Netflix options over 25 books : upcoming adaptations

Netflix optioned more than 25 books and comics in the past twelve months alone. That figure, buried in public filings, tells us more about the platform's creative priorities than any press release ever could. Before a single frame is shot, before a cast is announced, the rights deal is where everything begins, and tracking these options is exactly what we do.

One important clarification worth making upfront : an option is not a green light. It means Netflix has paid to secure the right to adapt a work within a given window. Many optioned books never make it to production. Development is slow, projects stall, and some quietly disappear. But for anyone paying close attention to what Netflix is betting on, this list is as close to a roadmap as you'll find.

What Netflix's latest book options reveal about its content strategy

Look at the pattern across these acquisitions and a clear picture emerges. Netflix is not taking random swings. Proven authors and existing franchises dominate the top of the list. Richard Osman's We Solve Murders, optioned in January 2026, is a perfect example : Netflix already worked with him on The Thursday Murder Club adaptation directed by Chris Columbus, and reportedly shot material for a potential sequel during that same production. Osman's newest trio of sleuths fits neatly into an expanding cinematic universe the platform is clearly keen to build.

Harlan Coben is another name that never seems to leave these filings. His overall deal with Netflix has already produced titles like Fool Me Once and The Stranger. The option on Drop Shot, the second entry in his Myron Bolitar series, signals Netflix is already mapping the arc of that franchise well beyond the first instalment.

Romance is a second pillar. Tia Williams saw Netflix option two of her novels in early 2026 : Seven Days in June (a Brooklyn-set love story that was previously in development at Prime Video) and A Love Song for Ricki Wilde, set in Harlem and targeted as a feature film. Katherine Center also returns to the platform with The Things You Save in a Fire, a firefighter romance that had previously been in development elsewhere, with Missy Peregrino attached at one point. Netflix rescued the rights in June 2026. Center's track record with the platform, via Happiness for Beginners, makes a feature film the most logical format here.

Then there is the prestige tier. Securing the rights to Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, her 1970 debut novel and one of the most significant works in American literature, is the boldest move on the entire list. The story of Pecola Breedlove, a young Black girl in post-Depression Ohio who internalizes a racist standard of beauty, demands a director of exceptional vision. Morrison won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. Adapting her work is a statement of intent, not just a content play.

Horror, crime, history and the genres Netflix is quietly loading up on

Beyond romance and prestige drama, three genres dominate the rest of the list : psychological horror, crime procedural, and historical non-fiction. Each reflects a distinct audience Netflix is working to serve.

On the horror front, Shirley Jackson's The Bird's Nest, optioned in March 2026, is a natural follow-up to the success of The Haunting of Hill House. Originally published in 1954, the novel follows a museum clerk whose mind fractures into four competing personalities. Olivie Blake's Girl Dinner, optioned in May 2026, takes a very different angle : a satirical, pitch-black horror novel set inside an elite sorority where cannibalism turns out to be the sisterhood's darkest ritual. Blake is best known for The Atlas Six and carries a dedicated online following.

Crime fiction brings George P. Pelecanos into the mix. He wrote for The Wire on HBO and his novel Right as Rain, optioned in April 2026, launches a Washington D.C. detective series pairing a Black private investigator with a disgraced former cop. The combination of his television pedigree and the novel's social texture makes this one of the more compelling potential series on the list.

Historical non-fiction fills out a rich section of the slate. All Blood Runs Red chronicles Eugene Bullard, the son of a formerly enslaved man who became the first African-American fighter pilot in World War I, a Parisian nightclub owner, and a French Resistance spy. French director Paul Mignot is already attached. The King of Confidence goes further back, telling the forgotten story of James Jesse Strang, a 19th-century con man who declared himself king of a Lake Michigan island. The Gunfighters by Bryan Burrough strips away Hollywood mythology from the Wild West to examine the real violence that produced legends like Billy the Kid.

Three titles that deserve more attention right now

Some options tend to get overshadowed by bigger names. Three titles on this list deserve a closer look for very different reasons.

Bruce Holsinger's Culpability, an Oprah's Book Club pick optioned in August 2025, centres on a family whose self-driving minivan kills an elderly couple. The question of who bears moral responsibility, the teenager texting in the driver's seat, the distracted parents, or the AI itself, makes for a genuinely timely dramatic premise. Griffin Dunne's memoir The Friday Afternoon Club, optioned in November 2025, sits at the intersection of Hollywood glamour and personal tragedy : his aunt is Joan Didion, and the devastating murder of his sister, actress Dominique Dunne, forms the emotional core of the book. Finally, The Bering by Sean Flynn, originally an Audible podcast, reconstructs the sinking of the fishing vessel Alaskan Ranger in the freezing Bering Sea, with 47 crew members fighting to survive. A survival thriller of that scale, grounded in a true story, could sit comfortably alongside the best new series Netflix has delivered in 2026.

Netflix declined to comment officially on any of these options, which is standard. What is not standard is the breadth and ambition of a list that spans Nobel Prize-winning literary fiction, queer romantic comedy, Wild West history, and corporate AI thrillers, all secured within roughly twelve months. The question now is which of these will still be in active development by this time next year.