The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin in Development for Limited TV Series

Love Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale? Well, Critical Content believes you might also like to see The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin developed into a limited series. They’ve purchased rights to the book, with Ursula Le Guin signed on as consulting producer and Forman, Andrew Marcus and Ray Ricord signed on as executive producers.

A lot of thoughts here. First, The Left Hand of Darkness! I love this novel. It was my introduction to Le Guin and blew me away. I’ve since read it many times. In case you don’t know (in which case go and read the book), The Left Hand of Darkness takes place on a planet called Winter. Genly Ai, the main character, is an Earth Envoy. The inhabitant’s of Winter can and often do switch genders. Genly must try to adapt to this new world despite an Earth upbringing that supports patriarchal sexuality norms. Like most of Le Guin’s work, she approaches themes and characters like an anthropological study, though a deeply human one, especially as the novel progresses.

While super excited to see this turned into a series, I do have some reservations. Despite Le Guin being one of the most amazing writers ever, her book to screen adaptations have a bad track record. Neither Earthsea adaptations were good (and she agrees), despite one of them being made by Studio Ghibli. So I’m a little nervous about adapting such a complicated novel into TV series. Doesn’t mean it can’t be done — I think it can — but it makes me nervous.