If Outlander‘s success proves anything, it is that Hulu’s abandoned attempt to adapt a BookTok sensation could have been the biggest fantasy show since Game of Thrones. When Game of Thrones debuted in 2011, the show’s audience could not have anticipated that they were watching TV history in the making. HBO’s adaptation of author George RR. Martin’s A Song of Ice & Fire saga had a massive budget, and ran the risk of proving a colossal failure for the cable network.

Instead, the show became a huge mainstream success, and the search for the next Game of Thrones began immediately. Netflix’s The Witcher franchise, Prime Video’s Critical Role shows The Legend of Vox Machina and The Mighty Nein, and even Apple TV’s upcoming Brandon Sanderson adaptation The Stormlight Archive all threw their hats in the proverbial ring, each offering a different spin on the series. One show was more family-friendly, another was animated, while still another was even grittier and darker than Game of Thrones.

Of course, none of these shows could be Game of Thrones, much like even the official spinoffs House of the Dragon and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms needed to change the tone and storytelling style of the franchise. However, although Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale proved the streaming service wasn’t averse to a big-budget R-rated adaptation of a literary genre hit, the company remained notably absent from attempts to replicate the success of Game of Thrones. At least, until Outlander’s Ronald D. Moore tried, and failed, to make A Court Of Thorns And Roses show.

Outlander Proves Ronald D. Moore Could’ve Made A Court Of Thorns And Roses Work On TV

Beginning with the novel of the same name in 2015, A Court Of Thorns And Roses is a romantasy book series that follows its heroine Feyre Archeron’s journey to Prythian, a faerie kingdom where political intrigue reigns supreme and no one can be trusted in the Spring Court. A Court Of Thorns And Roses was followed by A Court Of Mist And Fury in 2016, A Court Of Wings And Ruin in 2017, and A Court Of Frost And Starlight in 2018.

Most recently, 2021’s A Court of Silver Flames continued author Sarah J Maas’s epic fantasy story, while the upcoming A Court of Splintered Harmony will mark the franchise’s sixth novel. With over 13 million copies sold worldwide, the series is a publishing sensation, and Hulu announced in 2021 that Battlestar Galactica reboot creator Ronald D. Moore was developing a small-screen adaptation alongside Maas. Also known for Carnivale, For All Mankind, and Outlander, Moore seemed like an ideal fit for the series.

As such, it was a crushing blow when reports surfaced that the expensive, ambitious adaptation was set to be canceled in 2024, and an even more devastating update when the creators confirmed that Hulu’s A Court Of Thorns And Roses had officially been scrapped in 2025. While Maas’s writing remains popular among readers, the success of Outlander’s long-running Starz adaptation clearly wasn’t enough to keep Moore’s latest genre-blending mature fantasy adaptation afloat.

Why Adapting A Court Of Thorns And Roses Is So Difficult

There are numerous reasons that A Court Of Thorns And Roses still hasn’t made the leap to the screen, most notably its tricky positioning between YA and adult fantasy. While Disney’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Prime Video’s Lord of the Rings prequel The Rings of Power, and HBO’s upcoming Harry Potter reboot are all broadly family-friendly, the Game of Thrones shows and The Witcher are explicitly aimed at adults only.

In contrast, A Court Of Thorns And Roses was marketed as a YA series, but features frequent explicit sex scenes that are pivotal to the saga’s storyline. The storytelling style of the series also has more in common with the internal, protagonist-centric storytelling of YA fantasy or romance fiction than the sprawling polyphonic writing style of epic fantasy like Tolkien, Ursula K. Le Guin, or Martin. As such, even Outlander’s show runner couldn’t work out how to turn A Court Of Thorns And Roses into the next Game of Thrones without sacrificing major elements of its appeal.

Source: Compiled from various sources.