax & Wayne quartet, often referred to as “Era Two” since it takes place centuries after the original novels.

Of the two sequences, the original Mistborn trilogy is a better candidate for adaptation, so let’s talk about Wax & Wayne first. Wax & Wayne follows lawmen Waxillium Ladrian and his partner Wayne as they attempt to keep the peace in the face of criminals, conspiracies, and even cosmic forces from the larger Cosmere. Compared to much of Sanderson’s work, the Way & Wayne books are snappier, less dense reads. They also have a strong comedic streak thanks to Wayne’s antics.

One of the things that makes Wax & Wayne so interesting is how Sanderson evolves the world of Scadriel. In the original trilogy, it’s a post-apocalyptic fantasy world. But by the time of Wax & Wayne, it’s moving into a steampunk western era. That allows for very different kinds of storylines.

But at the end of the day, it’s very hard to think of a reason why Wax & Wayne should get adapted before the original trilogy. I don’t even know that you could adapt it first, since it’s built on the mythology established by the preceding series. So as fun as they are, Wax & Wayne definitely shouldn’t be adapted until some of Sanderson’s other stories find their way to the screen, especially when you consider that the final volume, The Lost Metal, has some major ties to other Cosmere stories.

Warbreaker

Warbreaker is somewhat unique in Sanderson’s catalog. It began life as a standalone novel meant to fill out the backstory of a character from The Stormlight Archive, but at this point it’s basically an essential piece of the Stormlight experience.

Warbreaker is about a young girl named Siri who is betrothed to the God King of the city of T’Telir. When she arrives there, she finds him not at all like she expected. At the same time, Siri’s sister Vivenna — the one who was supposed to marry the God King before things took a turn — sets out to rescue her sister. Her path crosses with a mysterious man named Vasher, who wields a sentient sword with a great love for eradicating evil, often to the detriment of its wielder.

As with all Sanderson’s stories, there’s plenty of interesting magical elements in Warbreaker. This time it involves people who are elevated to godhood, recalling Elantris. However, in order to sustain their godhood, these new deities must be sustained by sacrifices of “Breath” — life force, essentially — from their subjects. Those Breaths can then be used to endow objects with a limited amount of sentience to follow magical Commands.

As objects are “awakened” by Breaths, it drains the colors out of their surroundings. This could look very cool onscreen if done right, possibly in animation. If we got a live-action Stormlight Archive show or movie series, a spinoff Warbreaker anime would be a great idea.

Sanderson has had plans to write a sequel to Warbreaker for a while now, so we know that there’s more to the story; very likely, it will end up even more closely tied to The Stormlight Archive. That said, Warbreaker is still great as a standalone tale. Even if you never picked up a Stormlight book, it’s fully satisfying and could easily stand on its own onscreen.

Mistborn: the original trilogy

When choosing which of Sanderson’s works to adapt, the original Mistborn trilogy might be the most logical place to start. Set on the post-apocalyptic world of Scadriel, the first novel (originally titled The Final Empire before later being rebranded as just Mistborn) is a fantasy heist story; the goal is overthrowing a god emperor who rules with an iron fist and immense magical powers.

One of the defining aspects of many of Sanderson’s fantasy stories is his intricate magic systems, and Mistborn has one of the best. The gist is that some people are born with an innate ability to perform magical abilities. In order to perform them, they have to ingest trace amounts of certain metals, and which metals they are able to ingest affect what kinds of powers they have. Someone with an affinity for bronze can become extremely strong, while a “coinshot” can use steel to “push” other metals; this lets the person do things like throw objects with the speed of bullets or even fly by pushing against metal with a greater mass than themselves. There are a variety of metals, each with their own sets of abilities. Sanderson often uses those magics in unexpected ways.

Into this fray steps Vin, a young girl living on the streets who discovers she is a “Mistborn” — someone who can use all the different types of metals. Vin becomes essential to the heist. As the series goes on, her role grows more important and her trials more severe. What began as a heist turns into a vicious struggle for survival.

