15 Must-See Book Adaptations Headed to Screens in 2026

Is the book always better than the movie? The eternal question readers must answer rages on in 2026, with a ridiculous number of films and TV shows based on popular novels and short stories headed to screens both large and small.

Some heavy hitters have already arrived, with HBO’s A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms giving us a look at the world of George R.R. Martin’s Dunk and Egg novellas, Netflix revamping lesser known Agatha Christie story The Seven Dials Mystery for a modern audience, and feature film H is for Hawk. But the book to screen pipeline isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. In 2026, we’ll also see multiple adaptations of classics from the literary canon to new contemporary hits, with a hefty dose of horror, sci-fi, and even romance along the way.

Here are some of the biggest books you’ll be able to watch on your screens this year.

An Offer from a Gentleman by Julia Quinn

Release Date: January 29 on Netflix as Bridgerton season 4

The third novel in author Julia Quinn’s popular Bridgerton romance series will become the fourth season of the hit Netflix show this winter. After getting bumped down a slot in favor of Colin and Penelope’s romance from Romancing Mr. Bridgerton, An Offer From a Gentleman puts second son Benedict Bridgerton firmly in the spotlight. 

Though it’s likely the Netflix series will take a fair amount of liberties with the specifics of the plot, the broad strokes of the story involve a Cinderella-esque meet-cute between Benedict and a woman disguised in silver, a kind but overlooked heroine, and a sweet cross-class love story that helps remind everyone it’s what’s inside that counts. Yerin Ha makes her debut as the racebent Sophie Beckett (here known as Sophie Baek), Luke Thompson is back as Benedict, and most of the major family members are too. (Sorry if you were hoping to see Rege-Jean Page or Phoebe Dynevor, folks. Simon and Daphne are nowhere to be found.)

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Release Date: February 13 in theaters

Academy Award-winner Emerald Fennell’s long-awaited Saltburn follow-up is a take on Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, and if the pre-release discourse is anything to go by, this whole experience is going to be positively unhinged. Starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi as literature’s most toxic yet strangely compelling romance, the melodrama inherent in Cathy and Heathcliff’s relationship is clearly a feature, not a bug. 

While Fennell’s interpretation of Brontë’s classic will likely not be for purists, what with its anachronistic costumes and (really) overt sexuality, it certainly looks like a lot of fun, and the trailers thus far have certainly leaned into the story’s obsessive Gothic romance vibes. Whether that means it’s also planning to delve into the original’s abundant themes of cruelty, classism, and revenge remains to be seen. 

Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell

Release Date: March 11 on Prime Video

Patricia Cornwell’s massively popular series following the investigations of medical examiner and forensic consultant Kay Scarpetta is so dense and sparwling— the 29th installment was released in 2025 — it’s a shock that it hasn’t gotten a TV adaptatio prior to right now. 

Prime Video’s attempt is appropriately buzzy, starring Nicole Kidman, Jamie Lee Curtis, Bobby Cannavale, Simon Baker, Ariana DeBose, and more. But if you want to start at the beginning, pick up Postmortem, which follows Scarpetta’s hunt for a serial killer in Richmond, Virginia. 

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Release Date: March 20 in theaters

The last Andy Weir novel to be adapted for the big screen (The Martian) racked up seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor, so one has to assume the expectations are sky high for Project Hail Mary, which is, if anything, a story that’s even nerdier and more grounded in our human ability to solve seemingly impossible problems through things like grit and science. 

Ryan Gosling stars as a small-town scientist who is sent on a mysterious space mission to save humanity. A sort of scientific hail mary, if you will. (Yes, that’s purposefully vague, but if you don’t know the twist going into this movie before you see it — or before you read the book — try not to find out.)

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

Release Date: March 22 on PBS 

PBS Masterpiece’s new adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ most underrated work stars The Hunger Games’s Sam Claflin as Edmond Dantès, a well-liked young sailor who is betrayed by his friends and falsely imprisoned for treason. After many years of captivity, he manages to escape and sets an elaborate plan to get revenge on all those who have wronged him into motion. (With a little help from a fellow prisoner, a hidden treasure, and an extremely flexible moral compass.)

