The fan-favorite sci-fi novel Iron Widow is made a beeline for the big screen. On Thursday, it was declared (by means of Variety) that the New York Times bestselling novel, which is written by author and YouTube content creator Xiran Jay Zhao, has been optioned for a film by Erik Feig’s Picturestart. Reports indicate that the objective is to turn the premise into a science fiction franchise. J.C. Lee (Love, Victor, Awful Genius) is reportedly set to write the screenplay. Picturestart’s Jessica Switch and Julia Sledge will deliver with Feig, with Samie Kim Falvey executive producing.

Iron Widow follows the story of 18-year-old Zetian, who offers herself up as a concubine-pilot, to assassinate the expert male pilot responsible for her sister’s death. But she gets her retribution in a manner no one expected-she kills him through the psychic link between pilots and emerges from the cockpit unscathed. She is marked an Iron Widow, a much-dreaded and much-silenced kind of female pilot who can sacrifice boys to power up Chrysalises instead. To tame her unnerving yet invaluable mental strength, she is paired up with Li Shimin, the strongest and most controversial male pilot in Huaxia. But since Zetian has had a taste of power, she won’t fall down so easily. She will miss no opportunity to use their combined might and infamy to survive a large number of attempts on her life, until she can sort out exactly why the pilot system works in its misogynist way-and stop additional girls from being sacrificed.

At the point when Iron Widow was first released in 2021, it turned into an out of control hit, making the New York Times Bestseller list for 41 weeks. It has since been translated into 14 languages, and fostered a following on TikTok’s BookTok community. A second original in the series, titled Iron Widow 2: Radiant Tyrant, is set to be released next year.