The Revival of Book-to-Screen Adaptations: Why They’re Gold for New Actors

Have you ever watched a film and searched it up after to find out all you can only to realise that it was a book first?
Book-to-screen adaptations are arising to screen more and more recently and some of the best films have stemmed from books, ‘Shawshank Redemption’, ‘Lord of the Rings.’ Growing up in the 2010s my favourite films were all books before they were films, Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Little women to name a few. And even now, the newest films I have watched in the past couple of months have all been based on books 'Hamnet', ‘Wuthering Heights’, and ‘The House Maid’. 2026 has many more books lined up for the cinema, the one I’m most looking forward to is The Hunger Games- Sunrise on the Reaping coming November 2026.

These book adaptations not only bring a big audience for the film but also bring a spike in profit for the book and the author. People who have read the book go and watch the film and then people who watch the film go and buy the book. It's a win-win situation. 

In recent years Tiktok has had a massive influence in reading and buying books. Bringing big audiences to many popular books, creating big fan bases even before they get picked up by studios. Making these films into adaptations will get lots of advertisements and big audiences to go and watch the film. This is amazing for new and upcoming actors. The audience is there. You don’t need a shining name to bring in the audience, the title and the author does that already, so casting new actors in these adaptations gives them the opportunity and exposure that will lead onto many more opportunities. 

Alice Oseman's graphic novel Heartstopper, now a Netflix series, brought big opportunities to new actor Joe Locke. Heartstopper was his first on screen performance. Playing Charlie Spring opened him up to many roles on screen and on stage, recently playing Billy Maximoff in Marvel. Just one example of why casting new actors in book adaptations is really important, it gives new faces opportunity and exposure that the bigger actors don’t need. 

Book-to-film adaptations featuring child actors are the best for emerging talent in young actors, franchises like Harry Potter and The chronicles Narnia gave opportunities to the actors in life changing roles, that meant a lot to the fans off the book series, those actors will always have had piece in that franchise and dedicated fans of the series will follow those actors and support them throughout their career. 

Popular books have a fan base, a community of people that have an attachment to the story, the characters, which are transferred to the film production, cast announcements, press tours and so on. Casting an unknown actor allows this actor to enter an existing community that is going to kick start their career and change their lives. 

Book adaptations allow for better performance and character development. The books go into detail, backstory, and character arcs, you can learn a lot about a character through reading the book, it gives the actor playing the role another layer to the character, they have entire chapters from the character point of view and not just the scripts to go from. This gives new upcoming actors a chance to fully immerse themselves in the character giving a truthful performance that will allow them to show off their full potential. 

Other adaptations need to follow from this lead. I believe that Wuthering Heights missed an opportunity for casting new faces for Heathcliff and Cathy. The franchise is already big and doesn't need the big names to bring in the audience. Casting new upcoming actors would have been an opportunity to show off. But it’s not only Wuthering Heights that have casted high end top actors, Colleen Hoover's most recent book to screen adaptations have had many big names, and so did the Housemaid and Hamlet. I understand the fact that at the moment the best films are all coming from books and they still need work, however some books that are massive online should try and cast newer people, opening the door to new talent.
 
Suraj Sharma’s screen debut was in book-adapted film ‘The Life of Pi’, after attending a casting with more than 3000 people, he landed the role of Pi Patel with zero acting experiences, leading to his life changing. Even with an unknown actor the film still won an Academy Award, but gave Suraj an opening door to be discovered. Showing you don’t need big names to make a film successful.  

There is a risk to taking on these big roles with massive fan bases. The pressure to get it right. When a book has thousands of readers, it comes with expectations to get it right, there will be lots of people watching to make sure that the character looks and acts exactly the same as they imagined. Fans will judge whether the actor matches and will be able to pull off what they envisioned. This can be a big responsibility for new actors and this could change how a whole fan base perceives them. 

Harry Potter is a big one of the biggest book-to-screen adaptations, giving many of the cast and crew opportunities to kick start their careers, in the 2000s it was one of the most successful film franchises and probably still is. However with this new HBO series coming to screens next year, there are lots of people thinking it is unnecessary and not enough time has passed for them to reboot it. There is going to be extreme pressure for these young actors to live up to the standard that the Harry Potter fans hold. Will the story be too similar to the films? Or will they stick even more to the books than the originals? There is no doubt that this series will be a huge starting point for all the cast involved expanding their careers and being known to the world. But is it too soon?     

This trend of turning books into films isn't slowing down and probably won’t in years to come. Reece Weatherspoon has a production company where she turns books into screen adaptations, ‘Daisy Jones and The Six’ and ‘Gone Girl’ and will continue with this. Taking Books and turning them into screen adaptations seem to be the way production companies are going into the future.  

Literature has always had a massive impact on screen, with lots of films taking from classics, themes, and characters. I always say the best films come from books. The next best blockbuster film may be sitting on your book shelf, so get ahead of the game, read and stay updated with the reading world. There are thousands of books out there that are waiting to be turned into screen adaptations.     
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Author

Jess Green