A tale grounded in the real-life injustices suffered by Dumas’s own father, it’s a revenge story with a deeply personal twist. Jeremy Irons, Blake Ritson, Ana Girardot, Mikkel Følsgaard, Harry Taurasi, and Karla-Simone Spence also star.

Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe

Release Date: April 15 from Apple TV

Apple TV’s eight- episode series adaptation is based on Rufi Thorpe’s offbeat (and bestselling) novel of the same name. It follows the story of a young woman struggling to make ends meet after an affair with one of her professors leaves her pregnant, and she decides to keep the baby. With some help from her estranged father, she hatches a plan to secure her future by launching an OnlyFans account — and crafting a narrative using rules from the world of wrestling. 

Elle Fanning and Michelle Pfeiffer star, alongside Nick Offerman, Thaddea Graham, and Nicole Kidman. 

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

Release Date: May 8 on Netflix

A charming and heartfelt story of the unlikely friendship between a widow who works at a local aquarium and a giant Pacific octopus named Marcellus, Remarkably Bright Creatures is a meditation on grief, found family, and love that spent over a year on the New York Times bestseller list.

Oscar winner Sally Field is set to play widow Tova Sullivan, joined by a cast that includes Lewis Pullman, Colm Meany, Joan Chen, Cathay Baker, Beth Grant, and Sofia Black-D’Elia. 

The Odyssey by Homer 

Release Date: July 17 in theaters

Christopher Nolan takes on one of the foundational epics of Western literature this summer with the help of a star-studded cast and a vast network of IMAX theaters ready to project Scylla and Charybdis on a 70-foot IMAX screen. Matt Damon stars as the Greek hero Odysseus, who spends a decade trying to get home from the Trojan War and encounters everything from cyclops and sentient whirlpools to angry gods and cannibals along the way. 

A predictably all-star cast supporting cast is involved, including Tom Holland, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, Jon Bernthal, and Mia Goth. 

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Release Date: September 11 in theaters

A new adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic Sense and Sensibility is coming to a multiplex near you for the first time in nearly 30 years. The 1996 Ang Lee version racked up awards season hardware, including seven Oscar nominations, so the bar for director Georgia Oakley’s new take is already incredibly high. Particularly when the original’s story of love, heartbreak, and duty has been such a favorite for so long. 

Daisy Edgar-Jones and Esmé Creed-Miles star as Dashwood sisters Elinor and Marianne, joined by an ensemble that includes Caitriona Balfe as Mrs. Dashwood, George MacKay as Edward Ferrars, Herbert Nordrum as Colonel Brandon, Frank Dillane as John Willoughby, Fiona Shaw as Mrs. Jennings, and Bodhi Rae Breathnach as the youngest Dashwood, Marianne.

Verity by Colleen Hoover

Release Date: October 2 in theaters

One of two Colleen Hoover adaptations hitting theaters this year — the other is the more emotional romance Reminders of Him — Verity is a star-studded domestic thriller starring Dakota Johnson, Anne Hathaway, and Josh Hartnett. ​​The story follows a writer (Johnson) who is hired to become a ghostwriter for a bestselling novelist named Verity Crawford (Hathaway) after she’s unable to finish her latest book following an accident. But when Lowen moves into her clients’ home to work on the book, she realizes that everything is not what it seems. What secrets is Verity really hiding?

If you’re at all familiar with Colleen Hoover’s addictive works, you already know that anything’s possible.

Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman

Release Date: October 9 in theaters, titled Other Mommy 

Josh Malerman’s creepy postapocalyptic thriller Bird Box was adapted into a massive hit for Netflix back in 2018, and now his 2024 horror novel Incidents Around the House is headed to theaters later this year. Produced by James Wan and retitled Other Mommy after the sinister entity at the story’s center, it follows the story of a young girl and her troubled family who are haunted by a dark creature determined to take up residence inside her. It’s as creepy as it sounds.

