Apple TV snaps up Rebecca Yarros’ island romance Peculiar Stars
Apple Studios will develop the forthcoming Rebecca Yarros novel as a series, with the Fourth Wing author attached as an executive producer.
By Poppy Nakagawa · Culture Writer
3 min read
Apple TV has won the screen rights to Rebecca Yarros’ next romance novel, Peculiar Stars, after multiple studios and producers chased the project, Deadline reported.
According to Deadline, Apple Studios plans to turn the book into a television series. Yarros is set to executive produce through her company, Full Measures Productions, and the studio is looking for a writer to handle the adaptation.
Peculiar Stars is scheduled for publication on November 17, 2026, according to Yarros’ website cited by Deadline, and is already available for pre-order.
What Peculiar Stars is about
Deadline described the novel as a slow-burn romance centered on a young woman who is left on a deserted island after a cyclone with a member of her fiancé’s family.
The story follows how surviving together changes what she believes about love, according to Deadline. After rescue, the pair return to a life shaped by wealth, family pressure and hidden truths, where the danger shifts from the island to the world waiting back home.
Deadline reported that the book’s island section stretches across 543 days, giving Apple TV a romance survival setup with a long fuse.
Apple makes a romance play
The deal puts Apple TV deeper into romance series territory, a space where Deadline noted the streamer has had a smaller footprint. Its existing titles in or near the genre include The Buccaneers, with Pachinko and Lessons in Chemistry touching parts of that lane, according to the report.
Yarros arrives with a built-in audience. Deadline reported that her Empyrean fantasy romance series, led by Fourth Wing, has sold more than 30 million copies. The third book in that planned five-book saga, Onyx Storm, was released on January 21, 2025, and Deadline said it broke records as the fastest-selling book of the past 20 years.
Yarros books are all over Hollywood
Peculiar Stars is only one of several Yarros titles moving through film and television development, according to Deadline.
Amazon MGM Studios has ordered a Fourth Wing TV adaptation to series, with Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society and Kilter Films producing and Meredith Averill serving as showrunner, Deadline reported.
Deadline also reported that Yarros’ 2021 romance novel The Things We Leave Unfinished is set up at Lionsgate, with Yarros executive producing, Arash Amel adapting and Thea Sharrock attached to direct.
Her romance novel In the Unlikely Event was sold to Netflix in a preemptive deal with Dylan Clark Productions producing, according to Deadline. The outlet also reported that Variation, her 2024 romance novel, is in development at Amazon as a feature with Higher Ground and Misty Copeland producing.
In 2025, The Last Letter sold to Amazon with Imagine producing, Anna Klassen writing the adaptation and Yarros executive producing, Deadline reported.
Yarros is a No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of more than 20 novels, according to Deadline. The outlet reported that she is represented by The Fury Agency, Weintraub Tobin and Untitled Entertainment.
This story draws on original reporting from Deadline.