Netflix is developing a series based on Alix Harrow's The Everlasting
The series is now in development
One of my favorite reads of 2025 was Alix E. Harrow's novel The Everlasting. It's a great fantasy about a historian named Owen Mallory who's tasked by the leader of the fascist-leaning Dominion, to write the definitive origin story for his nation. There's a bit of a twist: he's sent back in time to accompany the nation's heroine, Una Everlasting, to witness her exploits and contemporaneously write the legend.
Things get a little complicated from there: he falls in love with Una, and begins to realize that there's more to his mission than he was told: by observing and documenting her story, he's changing and transforming it, often to suit the needs of the future that he came from – a future that's slipping more and more into totalitarianism.
Andrew Liptak
As I noted in my review, it's a book about how origin stories and history can be manipulated for political gain, and as we're approaching the semiquincentennial anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, it's a book with a message that's worth reflecting on.
And maybe soon, a streaming series. Variety reports that Netflix is putting a series in development based on the novel. Screenwriter Daphne Ferraro (Dark, Maxton Hall) has been tapped to write and produce the project, with Harrow serving as Executive Producer. Over on Bluesky, Harrow expressed her excitement: "i keep trying to find a chill or ironic way to post this and there is simply nothing chill about it!!! ahhhhHHHhhhhhhhh!!!!!"
There's a long way to go before – or if – this ends up on Netflix's platform. Development is the first step in a long process that takes the story and begins the process of turning it into a show: there might be a writer's room to generate scripts or concept art, details and elements that will provide the streaming service with enough information about the show to get it to a point where it can be greenlit and put into production.
But: it's a first step, and it's exciting an exciting development for the process. It's a fine novel, and I can see this playing out well as a series. Hopefully, it'll make its way through the gauntlet and onto screens without too many issues.