Book to Screen: The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer

Every now and then I think I might start discussing how I think a book or series will translate to film or television. For my first Book to Screen post, I'm going to go with Marissa Meyer's The Lunar Chronicles.


WARNING: If you have not read up to Cress in The Lunar Chronicles, I do not recommend you continue, as there will be spoilers throughout. Instead, I suggest you come back after you've caught up to Cress. If you haven't even read Cinder, I highly recommend that you do, because this series is absolutely fantastic! If you're on the fence, I wrote a review that will hopefully tip you over to the side that has you devouring this series like many before you. Click here to read my review of Cinder.

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All right, now that the spoiler warning is out of the way, let's begin:

I do not think The Lunar Chronicles should be made into a movie.

Hang on, hang on! I wasn't finished. I do, however, think the series would translate SO MUCH BETTER as a television series.

I mean, think about it. There is so much that happens in this series, especially in the later books. There is so much back story to each and every character. And with the switching povs the further we get into the books, I just feel that a series of movies (on per book) would not do this series the justice it deserves.

Wouldn't it be so much better to see some of Cinder's scenes partly through the eyes of Cress without having to wait until the third movie? In the first season, we could see Cress watching with interest as she follows Cinder's adventure from her sattelite. We could see her life in the sattelite, how she slowly becomes obsessed with Captain Thorne, how Sybil Mira treats her. We could see Cress go from following Sybil's orders to slowly helping Cinder as much as she can instead of turning her in. We could see it all slowly play out until she meets Cinder and the rest of the of group without everything being a huge info dump or just plain confusing because a movie would only really have two hours or so to tell the entire 550 pages!

We could see what Wolf's life was like before Scarlet. Ditto Scarlet before Scarlet. We could learn more about her grandmother and her father. Sure, that might mean some filler episodes where the script writers (hopefully/ideally) work with Marissa Meyer to share some info that wasn't in the books. But wouldn't that, too, be incredibly awesome?

We could watch as Dr Erland discovers the cause of letumosis, watch his flashbacks of how he gave up Cress and went rogue.

We could watch Queen Lenara behind the scenes as she plots against Emporer Rikan and then Kai and all of Earth.

(Winter's cover has yet to be revealed)

And then not to mention everything we're going to learn about Winter in Winter. I have a feeling that book is going to one big ball of crazy (in a good way), and I'd love to see that drawn out as a television series instead of stuffed into one movie.


And of course let's not forget the novellas! They give us a peak into the behind-the-scenes of the books, but they leave you wanting more. They could be added in to a television series whereas they will not likely be included in a movie series.


A television series could show us so much more than what a movie could, and it would be amazing. Especially considering how much happens in the books! I could just see it working so well and I want it so badly.

Of course, this is only my opinion. If The Lunar Chronicles does get optioned as a movie series, that's cool with me, too. I'd love to see it on-screen either way. But I would definitely prefer to see it as a television series. So, uh, I'll just sit here, hoping with all my being that the publisher sells the television and not the film rights to a production company who is ready to tackle this incredibly spaceship-ride of a series (er, assuming an untrained Cinder is flying said spaceship)!

I can just see it all in my head right now. I really hope this is something that will happen!

What do you think? Would you rather see The Lunar Chronicles as a television series or as movies? Or would you rather not see it on-screen at all?