After ordering a pilot for "The Magicians" last year, Syfy has officially announced that Lev Grossman's best-selling trilogy will finally make its way to TV.
Syfy president Dave Howe confirmed it himself, saying,"'The Magicians' pilot beautifully delivers a world filled with wonder, fantasy and intrigue," reports Variety.
Written by Lev Grossman, "The Magicians" was first released in 2009. The second book in the series, "The Magician King" was published in 2011, followed by "The Magician's Land" in 2014.
The books' main character, Quentin Coldwater, is a brilliant high school student who got accepted to a prestigious and underground school of magic called Brakebills Academy. As Quentin makes new friends in the academy, they learn more and more about the dangers of magic and how it can be destructive for everyone.
So what can fans of the trilogy expect from the TV adaptation? Apparently, many things are in store for the upcoming series. Speaking with BuzzFeed, writers and executive producers of the show Sera Gamble and John McNamara, gave fans a glimpse of what's to come in the upcoming series.
One major change that fans will see in the TV show is a more mature and grown-up cast. "When we were conceiving of how to do this for television - because, you know, the books span a great period of time in the characters' lives - we aged them up a little bit and they are in graduate school," Gamble said.
The role of Quentin will be played by Jason Ralph ("Aquarius"). Other casts include Stella Maeve ("Chicago P.D.") as Julia, Hale Appleman ("Smash") as Eliot, Arjun Gupta ("Nurse Jackie") as Penny, and Summer Bishil ("Towelhead") will be Margo.
If you are a fan of the trilogy, you might have noticed that Margo is a character not found in the books. Well, not exactly. Margo's character is actually Janet; the writers just changed her name because apparently, "there's just a lot of J's."
"Even Lev said, 'You know, I kind of prefer the name Margo," McNamara said.
The change in character's name will not be the last input that Lev Grossman will have on the show. According to McNamara, the author has "been involved in everything from reading drafts, to having a say in who the director was - Mike Cahill he loved - to casting."
Deadline.com reports that Grossman is very excited for the TV adaptation of his novels. "Ever since 'The Magicians' was published, I've wanted to see this story onscreen," the author said. "The people, the school, the other worlds, the magic. I'm so thrilled that it's finally happening, and I'm beyond thrilled that we found the right people to do it."
As to the storyline of the series, fans can expect to see the magical world of Fillory right off the bat. In the pilot, Quentin's obsession with Fillory starts with reading the books. "Fillory is a place that he's been daydreaming about, and dreaming about. So our first introduction to Fillory is via Quentin's obsession with the books," Gamble said.
TV audiences also don't have to wait for Julia's backstory to appear, as what happened in the trilogy. "The fun thing about doing this for television is that we can now tell those stories simultaneously, we can tell the timeline all at once," Gamble added.
Gamble and McNamara, who are fans of the fantasy genre themselves, promise that the TV series will be as dark as the books, but will also be funny and ironic, just like Grossman's writing voice. However, there will be no more spoilers from now on since the writers don't want to "give away too much."
With or without spoilers, fans can definitely expect an exciting new TV series to hit this year.