Tomi Adeyemi’s panel at New York Comic Con on Saturday, October 10, simply did not happen, and she had already said what making the film of her novel cost her.
Adeyemi is the Hugo and Nebula Award winning novelist whose Children of Blood and Bone and its sequel each debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list, and she was scheduled to talk about her new novel, The Siren. The appearance was quietly taken off the schedule after she cancelled last month, and no public explanation was given. Her representatives, her agency CAA and her publisher, Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, had not responded to requests for comment.
What she has said on the record is about the film. She co-wrote the screenplay for the Children of Blood and Bone adaptation, and in July she described the production process as “the worst thing I have ever had to live through.” She said she left the set “hyperventilating and sobbing,” and that severe physical pain and panic attacks followed. She has said she does not intend to watch the finished film and does not want to adapt another of her books for the screen.
Nobody has tied the two things together, and it is worth saying so plainly. Neither Adeyemi nor the convention has explained her absence, and any link between it and the film is unconfirmed.
The film arrives either way. Children of Blood and Bone is a Paramount Pictures release directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, in theatres January 15, 2027. At Comic-Con, the cast carried the panel without her: Amandla Stenberg, Thuso Mbedu, Damson Idris and Cynthia Erivo, with Rian Johnson moderating. Prince-Bythewood talked about the casting and about the enthusiasm around the adaptation. The panel did not address why the woman who wrote the book and co-wrote the script was not in the room.
She wrote the novel. She She says she does not plan to watch it and will not hand another book over, and the film opens in January anyway.
