Brandon Sanderson’s revelation that hisMistbornmovie was back to “square one"came as a disappointing blow in 2024, as screen adaptations of the author’s work are incredibly coveted. Sanderson shared the news in his annualState of the Sandersonblog post, revealing thatMistbornhad not gotten a production deal, despite a lot of thought and work going into the adaptation.
The author opened up aboutthe scrappedMistbornmovieplans further at Seattle Worldcon 2025, sharing a clip of himself speaking on hisTikTokpage. At the panel shown in the video, Sanderson elaborated on what happened with the film. He revealed thathe and his friend had originally pitched the adaptation to Epic Games:
“For those who don’t know, I made kind of an interesting play with a friend of mine back in 2018. This is my friend, Donald; he’s the director and creator of Fortnite. And we figured we’d try to make Mistborn as a film with Fortnite money. Meaning Epic Games — whose owner is a pretty cool guy; you know, he’s in the tech space — and we pointed out to him, ‘Hey, Amazon is making movies, and Apple is making movies, maybe Epic should make movies.'”
According to Sanderson, Tim Sweeney — the founder and CEO of Epic — was on board with the idea. However, for reasons he couldn’t delve deeply into, things didn’t work out as intended. Seeing the writing on the wall,Sanderson asked for his rights back:
“And for various reasons, it didn’t work out. But we spent like five years working on this, making this film. We had casting, we had a lot of things done, and it just didn’t end up working out. So, again, Tim Sweeney is a pretty cool guy. Last year, I’m like, ‘Hey, it’s not going to work it. It’s obviously [not]. We’re done. Can I have my rights back?'”
Sanderson noted that this was how theMistbornmovie returned to “square one,” adding that he “went out and did pitches in May.” Fortunately, there has been a lot of excitement surrounding the possibility of an adaptation. But the author lamented that this leaves him with hard choices about what to do next:
“Now I have the very difficult job of, who do I pick? How do we work on it? What are the choices that we make? I still believe in a Mistborn theatrical and a Stormlight premium cable. I could be persuaded to animation if the people banking it were persuaded that they could give the budget to animation that it deserves. It’s harder to get the money people in Hollywood to write the checks for animation.”
Sanderson wrapped this up by saying there’s “no news” — at least, not officially. Butthe author’s panel offered hope after 2024’s disappointingMistbornupdates, as it seems some sort of adaptation is inevitable.
What Brandon Sanderson’s Comments Mean For A Mistborn Movie
It doesn’t sound as though Sanderson has made any official decisions regarding a new path forward for theMistbornadaptation. However, the fact that studios are interested and excited about the project is promising. This meanswe’re likely to get a screen adaptation of Sanderson’s beloved books at some point. But as Sanderson noted during the panel, such things do take time.
It’s also great to realize that the author isn’t rushing into anything; his comments about animation signal this, as he’s committed to doing right by his story. And while animation does sound like thebest medium for aMistbornmovieor show, he’s right about one thing: it won’t be worthwhile if the proper budget isn’t there.
The same is true of a live-action adaptation, but Sanderson’s hopes for a theatrical release signal that he has a vision for bringing his books to life. Again, his standards are admirable — and they inspire confidence that, whenever he does sign on with a studio, the source material will be done justice.
Our Take On Brandon Sanderson’s Worldcon Revelations
After the disappointment ofMistborn’s movie plans falling through in 2024,Sanderson’s Seattle Worldcon comments are sparking new hopes of seeing his work on-screen. While I’m not getting too excited just yet, it’s great to get some good news regarding potential adaptations.
Too manyfantasy projects trapped in development hellwill make anyone skeptical of adaptation talk, but Sanderson seems dedicated to making aMistbornfilm happen eventually. Given the Hollywood interest, I’m hoping it’s only a matter of time. There’s so much potential in this series andBrandon Sanderson’s other works, and it’d be a shame if that wasn’t realized on-screen.
