7 Sci-Fi & Fantasy Books Coming to the Big Screen in 2018

Maze Runner: The Death Cure, based on the novel by James Dashner (January 26)
The Maze Runner trilogy is set to conclude with this adaption of the “final” book (assuming you don’t count the ongoing prequel series). The truth behind WCKD and the tests will be revealed, but not before the Gladers run one more maze in the legendary Last City. The adaptation has been long in coming, having been delayed by a year due to lead actor Dylan O’Brien suffering a serious injury during production>

Annihilation, based on the novel by Jeff VanderMeer (February 23)
Multi-talented director/novelist/screenwriter Alex Garland is helming a reportedly loose adaption of Jeff VanderMeer’s first Southern Reach novel, which tells of Area X, a mysterious region of the southeastern U.S. that’s been cut off from for decades by a strange barrier. Each expedition intoArea X has produced wildly different results and observations, with the most recent leaving only one grievously injured survivor—the husband to a biologist played by Natalie Portman. She volunteers for a new expedition inside in hopes of figuring out what exactly happened. There’s been some behind-the-scenes scuffling about the finished film being overly cerebral (prompting the studio to opt for a limited theatrical run before a quick Netflix debut), but that doesn’t sound like a bad thing to me.

A Wrinkle in Time, based on the novel by Madeleine L’Engle (March 9)
It’s not the first adaption of L’Engle’s beloved, influential, and controversial 1962 science fantasy novel, but this one should make a much bigger splash than the mixed success of the earlier made-for-television production. For starters, multiple-award winner Ava DuVernay is directing an all-star cast led by Oprah Winfrey and including Mindy Kaling, Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine, and other notable adult stars. Relative newcomer Storm Reid stars as Meg Murray, who fights to save her father from captivity on a distant planet.

Ready Player One, based on the novel by Ernest Cline (March 30)
Just a few months after the release of his historical drama The Post, Steven Spielberg’s much-anticipated adaption of the Cline novel is coming to the big screen. It’s the story of a dystopian future world in which there’s not much to do but hang out in the virtual space of a lime simulator-slash-video game called the OASIS. The plot kicks off when the creator of OASIS dies, and promises ownership of the realm to anyone who can find the hidden easter egg he’s placed somewhere inside, locatable only by those with an obsessive knowledge of ’80s pop culture—a guy like , say, Ernest Cline, or his teen protagonist stand-in, down-on-his-luck trailer park denizin Wade Watts. The fun of the film will be in seeing how many of the book’s ’80s references make it to the screen.

Alita: Battle Angel, based on the original manga by Yukito Kishiro (July 20)
There are, of course, a number of comic books and graphic novels getting the big-screen treatment in 2018, but this is the only one that adapts a specific book. The Robert Rodriguez-directed, James Cameron-produced film focuses on the first four volumes of Yukito Kishiro’s celebrated manga about the cyborg who’s lost all of her memories aside from some kickass martial arts skills. While trying to uncover the truth of her past, she becomes a bounty hunter and meets a wide-variety of companions on her journey of self-discovery. On the plus side, Rodriguez and Cameron seem to have a deep affection for the original books (down to the choice to give the live-action characters oversized anime-style eyes). On the less plus side: this is yet another manga adaption with pretty much zero Japanese representation in the cast. So we’ll see.

The Darkest Minds, based on the novel by Alexandra Bracken (September 14)
In the near future, a 16-year-old with special abilities named Ruby who has survived the plague that wiped out most of the world’s children, but hasn’t escaped the fear that led her parents to first lock her in the garage, and then to send her to a “rehabilitation camp.” Turns out, they didn’t know the half of what Ruby can do. Now, she’s on the run with others like herself in the film, searching for a rumored safe haven. The adaptation of Alexandra Bracken’s YA trilogy stars genre favorite Gwendoline Christie (Phasma and Brianne of Tarth herself).

Mortal Engines, based on the novel by Philip Reeve (December 14)
Directed by Christian Rivers, the long-in-the-works film adaptation of Reeve’s highly cinematic YA series was written and developed by the Lord of the Rings team of Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, and Peter Jackson. A fantasy film could certainly do much worse by way of pedigree. There’s plenty of juicy material in the first book of the quartet of novels about a post-apocalyptic world living on steampunk technology, where a Victorian-style London now moves about on enormous wheels that allow it to swallow up other roving cities for their resources.
What’s on your page-to-screen calendar for 2018?