The 'Children of Blood & Bone' Cast Is Stacked to the Rafters

When the first installment in the "young adult romantic fantasy" Legacy of Orïsha trilogy, Children of Blood & Bone, was published in 2018, it already had a deal with a major studio to turn the story into a feature film. Despite the first installment of the series being Nigerian-American author Tomi Adeyemi's debut, the West African fantasy series was a hot property, and landing at 20th Century Fox was a big coup. Or it was; within weeks of the novel's publication, it was announced Disney would purchase Fox, and the project suddenly found itself stuck in development hell over at Lucasfilm, which currently can't even greenlight a Star Wars movie, during a pandemic that was shuttering projects.

Luckily, by the time Disney let the rights lapse at the end of 2021, Adeyemi was thoroughly done trying to get Lucasfilm to make her movie and was ready to shop around and put herself at the head of the team. Paramount Pictures swooped in and snatched up the project, with Adeyemi on board to adapt her own work and director Gina Prince-Bythewood (The Woman King) set to helm.

It's been a year since that last announcement, but Adeyemi and Prince-Bythewood haven't let things lapse. As filming gears up, the production has announced a full dozen cast members, a virtual who's who of Black America and Black British acting royalty., starting with the four central characters: South African actor Thuso Mbedu (The Underground Railroad), British actors Tosin Cole (Doctor Who) and Damson Idris (Snowfall), and American actress Amandla Stenberg (The Hunger Games).