The original Mistborn trilogy is still one of Sanderson’s most well-rounded stories; it has sky-high stakes, a terrifying villain, and a band of beloved characters. The fact that it’s a complete story means that any studio looking to produce it would have the entire roadmap laid out for them. The highest hurdle would be finding a way to dramatize the magic system on the screen, but if it could be pulled off, Mistborn would work equally well as a series of movies or a TV show with three to four seasons.

The Stormlight Archive

Finally we arrive at Sanderson’s magnum opus, The Stormlight Archive. This is the author’s immense, door-stopping fantasy series, comparable in size and scope to other massive sagas like George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, Stephen Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen, and Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time (which Sanderson wrote the final three books after Jordan died).

The Stormlight books feature epic quests, magical warfare, political intrigue, a large cast of characters, and a unique world that feels real and lived in. The world of Roshar is wracked by vicious storms, which has influenced everything from the flora and fauna to the many cultures populating it. The results are often wondrous, and unlike any other fantasy story out there.

Adapting The Stormlight Archive is the dream for many Cosmere fans. It contains many of Sanderson’s most beloved characters, like Kaladin Stormblessed and his spren companion Syl, artist Shallan Davar, and warlord Dalinar Kholin. The rub is that these are huge, complicated books. It’d be a colossal undertaking for any studio to adapt them. Plus, Sanderson is still writing them; the fifth book in the series is due out in 2024, with another five to follow.

However, if The Stormlight Archive were to ever make the leap to the screen, I’d encourage the producers to try and match Sanderson’s ambition. Part of what makes Stormlight so notable is how Sanderson melds formats to create a truly unique kind of fantasy novel, combining a long novel with a collection of short stories and even artwork. It’d be cool to see a film adaptation function in a similar way, whether by tying together movies together with short films, having a TV show with animated spinoff episodes, or something else no one’s thought of yet.

Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive pushes the boundaries of the novel. It’d be amazing to see a screen adaptation follow suit. Out of all Sanderson’s works, Stormlight is the one that most deserves the widespread recognition that an adaptation could bring.

The Cosmere Cinematic Universe

Let’s end by discussing the holy grail of Sanderson adaptations: a Cosmere cinematic universe. I know what you’re thinking: everyone wants to cinematic universes these days, do we really need one for Sanderson’s books?

In my opinion, the answer is unequivocally yes, because the Cosmere is basically designed as the book equivalent of a cinematic universe. There are themes and plotlines that tie various series together, as well as characters who make the leap from one series to another. The easiest example is Hoid, a mysterious character who has appeared in every single one of Sanderson’s Cosmere books, but there are plenty of others. As the Cosmere grows, these ties have only gotten stronger.

Building the Cosmere as a cinematic universe is the only real way to do it justice. Just like in the books, the ties between series could be small at first before building into the larger crossovers we get in books like Oathbringer, the third entry in The Stormlight Archive.

Doing a cinematic universe would also be a great way to bring in some of Sanderson’s smaller Cosmere stories which wouldn’t really be able to stand on their own, such as the short fiction contained in his Arcanum Unbounded collection. These range from standalone tales set on totally new worlds, like Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell, to essential Cosmere stories like Mistborn: Secret History. Stories like Secret History wouldn’t make much sense adapted in isolation but are vital to the overarching narrative of the interconnected universe.

Following his record-shattering Kickstarter campaign in 2022, Sanderson gave an interview with CBS Mornings where he said his big dream is to be the Stan Lee of the Cosmere, leaving behind a wealth of stories that influence people’s lives in positive ways. With an interconnected Cosmere cinematic universe, he could realize that dream onscreen too. Maybe he could make cameos in the adaptation just like Stan Lee did in the MCU. After all, if Hoid can pop up wherever he pleases, there’s no reason Sanderson can’t cameo in similar fashion.

What do you think of our rankings? Are there some Cosmere books you’d like to see adapted more than others? Let us know in the comments!

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