Brandon Sanderson Says His Worlds Deserve Bigger Multimedia Empires

Brandon Sanderson knows his worlds are big enough to rival the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Now he’s saying the quiet part out loud: if the Cosmere is ever going to become a true multimedia empire, it needs far more than the handful of niche projects fans have gotten so far.

Despite soaring book sales and a fandom that fills convention halls, Sanderson’s work has barely crossed into movies, TV, video games, or comics. A new Screen Rant piece argues that Mistborn, The Stormlight Archive, and superhero trilogy The Reckoners are all sitting on MCU-level potential—if someone will finally give them the right launchpad.

Why There’s Still No Mistborn Movie (Yet)

Sanderson isn’t short on opportunities. In a candid interview, he revealed that he’s turned down multiple offers to adapt Mistborn and The Stormlight Archive over fears they’d be mangled by rushed production and volatile streamers. He told Polygon that studios and platforms “aren’t ready” to handle the scale and long-term planning his interconnected Cosmere demands.

That caution has been hardened by other franchises’ stumbles. Recent fantasy shows like The Wheel of Time and The Rings of Power have drawn heavy criticism from book-first audiences, and Sanderson has openly pointed to those series—as well as Henry Cavill’s rocky exit from The Witcher—as warnings of what happens when fidelity slips. In his view, a bad first impression could permanently damage the Cosmere’s chances on screen.

It’s not that Hollywood hasn’t tried. A long-gestating Mistborn film, including a flirtation with Epic Games, has repeatedly stalled out before cameras could roll, as Sanderson recently confirmed in a separate Screen Rant update. For now, the only major visual storytelling in his universe is the White Sand graphic novel trilogy.

Fans Are Already Acting Like the Cosmere Is a Franchise

While Hollywood hesitates, readers are treating the Cosmere like a shared universe anyway. A record-breaking tabletop RPG crowdfund based on his worlds pulled in roughly $14.7 million, according to early reports on the Cosmere Roleplaying Game. That follows the success of the Stormlight-focused RPG and a constant churn of new fiction, from the 2024 Stormlight milestone Wind and Truth to the upcoming Strata Wars space-fantasy trilogy, co-written with Peter Orullian and launching in 2026.

We’ve already seen how aggressively Sanderson tends his empire in other areas, from dedicated fan conventions like Dragonsteel Nexus 2025 to surprise new Cosmere novels such as The Fires of December. But outside prose and tabletop, his presence still feels oddly minimal for someone often dubbed fantasy’s “new Tolkien.”

That gap is what has many readers—and commentators—pushing for a big pivot to comics and animation. The Reckoners, a darker, corporate-twisted superhero saga, keeps getting compared to The Boys, yet it has no TV deal. Sanderson’s standalone, film-ready novella Snapshot has drawn its own adaptation buzz, but nothing has hit screens.

Careful Now, Massive Later?

For Sanderson, the question isn’t whether his stories deserve a wider life—it’s how long he’s willing to wait to get the right one. The author has said he’d rather be “five years late” to TV and film than lock his universe into a rushed, quickly forgotten show. In an era when Netflix and HBO are ravenous for established IP, that restraint may be the only thing standing between the Cosmere and a misfire.

But with his projects multiplying, from Wind and Truth to Strata Wars and beyond, pressure is only building. Fans already treat these books as the spine of a vast multimedia world. Now, they’re waiting to see when Sanderson finally lets comics, animation, and prestige TV catch up.