EXCLUSIVE: Prime Video, the home of YA hits The Summer I Turned Pretty, Maxton Hall and Culpables and sprawling fantasy The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power, is looking to mix the genres with Powerless, a series in development at Amazon MGM Studios.
Like The Summer I Turned Pretty, Maxton Hall and Culpables, Powerless is based on a YA book trilogy, Lauren Roberts’ Powerless (2023), Reckless (2024) and Fearless (2025).
A “romantasy,” Powerless is being adapted for TV by Daphne Ferraro who served as head writer on the breakout first season of German series Maxton Hall. The project, whose first season will follow the first novel, comes from Will Gluck‘s Olive Bridge and Lyrical Media who acquired the rights to Roberts’ books last fall.
Powerless is set in the kingdom of Ilya where the Elites reign supreme with their breathtaking powers—and hunt those without. Paedyn Gray, a powerless Ordinary, has spent years scraping by as a thief in the slums, hiding in plain sight after the King had her father executed.
But when she inadvertently saves the life of Prince Kai, the cruel King’s second son and designated Ordinary hunter, she is thrust into the kingdom’s prestigious Purging Trials — a savage competition promising glory, riches, and a spotlight she has fought her whole life to avoid.
The fascinating yet lethal Prince is dead-set on winning the trials Paedyn can barely hope to survive – but soon the two realize that the biggest challenge they will have to face might just be withstanding the irresistible pull between them, a connection as profound as it is unthinkable…
Ferraro serves as creator and showrunner. She executive produces with Gluck, Madison Jones, and Jacqueline Monetta via Olive Bridge; Alex Black, Jon Rosenberg, and Natalie Sellers via Lyrical Media; as well as Roberts.
Prior to her stint on Maxton Hall, which became Amazon MGM Studio’s biggest international original series launch to date, Ferraro was a writer on Season 2 of Netflix’s Dark and wrote the screenplay for Katja von Garnier’s feature film Fly.
Roberts’ debut YA novel Powerless spent 19 weeks at #1 on the New York Times Young Adult Bestseller List, fueled by its popularity on TikTok’s BookTok and YouTube’s BookTube. It sold over one million copies in its first nine months of publication and became a Barnes & Noble 2023 YA Book Award winner.
Olive Bridge Entertainment’s recent credits include hit feature comedy Anyone But You, adult animated comedy Chicago Party Aunt for Netflix and Woke for Hulu, which won the Rose D’Or International Television Award for Best Comedy.
Lyrical Media’s upcoming projects include The Death of Robin Hood, starring Hugh Jackman, Jodie Comer, and Bill Skarsgård, and Funny Story, an adaptation of Emily Henry’s bestselling romantic comedy.
