At this point, it’s hard not to be familiar with Rebecca Yarros’ “Empyrean” series about dragon rider Violet Sorrengail.
When “Onyx Storm,” the third book in the romantasy series, was released in January 2025, it became the fastest-selling adult novel in 20 years.
Yarros is taking a break from the “Empyrean” series before writing the fourth installment, but in the meantime, we’re getting closer to a series adaptation of “Fourth Wing.”
‘Fourth Wing’ is becoming a TV show
In October 2023, Deadline announced that Amazon MGM Studios and Oscar nominee Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society were developing “Fourth Wing” into a Prime Video series. Yarros is an executive producer for the show.
Outlier Society produced Jordan’s “Creed III” and is developing a slate of other series and films in addition to “Fourth Wing.”
Deadline also reported in October 2023 that Amazon MGM Studios had acquired the rights to the entire “Empyrean” series. In her January 2025 Variety interview, Yarros said she had shared the “five-book arc” for the “Empyrean” series with Amazon.
“They have the five-book arc, which went a little awry in Book 3 just because the positioning, but they already know that,” she told Variety. “But they have the five-book arc and the general big points of what happens in between each book, but they don’t have the specifics between Book 4 and Book 5, because I’m getting ready to go to my crazy plotting board and and plot out every single event that happens in each book, so that I make sure that I’m within my two books there.”
A new showrunner
In July 2024, Outlier Society announced it had hired Moira Walley-Beckett, who worked on shows like “Breaking Bad” and “Anne with an E,” as the showrunner for the series. In a January 2025 interview with Variety, Yarros said Walley-Beckett was “great” and “phenomenal,” but in July 2025, Walley-Beckett exited the project.
Jac Schaeffer, best known for her work on Disney’s “WandaVision” and “Agatha All Along,” was rumored to be in talks to step into the showrunner role. However, in September 2025, Variety and Deadline reported that Amazon was hiring Meredith Averill.
Averill was previously the showrunner of the Netflix series “Locke & Key” and a producer on shows like “The Good Wife” and “The Haunting of Hill House.”
Amazon declined to comment on this piece when contacted by Business Insider, but Yarros shared a screenshot of Deadline’s article on her Instagram when the showrunner announcement dropped.
“Welcome to the team, Meredith Averill! Guys, I love everything this wonderful woman has worked on and I’m so excited to have her joining us,” Yarros said in her caption.
Neither Amazon nor Outlier Society has announced any casting or release dates for the series. Still, in January 2026, Jordan assured fans it was on its way in an interview with Deadline.
“We are making sure that this is going to be an exciting show that delivers on all of the things the fans want and some of the things that they won’t be expecting either,” Jordan said.
He also told the outlet he’s aware of how much fans of “Fourth Wing” care about the series.
“But trust me, I know how beloved this franchise IP is,” he said. “It’s early stages, but I feel how much people care about this one. It’s not lost on us.”
Yarros talked about the series’ pilot while on a book tour for ‘Onyx Storm’
Although details about the series are limited, Yarros made a few comments about the show while promoting “Onyx Storm.”
Speaking at an engagement on January 24, 2025, in New York, Yarros told fans she had read the pilot for the “Fourth Wing” show — and loved it.
“I read the latest version of the pilot last week,” she said. “It’s really nerve-racking when you read something like that because you’re really — you’re trusting someone else with your baby, right? And you’re trusting someone else to say, like, ‘Hey, this is important in your work, and this isn’t,’ and you kinda get your guard up.”
“But guys, I, like, kicked my feet the whole time,” she said. “You’re gonna love it.”
Yarros also praised Walley-Beckett at the event, calling her a “brilliant writer” and saying she maintained the integrity of the book in the pilot. It’s unclear how the pilot may have changed since Walley-Beckett’s exit from the project.
Yarros has shared some thoughts on casting
Speaking at an event in London on August 30, 2024, Yarros said casting will ultimately fall on the show’s staff, not her. She also said she intentionally hasn’t shared any specific actors she hopes will be cast in the series.
“I will never say who my perfect fan cast is because the cast is so diverse, and I want to open that up to more diversity,” she said. “And I feel like the second I say who I think this character is, that’s who everyone will accept. That’s only who they will accept.”
“I kinda hope they find, like, an up-and-coming generation,” she added. “But I would never put my fan cast in your heads.”
Although she won’t be involved in casting the series, Yarros said at the same event that she has one hard-line casting request she has communicated to Amazon and Outlier Society.
“They know how staunch I am against whitewashing Xaden,” she said. “I think that’s the biggest thing.”
Xaden Riorson, Violet’s love interest in the series, is described as having “warm tawny skin” in “Fourth Wing” and “tawny-brown” skin in both “Iron Flame” and “Onyx Storm.”
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