Fanfiction has played a unique role in our pop culture ecosystem. It has introduced romantic pairings of characters that fans might not have even been able to fathom, and often helped breathe new life into certain fandoms, far beyond the scope of their original texts.
Harry Potter has been a unique case study of that, as fans have taken the general concept and/or cast of characters and tried to appreciate them in their own context, often to distance themselves from the real-life controversies surrounding franchise author J.K. Rowling. The massive Marauders-era fanfic All the Young Dudes, and even the enigmatic ancient Internet text that is My Immortal, both come to mind. And now, another story that began as Harry Potter fanfiction is fully taking on a life of its own.
On Wednesday morning, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that Legendary has paid more than $3 million for the movie rights to Alchemised, an upcoming dark fantasy novel written by author SenLinYu. The novel evolved from their work on Manacled, a popular piece of Harry Potter fanfiction centered around an alternate-universe-set romance between Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy. Manacled was first published on Ao3 in 2018 and 2019, and has gained a massive following on BookTok in recent years.
Dramione on the big screen?
According to the official synopsis for the book, Alchemised follows the journey of Helena Marino, a young alchemist with lapses in her memory, trapped in an alternate world of necromancers and corrupt guild families. When she is sent to be a captive of the High Reeve, a mysterious high-ranking necromancer, she must fight to both “protect her lost history and to preserve the last remaining shreds of her former self.”
This is far from the first or last time that a popular piece of fanfiction has had its “serial numbers filed off” and become its own franchise. E.L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey was among the first and most headline-grabbing, in part thanks to its proximity to the Twilight franchise that inspired it. There’s also Anna Todd’s After series of books and films, which originated as Wattpad fanfiction inspired by Harry Styles. And I know I’m not alone in being genuinely excited for the film adaptation of Ali Hazelwood’s The Love Hypothesis, which has roots as a Star Wars AU centered around Kylo Ren and Rey (and will soon star Daisy Ridley’s real-life husband).
But based on the chatter that already surrounds Manacled and Alchemised, this jump to original text (and to the big screen) might end up being something else entirely. For one thing, Harry Potter is not the only piece of existing text that influenced Manacled, as Margaret Atwood’s world-building in The Handmaid’s Tale is said to have inspired the power dynamics and “guild families.” Fans were already curious how the existing elements from both franchises would be toned down or taken out entirely in the reinvention of Alchemised, but with the book being published in just a matter of weeks, they won’t have to wait too long to find out.
There’s also the fact that, arguably, Manacled/Alchemised is easily the darkest piece of popular fanfiction to transcend to blockbuster movie status. Sure, the BDSM elements of Fifty Shades of Grey led to a lot of pearl-clutching at the time, but the franchise’s pop culture legacy ultimately became a bit more tongue-in-cheek. To put it simply, the plot of Manacled has… a lot of heavy elements to it, and you can easily find several laundry lists worth of trigger warnings online.
Unlike offhanded references to Hogwarts and Gilead, those probably can’t be taken out of Alchemised‘s adapted story. And it will be interesting to see how they are tackled, in a different medium and for a much larger audience, once the film adaptation becomes a reality. As the “dark romantasy” genre has continued to grow in popularity online, I expected the entertainment industry to have to cross that bridge at some point, but it’s interesting that this book has become the way to do so.
Alchemised is set to be published wherever books are sold on September 23rd.
(featured image: Warner Bros. Pictures)
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