FX orders pilot for adaptation of Octavia E. Butler's Kindred

By Sam Barsanti | March 9, 2021 | 3:49am

TV Features Kindred

FX orders pilot for adaptation of Octavia E. Butler's Kindred

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Photo: Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images for Steinberg Playwright Awards

According to Deadline, FX has ordered a pilot for an adaptation of Kindred, the landmark 1979 sci-fi novel from Octavia E. Butler about a Black woman who hops back and forth in time from her normal life in the ‘70s to a plantation in pre-Civil War Maryland—leading to mysteries and revelations about her own family, the realities of slavery in the United States, and how it all relates to modern life. The adaptation is coming from writer Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, producers Courtney Lee-Mitchell, Joe Weisberg, and Joel Fields, plus Darren Aronofsky and his Protozoa Pictures label.

In a statement, Jacobs-Jenkins (who was a consulting producer on Watchmen) said that “few, if any, books” have meant as much to him as Kindred, and it has been “the highlight and honor” of his career to be able to work on this adaptation. This project is still just a pilot at this point, so it might not become a full series, but Kindred was and is a hugely popular novel and this adaptation could have some real FX-friendly genre-blending hooks. Plus, there’s a weirdly coincidental timely connection here, as NASA named the landing area for the Perseverance Mars rover after Octavia E. Butler (who died in 2006).