Margaret Atwood's Terrifying Post-apocalyptic Book Series Nearly Got An Hbo Adaptation

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Canadian author Margaret Atwood is one of the fiercest literary talents alive, though not every adaptation of her work reaches such highs. Atwood herself did not like the 1990 "Handmaid's Tale" movie, based on her classic 1985 novel about a dark future where American patriarchy has become a theocratic dictatorship. Atwood did enjoy the "Handmaid's Tale" TV series, though, which expanded the story of her novel into six seasons that ran from 2017-2025. But before that, a different post-apocalyptic Atwood novel could've made its way onto HBO.

In 2014, it was reported filmmaker Darren Aronofsky ("Requiem for a Dream") was planning to adapt Atwood's "MaddAddam Trilogy." These books ("Oryx and Crake," "The Year of the Flood," and the trilogy-naming finale "MaddAddam") depict a post-apocalyptic future even darker than "The Handmaid's Tale." In this world, corporate-controlled genetic engineering became advanced enough to create hybrid animals, before humanity was nearly wiped out by a "flood" (really a global pandemic). Each of the three books offer different perspectives into this broken world and how it broke to begin with, but the characters across the trilogy do meet.

It's not exactly scary in the same manner that, to compare it to a later HBO post-apocalyptic drama, "The Last of Us" is. Still, "MaddAddam" is plenty disturbing in other, often more subtle ways. Playwright and TV writer Eliza Clark was contracted to adapt the novels, but in 2016, it was reported Aronofsky's "MaddAddam" wasn't moving forward at HBO. Speaking to Vulture, Aronofsky nonetheless praised Clark's work:

"It was interesting to see how [Clark's] brain worked and processed to bring it all into a cohesive universe. Figuring out how to focus it into a 10-episode series was really challenging. It is such a massive, amazing piece, and we are just trying to find the right home."

Doubleday

The first book of the "MaddAddam" trilogy, "Oryx and Crake," follows "The Snowman," seemingly the only human left in the world. His sole company are diminutive, genetically-engineered humans he calls "Crakers." We learn through flashbacks that the Snowman was once a boy named Jimmy, the son of a genetic engineering scientist in a world now ruled by corporations. "Oryx and Crake" were two, now dead, companions of Jimmy's; Crake, his childhood friend and eventual creators of the Crakers, and his girlfriend Oryx. (Her backstory, as an enslaved child in a desperate world where it's common for parents to sell their children, are among the most harrowing chapters you'll ever read.)

"MaddAddam" is difficult to adapt, specifically for film or TV, in part because it's pitch dark. Moreover, much of the power comes from staying in the characters' headspaces; much of Jimmy's dialogue comes from the flashbacks to his time with Oryx and Crake. That said, the story's more visual components — like the Crakers or the hybrid animals — could be well-realized in a filmmaker like Darren Aronofsky's hands.

Regardless, Aronofsky and Eliza Clark's efforts to "find the right home" for their "MaddAddam" series apparently didn't stick. A decade on, the show still hasn't happened, and they've moved onto other projects. Aronofsky did get to tell a much different story about a destructive flood with his 2014 Biblical epic "Noah," though. Meanwhile, Clark served as showrunner for a short-lived 2021 TV show adaptation of "Y: The Last Man," based on Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra's post-apocalyptic comics about a world where almost every person with a Y chromosome suddenly dies. "Y" is honestly not that far off from "MaddAddam." If you're a Margaret Atwood reader, it might be the comic for you.