Summary
- The TV adaptations of A Court of Thorns and Roses and Fourth Wing face challenges in adapting the books due to problematic elements that need to be changed and the scrutiny of the fanbases.
- Both book series lean into romance and sex, with explicit scenes that verge on erotica. The TV shows need to include these steamier aspects while balancing them with the rest of the story.
- The TV adaptations should look to Outlander as a blueprint for successful sexy fantasy, where the sex scenes add depth without overwhelming the storyline, character development, and fantasy elements.
As they create the upcoming TV shows, the creative teams behind Hulu’s A Court of Thorns and Roses and Amazon’s Fourth Wingneed to pay attention to another sexy fantasy adaptation – Outlander. The Empyrean – better known by the name of its first book, Fourth Wing – and ACOTAR are two of the most recent fantasy book series getting TV adaptations. The choice to adapt these two book series is unsurprising given their popularity, with both series going viral multiple times on BookTok over the past few years.
While these adaptations are exciting, they also pose some difficulties with which the writers, directors, and the rest of the creative team will need to contend with. Both books have some problematic elements that will need to be changed or removed in order to succeed. Additionally, they have such huge fanbases that the casting of Fourth Wing and A Court of Thorns and Roses characters will be scrutinized if they don’t get it exactly right. Most difficultly, though, both TV series will need to find a way to balance sex, romance, and fantasy.
Even though they’re fantasy first and foremost, both ACOTAR and Fourth Wing feature major romances and sexual tension that help move the plot forward. The prose in these books is catered towards adults, including graphic sex scenes for which authors Sarah J. Maas and Rebecca Yarros are well known. Due to the frequency of these scenes and the level of detail, the books verge on erotica. If the adaptations want to succeed, Hulu’s A Court of Thorns and Roses and Amazon’s Fourth Wing will need to include the steamier aspects of the books.
However, as they’re adapted into TV shows, these series will need to think about the traditional rules. TV fantasy genre conventions allow for sexual content as long as it doesn’t overpower the rest of the story. It cannot be the only driving force in the narrative. Good examples of this can be found in fantasy book adaptations like Game of Thrones and Outlander. Unlike the sex scenes in Game of Thrones, most of the sex in both book series is consensual, romantic, and focuses on sexual pleasure. In this way, the books are more similar to Outlander.
Despite having solid source material, Fourth Wing and A Court of Thorns and Roses will be difficult to adapt for one unifying reason. It’s extremely difficult to incorporate frequent sex scenes in fantasy without overwhelming the rest of the show. A show can easily become dubbed smutty or lewd if it doesn’t walk this line just right. One example of this is the show True Blood, which became better known for being sexy than being good fantasy. By the end of the series, Sookie and Bill’s romance and sex life are more important than the vampires.
On the other side of the coin, when a series is known for its sex scenes, decreasing them too much would alienate many loyal fans who found sexual liberation in these books. Part of the reason these books boomed on BookTok is that its primarily woman fanbase appreciated the way both authors wrote the salacious scenes and focused on mutual pleasure in non-erotica books. The ACOTAR and Fourth Wing adaptations can’t just remove sex scenes in order to prevent them from overwhelming the fantasy plotline.
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