Fans of The Raven Cycle (also often referred to as The Raven Boys, the title of the first book), a YA fantasy novel series by author Maggie Stiefvater, were thrilled in early April 2017 when it was announced that a TV adaptation, spearheaded by Universal Cable Productions, would be produced. Three years later, there have been little to no updates and it seems the show may not happen after all.
The Raven Cycle is a series of four contemporary fantasy novels, written by Stiefvater and published from 2012 to 2016. The series follows Blue Sargent, the daughter of a skilled psychic who augments her family's abilities, but has no psychic power of her own. She becomes friends with four boys from the local boarding school -- Gansey, Adam, Ronan and Noah -- when she meets Gansey's ghost and learns the upcoming date of his death.
Gansey is obsessed with finding the sleeping Welsh king, Glendower. In his pursuit of the legend, he and his friends encounter all kinds of mysticism and danger in Henrietta, Virginia.
Initial plans for a TV adaptation of The Raven Cycle were revealed on April 10, 2017. They were confirmed by Stiefvater in a tweet that same day, though her tweet has since been deleted. According to the announcement, Andrew Miller, who wrote and produced The Secret Circle (2011), would act as showrunner and Catherine Hardwicke, who directed Twilight, was attached to direct the pilot episode. Stiefvater was also slated to be a co-producer. After that initial announcement, things quieted down -- which is not unusual during planning stages.
The next sign of life came in September 2018, when Stiefvater posted a picture on Twitter revealing that she was working on the script for the pilot episode:
No news has been announced since. During a Reddit AMA in November of last year, Stiefvater said she wrote the pilot, but hinted that she had declined the offer to write more episodes. Finally, in May of this year, Stiefvater tweeted that development of the series had stopped altogether. The tweet has since been deleted, but it can still be found here.
What exactly happened is still unclear. As mentioned above, development seems to have been slow anyway -- there was no casting information or even any sort of timeline as to when the show might be released -- and the pandemic may have iced it for good, or at least for now. There were rumors in February about a potential deal with Netflix, but that seems to have fallen through. So for now, fans have to assume the project has been put back into the drawer.
With a TV adaptation more uncertain than at any other point in the last three years, fans of The Raven Cycle will therefore have to turn towards the books again. However, that may not be a bad thing. Plus, Stiefvater is currently working on The Dreamer Trilogy, which expands the world she created in The Raven Cycle.