The film stars Jessica Chastain alongside ​​Jay Duplass, Arabella Olivia Clark, and Dichen Lachman (Severance).

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

Release Date: November 20 in theaters, as The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping

An origin story for District 12 Hunger Games victor Haymitch Abernathy, Suzanne Collins’ second Hunger Games prequel, Sunrise on the Reaping, is an emotional character study, a dense piece of lore, and a shrewd exploration of the power of propaganda all rolled into one.

The story of Haymitch’s victory in the Second Quarter Quell, the narrative deftly threads the needle between what we already know about Katniss’ alcoholic mentor — the specifics of how he won his Games, the sickening tragedy that awaited him after he was a victor — and the person he was before he became a victim. Joseph Zada plays the young Haymitch, alongside Mckenna Grace, Ben Wang, Molly McCann, and Percy Daggs IV as an assortment of (largely doomed) supporting characters. Kieran Culkin, Elle Fanning, Jesse Plemons, and Ralph Fiennes are all on board as younger versions of familiar faces like Cesar Flickerman, Effie Trinket, Plutarch Heavensbee, and Coriolanus Snow. 

The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis

Release date: November 26 in theaters, followed by a Netflix release

On the surface, C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia may be a strange choice for blockbuster director Greta Gerwig’s Barbie follow-up, but given her lifelong love of the source material, religious upbringing, and feminist bona fides make for an intriguing mix as a storyteller. (Look, few characters in children’s literature deserve the reinvention of Gerwig’s Amy March treatment as much as poor Susan Pevensie.) 

Most importantly, perhaps, is the fact that Gerwig’s striking out on her own path, eschewing the obvious choice of adapting The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe et again and starting her franchise with The Magician’s Nephew. Though the book is technically the sixth in Lewis’s Narnia series, it’s actually the first story chronologically, providing a crucial origin story for many of the world’s most familiar and powerful elements. 

The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow

Release Date: TBD 2026 on BritBox

Everyone knows who Elizabeth Bennet is, even if your only real exposure to Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is video edits featuring Matthew Macfadyen’s Mr. Darcy doing that infamous hand flex. Most who’ve read the book or seen an adaptation probably remember Lizzie’s older sister Jane, who marries Mr. Bingley. Wild younger sister Lydia and her closest confidante, Kitty, are memorable for the trouble the former gets into. But what you might not remember is the fact that there’s actually a fifth Bennet child. And the BBC and BritBox are aiming to finally give this often-ignored character her due in their adaptation of Janice Hadlow’s The Other Bennet Sister, which allows middle sister Mary to finally step into the spotlight on her own terms.

The 10-episode series will follow the story of the least well-known member of the Bennet clan as she steps out of her sisters’ shadows in search of her own identity. (And of course finds herself in the middle of a love story of her own.) Ella Bruccoleri stars as Mary, alongside Maddie Close, Poppy Gilbert, Grace Hogg-Robinson, and Molly Wright as her sisters Jane, Lizzie, Lydia, and Kitty, respectively. Other familiar faces in the cast include Ruth Jones, Richard E. Grant, Indira Varma, Richard Coyle, Laurie Davidson, and Dónal Finn. 

Carrie by Stephen King

Release Date: TBD 2026 on Prime Video

Prime Video’s forthcoming series adaptation of Stephen King’s horror classic Carrie hails from the mind of Mike Flanagan, the man behind such successful (and emotionally devastating) recent horror series as The Fall of the House of Usher and The Haunting of Hill House. The general gist of its story of high school bullying and deadly consequences is probably familiar to many who’ve never even picked up King’s novel, but Flanagan intends to put a modern spin on its continually relevant themes. 

The eight-part series stars Summer H. Howell as Carrie White, joined by Siena Agudong as Sue Snell, and Joel Oulette as Tommy Ros. Other notable faces include Josie Totah, Arthur Conti, Alison Thornton, and horror veteran Matthew Lillard, who’ll be playing Carrie’s principal, Henry Grayle.