Potential Warm Bodies TV Show Adaptation Teased By Author

Isaac Marion, the author of Warm Bodies, teases a potential television series adaptation of his genre-bending zombie-romance novel series.

A potential television adaptation of Warm Bodies has been teased by the books’ author. A zombie romance, Warm Bodies was written by author Isaac Marion in 2010, with a prequel novella and two sequel books published later on. In 2013, the original novel was adapted into a feature film starring Nicholas Hoult and Teresa Palmer. The film received fairly positive reviews, with many commending Warm Bodies for showing a different side to the zombie genre.

In an interview with Syfy, Marion teases a potential television adaptation of Warm Bodies that would encompass his entire series of books. Marion says that, initially, there were talks of creating a sequel to the film, but that the “movie sequel morphed into a TV series.” While a television adaptation of Warm Bodies was announced to be in development several years ago, there haven’t been any updates since. Read Marion’s comments below:

“There was a time when it seemed like a sure thing, contracts were drawn up, etc., but for some reason, it keeps sliding around. Talks of a movie sequel morphed into a TV series, which was actually announced as ‘in development’ a couple of years ago, only to mysteriously go silent. I’m only peripherally involved at this point, so I don’t actually know what’s going on behind the scenes. It’s all a big tease for me. But they did option all four books for TV, so it’s still possible. To me, Warm Bodies is just the opening act of the story —it’s actually 18 percent of the total word count — so it would be a dream to see the rest of it on screen someday.”

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What A Warm Bodies TV Show Could Look Like

In May 2019, it was announced that a Warm Bodies television series was in development, as part of Lionsgate’s deal with the film’s director, Jonathan Levine. While little else was announced at the time, it was thought that the series would premiere exclusively on a streaming service, rather than on cable. Since the announcement, however, there have been no further updates on the series. Marion says the project has gone “mysteriously silent,” and that while he’s still involved in the project, it’s not in any major capacity. However, with Marion wanting to still see the series go to production, there may still be hope for a Warm Bodies television adaptation after all.

While the Warm Bodies film was fairly well-received and a box office success, it only covers the events of one book in Marion’s four-book series. As Marion mentions above, that is only a small fraction of the series, so there is plenty more that could be covered in a TV adaptation, even if it cannot bring back Hoult and Palmer. The prequel novel to Warm Bodies, entitled The New Hunger, follows protagonist (and eventual zombie love interest) Julie as her family tries to survive in a newly-apocalyptic America. The two sequel novels, The Burning World and The Living, follow Julie and R as they discover more of R’s past, and as R ‘recovers’ from his death. The sequel novels were hailed as being much more substantial and serious than Warm Bodies, and would make for a very interesting series.

Though there hasn’t been any movement on the Warm Bodies TV series, the adaptation was announced only one year before the pandemic began, and it’s not surprising that the show might’ve been shelved while Lionsgate dealt with other projects. However, with Marion still confirming that he’s interested in the series going through, and reminding Warm Bodies fans about the project’s existence, this could be the boost that the series needs to begin development again. For the time being, however, it looks like the Warm Bodies television adaptation is stuck in a slow-moving, zombie-like development hell.

Source: Syfy