If you're a fan of Fourth Wing, then odds are high that you're wondering when we're going to see a Fourth Wing movie or TV show adaptation of the popular books. It's the latter that's planned, and since I'm among the many who are extremely excited to see the upcoming book-to-screen adaptation , I’m keeping track of what we know about plans for the adaptation.
And because Rebecca Yarros’ Empyrean series is not complete, let’s also get into what we know about the upcoming Fourth Wing books, and what’s in store for fans of the excellent romantasy series.
What Is Fourth Wing About?
If you’ve read the first two books, feel free to skip this section. But for those of you unacquainted with Rebecca Yarros’ 2023 novels Fourth Wing and Iron Flame, this is an adult story that blends fantasy with some seriously spicy romance as it follows a young woman who begins training at a war college to become a dragon rider. There’s violence, drama, and no shortage of adventure and romance, along with plenty of awesome dragons.
The Fourth Wing TV Show Adaptation
Given the instant and massive popularity of the first Fourth Wing book, it was no surprise that a major streamer would snatch up the rights to adapt the story into a TV series. Per Variety in October 2023, the rights for the series (including several planned books) were acquired by Amazon and Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society. And then in July 2024, an Outlier Society Instagram post announced that Breaking Bad writer Moira Walley-Beckett had signed on as showrunner for the series. For reference, she won an Emmy Award for writing what many would consider to be one of the best episodes of Breaking Bad , "Ozymandias." So I’m feeling pretty confident that this series is in good hands.
Who Will Play Violet, Xaden And The Other Fourth Wing Characters?
Barnes & Noble has some fun Fourth Wing gift items, which you can view on their Empyrean Series page.
This is the question of the hour, isn’t it? – well, that along with when will the Fourth Wing TV show premiere, when and where will it film, what will the dragons look like, what are the chances I can get my own dragon to fly, and a bevy of other questions many Fourth Wing fans are surely asking. Alas, the answer to most of these questions right now is “we don’t know yet” (along with one “not very likely,” I’m sure.) The announcement about the showrunner from July is the latest bit of solid news we have about the series adaptation. With that said, however, that’s a pretty substantial piece of information. So hopefully it won’t be too long before we start hearing other updates about the project.
In the meantime, I'm not getting my hopes up that we'll see it on the 2025 TV premiere schedule.
What Rebecca Yarros Has Said About The Casting
Earlier this year, The Popverse shared some quotes from Rebecca Yarros, who attended Emerald City Comic-Con 2024, including this one, where she speaks enthusiastically about what’s planned for the series, and also offers some assurance that the show wont whitewash the diverse cast depicted in her books:
I’m really glad that it ended up with Amazon and Outlier Society, which is Michael B. Jordan's production team. They are incredible: They're very protective of the source material. They're absolutely wonderful. They're in constant contact, and I can't say enough great things about them. And they had, they have a great diversity and inclusion rider [in their contracts], so I know that they'll honor the diversity in the cast and we're not gonna see it whitewashed.
Well, that certainly is encouraging, as is the tone of optimism in her words that the series is in good hands.
Fourth Wing TV Show Quick Facts
- Amazon MGM and Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society are adapting it.
- Moira Walley-Beckett is the showrunner.
- No Fourth Wing cast members have been announced, but Rebecca Yarros is confident that the series will honor the diversity of the cast.
- No Fourth Wing release date has been announced.
- We don’t know yet when production will start.
The Fourth Wing Books In Order (So Far)
There are two published books in the Fourth Wing/Empyrean series and in March 2024, Rebecca Yarros confirmed on Good Morning America that Book 3 was coming January 2025.
| Book title | Where To Buy It |
|---|---|
| Fourth Wing (2023) | Get Fourth Wing on Amazon. |
| Iron Flame (2023) | Get Iron Flame on Amazon. |
| Onyx Storm (January 21, 2025) | Pre-Order the Deluxe limited edition of Onyx Storm on Amazon. |
What We Know About Onyx Storm (Fourth Wing Book 3)
We know quite a few things about Onyx Storm as the book's release date approaches. In fact, we’ll start with that!
The Onyx Storm Release Date
Onyx Storm is set to hit shelves on January 21, 2025.
Fourth Wing and Iron Flame were released within months of each other. For those who’ve been following the series since the beginning, there was little wait between Books 1 and 2. So the slightly-more-than-a-year between the November 2023 release of Iron Flame and the anticipated arrival of Onyx Storm in January.
For those hoping that there’s an Onyx Storm midnight release party near you, you might be in luck. At the very least, Entangled has compiled a pretty substantial list of locations for midnight release events for Fourth Wing Book 3, which you can find on their site.
What Onyx Storm Will Be About
In September 2024, Rebecca Yarros shared a post on her Instagram celebrating being finished writing the book, which she described as her favorite. And in October, we were given a glimpse of the text from the back cover of the book and an excerpt, which teases a change in goals and a shift in the dynamic between the two main characters – and that’s as vague as I can be up to this point, for those who aren’t caught up on the series.
Major Spoiler Alert going forward if you’re not caught up on the first two Fourth Wing books).
Here’s the post from Rebecca Yarros’ facebook page…
Posted by RebeccaElizabethYarros on
---
Remember that thing I said about spoilers, right? It's still in effect...
As you can see, Violet appears to be amending her brother’s goal of staying alive to make it her own personal goal of saving Xaden – presumably from his fate of turning full venin, which seems to be the path he’s on given the events of the end of Iron Flame. That she wants to save Xaden is no surprise, but that she’d replace efforts to stay alive with the goal of saving Xaden is alarming… but also kind of no surprise given how intense this love story is. I highly doubt Xaden would approve of Violet’s addendum.
The excerpt also seems to hint that Xaden is convinced it’ll need to be Violet who takes him down if/when the time comes, and that he’s determined to make sure she’s ready to. Talk about high stakes!
/end spoilers
Will There Be More Fourth Wing Books After Onyx Storm?
There are expected to be more Fourth Wing sequels after Book 3...
When speaking to Today in June 2023, Rebecca Yarros confirmed that the Empyrean series is being planned as a five-part story:
The books are fully plotted for five books. The whole series is plotted out and arced and all of that.
It’s exciting (and as a fan, fairly comforting) to know that Yarros has already mapped out the story, especially factoring in how massively popular this series has gotten since the first book was published. Yarros went on to say:
I think it really deals with the theme of history: Who's allowed to tell our history, and what happens when only people in power are the ones who record our history.
The topic of how history is written is definitely something the first book touches on, and it’s not at all surprising to hear that it’s part of the overall theme of the story the author is telling.
We'll be sure to update you on the latest developments for the Fourth Wing TV show and plans for whatever might be ahead with future books once we hear it. In the meantime, Amazon already has no shortage of great original shows to check out.
