Skip to main content

Amazon has greenlit a TV series based on Naomi Alderman’s The Power

Amazon has greenlit a TV series based on Naomi Alderman’s The Power

/

A ten-part series to be ‘shot on location around the world’

Share this story

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Today was Amazon’s turn at the Television Critics Association, and during its presentation, it announced that it had greenlit a 10-part adaptation of Naomi Alderman’s 2016 novel The Power, in which women around the world suddenly gain the ability to electrocute people.

The story has drawn comparisons with Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale. In it, women around the world develop the ability to electrocute anyone they choose with a simple touch. At first, the ability is treated like an infectious disease, where women are quarantined as it passes from person to person. But before long, the condition spreads, and women around the world begin to seize power, electrocuting and sometimes killing the men in power who stand in their way. Amazon has not announced a release date or cast.

Image: Little, Brown & Co.

The story follows several characters: a girl named Allie, who kills her foster father and flees to a convent, where she becomes a quasi-religious figure; the daughter of a London crime boss, Roxy; Margot, a politician who sets up a series of camps for affected women to use their powers responsibly; Olatunde, a journalist who rockets to fame as he covers uprisings around the world; and Tatiana, a Moldovian woman who assumes the role of president and fends off a coup attempt from dissidents backed by Saudi Arabia.

The book was a huge hit when it came out three years ago, earning a spot on the New York Times bestseller list, winning the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction in the UK, and earning praise by the likes of former President Barack Obama. We called it one of the best books of 2017. The story is also an ideal fit for Amazon: in 2017, CEO Jeff Bezos issued a mandate to the company’s studio to bring in more dramas that holds “a global appeal.” Amazon says that the series “will be shot on location around the world,” and taps into highly relevant subject matter, especially in the #MeToo era. Given the acclaim that Hulu’s adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale has earned since it first debuted, it seems that Amazon is hoping that lightning will strike twice.