The Stormlight Archive has long been considered one of the most challenging properties in fantasy to bring to television, but Brandon Sanderson says the plan he has in place for Apple TV's adaptation is much more structured than is the norm.
In a recent livestream with co-author Janci Patterson celebrating the release of Blightfall, Sanderson laid out exactly what he has in mind for the show's first two seasons, and how far ahead he intends to be before anyone sets foot on a set.
The first arc of The Stormlight Archive spans five books set in the world of Roshar, following characters caught in the middle of a civilization-ending conflict tied to magical storms and ancient knights known as Radiants.
The series was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Series in 2025, and is widely regarded as the most ambitious project in Sanderson's Cosmere universe. Apple TV has ordered 10 episodes for the first season. Sanderson is co-showrunner and will serve as the lead writer, with Blue Marble Pictures and producer Theresa Kang attached.
Sanderson is currently finishing the second draft of a screenplay for a film based on his Mistborn books, which comes before Stormlight in Apple's production timeline. He has been consistent in saying that for Mistborn, he will not let a director be attached or production begin before the screenplay is fully ready.
In the same livestream, he described how his time as a consulting producer on Amazon's Wheel of Time taught him that filming before later scripts are written creates feedback problems that are very hard to fix after the fact. He talked about that same principle during the Stormlight conversation and pushed it even further.
Brandon Sanderson wants Stormlight season 2 scripts done before season 1 finishes filming
Sanderson told Patterson during the stream that the script requirement he has set for Stormlight is stricter than anything he has put in place for the Mistborn film.
"This will be a bigger deal for Stormlight where I've said to the producers, we don't start filming until we have all the scripts for season 1, and I will probably have written most of season 2 by the time we are filming," he said.
When Patterson asked whether he was planning to write all of them himself, Sanderson said the goal is to write around half the season with a specific focus on the lead character.
"I'm writing half is the goal. I'm writing Kaladin and so the the goal will be like we finished season 1. I want all of season 2 scripts done by the time we finish season 1. And so anyway, I'm pushing hard for some of those things," he explained.
Sanderson confirms show's pacing will differ from the books
One of the more common questions around a Stormlight adaptation is how a series with so much layered, slow-burn character development will translate to a format that demands a different kind of momentum week to week. Sanderson was asked directly during the livestream whether the show will have different pacing from the books.
He acknowledged it will have to, but said he is not planning to take the story in a fundamentally different direction.
"So yes, because a TV show has to naturally have different pacing," he said. "I don't know if it will be too terribly different. My goal is to, you know, do the same thing, the same story, but it'll inevitably be paced differently. We'll see how it goes, but yeah."
It is probably the right answer given how early the project still is in development. Sanderson does not have a pilot to point to yet. That comes after the Mistborn screenplay is done. But the fact that he is already thinking about season 2 scripts before season 1 is even written says something about how seriously the project is approaching the scope of the thing.
Sanderson and Patterson's latest book, Blightfall, is available now wherever books are sold.
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