Five years after the final Harry Potter book hit shelves, author J.K. Rowling published her first post-Potter book. Not only was this her first book published since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, but it was unrelated to the Potter universe and targeted at adults, rather than children and young adults. The greatly anticipated novel received mixed reviews, but given Rowling's success and popularity, not to mention the success and popularity of her fantasy series, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that her new novel will be adapted. Only, instead of a feature film, The Casual Vacancy will be made into a TV series.
The story of the novel follows the characters living in a town of Pagford where a local election is being held following a sudden death. EW reports that BBC is set to adapt the novel for a TV series. At this point, what's known is that Rowling will collaborate on the series, and the aim is to get it on the air in the U.K. at some point in 2014. Not only is there no set premiere date, but there's also no set amount of episodes. And no current plans to get the series on the air stateside.
The Casual Vacancy is among the stack of to-be-read books lined up in my Kindle, so I can't comment much on the content of the novel yet, but from what I've heard about it, particularly in that it focuses on a number of characters as they deal with the approaching election and how it affects the town, it sounds like a story that might be better suited for a TV drama than a feature film.
As for when we'll see it in the U.S., as mentioned, there are no plans for it to air stateside. But perhaps Netflix or one of the other streaming video services will pick it up, whether or not one of the U.S. networks does, as I'm sure there are plenty of Rowling fans who would like to see the show.
