Legendary to adapt Harry Potter fanfic — dark fantasy inspired by Draco and Hermione's "forbidden" love

Legendary has acquired the film rights to the book Alchemised by Senlin Yu, a dark fantasy novel that began life as a Harry Potter fanfic and was inspired by the forbidden love of Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy.

The amount of the deal was not disclosed: one source says $3 million, while another says that the offer “set a Hollywood record” for the purchase of the film rights, excluding inflation.

Senlin is a well-known personality in the world of fanfiction based on J.K. Rowling’s characters, especially in the subgroup nicknamed “Dramiona” — stories about the love affair between Hermione and Draco. In 2023, she published Manacled, a book that resembles a mix of Harry Potter and The Handmaid’s Tale, and has garnered over 10 million views on the fanfiction platform AO3, as well as over 100,000 five-star ratings on Goodreads.

At the same time, the writer tried her hand at Star Wars fanfiction, writing about the relationship between Ben Solo and Rey. In total, her works have more than 20 million individual downloads online and have been translated into 23 languages.

As for the novel Alchemized, it also originally started as a drama before turning into a dark and romantic story. Set in an alternate world of necromancers and corrupt guild families, the story centers on an alchemist and healer named Helen Marino who may be holding forgotten secrets in her mind. In order to explore them, she travels to an abandoned mansion to seek the help of a necromancer.

Penguin Random House will release the book on September 23. The first printing will be 750,000 copies, and translations will include 21 languages.

There are no details about the film adaptation yet, and it is not known whether it will be a movie or a show.

Source: THR