Beloved epic fantasy author Brandon Sanderson has announced that, after years of development, the film adaptation of his perfectly cinematic opening scene in Mistborn's first book, it seemed like a natural fit for a film adaptation.

The movie adaptation of the underrated Mistborn series had been in development for some time, which Sanderson had been as transparent about as he possibly could be over the years. Unfortunately, as the author announced in his annual "State of the Sanderson" blog post on December 19, 2024, the in-progress Mistborn movie project has come to a close, although Sanderson remains hopeful about the fate of an eventual Cosmere movie project.

The Mistborn Movie Is Back At "Square One" – Why It's No Longer Happening

The Disappointing News Comes Amidst An Otherwise Celebratory Blog Post

Every year, Brandon Sanderson releases a blog post in December that details his progress on his multitude of projects, and this year's gave us a close look at how far the Mistborn film adaptation got before it was recently terminated. The core of the issue is the way that film development works when trying to adapt an existing franchise, and how that led to Mistborn's significant progress screeching to a halt.

Sanderson's blog breaks down the film development process in a loose series of steps, and says that Mistborn got fairly far along in the process before stalling out due to a lack of studios willing to move forward on the project as it stood, and Sanderson's partners on the script not wanting to continue putting effort into a project with no backing. To quote Sanderson himself:

Mistborn: Is at Step Zero right now, though recently it got as close as Step Six/Seven as a live-action film. (It’s tricky to point to where it got because this project did a lot more internal development than is usual—so it had basically done all of Step Seven before going out to pitch to studios. It got offers of development deals from studios, but no production deal, and the partners I had did not want to go back to script after all the work they did.

As the studio didn’t want to do it the way the producers did, it died at the end of Step Six. If it had gone as we wanted, we would have skipped Step Seven and Eight entirely, as the production deal would have included a greenlight. We then would have gone straight to Step Nine—which was why I was so hopeful I could do an announcement for you. Alas, it did not happen. (Yes, this means stars were attached. No, Henry C. was not one of them. Yes, you’d recognize some of the names. No, I can’t tell them to you.)

That’s everything, I’m afraid. I’ve said no to several offers on Cosmere properties over the last five years, as I was all-in on getting the Mistborn film made. Now that that has fallen through, I’m back to square one, basically, on the Cosmere. (via BrandonSanderson.com)

Steps Six, Seven, Eight, and Nine, as he labels them, describe the latter half of a project's lifespan. Step Six is the point when a production studio signs the contract to begin work, Seven is the process of development within the studio (possibly including filming a pilot), Eight is when the studio signs off on a project and funds it, and Step Nine is the actual filming of the movie or show. As Sanderson points out in his blog, these aren't cut and dry, which is why Mistborn had the potential to skip a few steps.

What's particularly interesting is the mention of a particular "Henry C." in reference to actors who had been attached to the project. While it's unlikely Sanderson will ever be able to clarify, this is almost certainly Henry Cavill. As arguably the most popular fancast subject right now, the actor's name has seemed to pop up in reference to every fantasy and sci-fi project ever since Cavill's departure from Netflix's The Witcher was announced in October 2022.

The Mistborn Movie's Cancelation Comes After More Than A Decade Of Uncertainty

Being Stuck In Development Hell For 14 Years Is Almost A Worse Fate Than The Pits Of Hathsin

The Mistborn film adaptation had a long and difficult pre-production process before this announcement was the final nail in its coffin. Initial news of a Mistborn film surfaced in early 2010, when production company Paloppa Pictures first optioned the series' first book, Mistborn: The Final Empire. Unfortunately, Paloppa was unable to find a studio that was interested, and their option expired in 2014.

2016 saw DMG entertainment option most of the Cosmere, but specific progress on a Mistborn film was slow, and Sanderson himself said in 2019 that he would start working on the script itself. In 2020, DMG's option expired, but in 2020 and 2021's State of the Sanderson posts, Brandon repeatedly said he was still working on the Mistborn film in what he called a "hands-on way."

Mistborn's Status Update Confirms A Harsh Reality For Fantasy Adaptations

No Matter How Much Fans Want Something, Film And TV Production Realities Are Harsh Mistresses

Mistborn isn't alone in how it's struggled to find a major studio willing to put in the effort to bring it to life. Many other major genre literature series and franchises have been struggling to get adaptations off the ground recently, such as the best-selling romantasy series A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas. While Hulu's adaptation of that property was announced in 2021, there has been little visible progress since, and the show was even rumored to have been scrapped in February 2024, although Entertainment Weekly and other publications report that Hulu is still working on it.

The harsh reality of the situation is that while there are uncountable wonderful fantasy book series that deserve film and TV adaptations, streaming services and TV networks are struggling right now as they compete for subscribers, and that leads to some fairly conservative decision-making at the executive level. For every Game of Thrones that succeeds (mostly), there's a Shadow and Bone that gets canceled after one or two seasons, despite having good reviews and a fervent fanbase, to say nothing of projects like Warner Brothers' Batwoman that were completed but never released so that the studios can use them as a tax write-off.

Could A Mistborn Movie Still Happen?

It May Be Dead For Now, But Cosmere Fans Know That Death Is Only A Beginning

Sanderson's blog post makes it clear that he is still happily working to get Mistborn on the big screen at some point. Fans will be excited to see elsewhere in the State of the Sanderson post that he has set a timeline for the next era of Mistborn novels, so clearly, the series is central to his plans to move the Cosmere forward, especially now that the first pentalogy of The Stormlight Archive has concluded with the release of Wind and Truth.

It may be that the first Cosmere project to get a film or TV adaptation won't be Mistborn, and we may instead see a live-action representation of a more standalone book like Elantris or Warbreaker first; or a studio may decide to go all-in on The Stormlight Archive. Regardless of however long it takes, though, it's clear that Brandon Sanderson hasn't given up on a Mistborn film, and he may yet pull a miracle out of his pocket, just like Kelsier.