Children Of Blood And Bone Trailer Brings Tomi Adeyemi's Fantasy Sensation To The Screen

Tomi Adeyemi was only 25 years old when she became an instant literary powerhouse with the 2018 publication of her Young Adult fantasy novel "Children of Blood and Bone." The book debuted at the top of The New York Times' YA bestseller list and spawned two wildly successful sequels, "Children of Virtue and Vengeance" and "Children of Anguish and Anarchy." The third book closed out the trilogy, so Adeyemi doesn't have fans berating her for leaving her story unfinished. Take that, George R.R. Martin!

The novels are set in the fictional country of Orïsha, which is ruled by the brutally oppressive King Saran. The land is made up of the magic-conjuring divîners and the non-magical kosidán. Saran was able to attain absolute power when he found out how to shut off the divîners' magic, which allowed him to slaughter those he viewed as a threat to his rule. One of his victims was the mother of Zélie Adebola, who has turned into a powerful young conjurer herself, and she is determined to overthrow the tyrant.

You could call this a Harry Potter riff, but J.K. Rowling's books drew inspiration from numerous other sources. Besides, Adeyemi's novels are much more concerned with issues of class and race, which makes it far more relevant in this day and age.

It took years for Hollywood to get "Children of Blood and Bone" to the big screen, but the great Gina Prince-Bythewood got it over the finish line, and the first trailer is finally here. Though there's a touch of controversy surrounding the production (which we'll get into below), who can say no to a cast that includes Chiwetel Ejiofor, Viola Davis, Idris Elba, Amandla Stenberg, Cynthia Erivo, and other major stars? How does it look? Watch the trailer above.

Paramount

Recently, Tomi Adeyemi caused many an eyebrow to rise when she took to social media to publicly disown the "Children of Blood and Blood" film adaptation, announcing, "There is a reason I will not post anything about the adaptation of my work. That's all." She also clarified, "Since someone asked, I have not seen the film, and I will not watch it. It's been painful holding this back from you all." It's not altogether clear what led Adeyemi to make this statement at the moment, although she posted the following in response to a fan comment:

"I do not mind anyone going to watch the film. I wrote this for us. I fought for us. I'm just laying down my sword and officially separating my name because I can't keep being hurt and attacked behind the scenes."

It appears there were some kind of artistic differences between Adeyemi and the creatives behind the "Children of Blood and Bone" movie. She's certainly not the first author to openly take issue with the way their work is interpreted for the screen. Circling back to George R.R. Martin, the Westeros creator has had his own very public falling out with the writers behind "House of the Dragon" over the way they've elected to adapt his book "Fire & Blood" into a TV series. We'll just have to wait and see how the masses respond to "Children of Blood and Bone" when the film opens in theaters on January 15, 2027.