N.K. Jemisin’s Hugo Award-winning science fiction fantasy novel The Fifth Season is currently being developed into a television series at TNT. Shortly following the announcement of Nnedi Okorafor’s Who Fears Death novel being adapted for television, the news is yet another exciting victory for black authors telling distinctive stories.
The Fifth Season is an epic drama series set in a dystopian world where deadly earthquakes frequently destroy entire civilizations. A small fraction of inhabitants are able to quiet these earthquakes, however, they can also cause them. The series follows Damaya, Syenite, and Essun, three women with Earth-controlling abilities.
The project is in its early production days, and will be written by Sleepy Hollow’s Leigh Dana Jackson. Dan Friedkin, Tim Kring, and Justin Levy will be executive producers for the series, as reported by Deadline.
In addition to becoming the first black writer to win a Hugo Award for Best Novel, N.K. Jemisin won the Locus Award for her debut novel, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. Her work has also received multiple nominations for Hugo, World Fantasy, Nebula, and RT Reviewers’ Choice Awards.