As Prime Video prepares to take the Powerless trilogy from page to screen, the fantasy series already has one major advantage that can help the series sidestep the mistakes of past fantasy franchises, such as Game of Thrones. Written by Lauren Roberts and published between 2023 and 2025, the fantasy novel trilogy consists of Powerless, Reckless, and Fearless. Powerless explores a world divided between the trodden-on and villainized Ordinary and the Elite, empowered individuals who sit in the higher classes of society.
At the center of Powerless is Paedyn Gray, an Ordinary forced into a life of crime due to the circumstances of her birth, as she unsuspectingly rescues Kai, one of the Kingdom of Ilya’s princes. Because of this act, she is thrown into the Purging Trials, a violent competition where the Elites are set to prove themselves as the more powerful beings, bringing her back into contact with the prince as she fights to survive. Prime Video acquired the rights to adapt the Powerless trilogy in 2025, with Maxton Hall‘s Daphne Ferraro set to serve as showrunner.
Prime Video’s Powerless TV Show Is Adapting A Completed Book Trilogy
Roberts Has Already Resolved Her Tale
As one of the latest novels spanning out of the emerging Romantasy genre, Powerless has already accumulated a strong and supportive fan base. It is confirmed that season 1 will focus solely on bringing the events of the first novel to screen, despite the streamer having acquired the rights to all three novels with its initial deal. As such, there is already much anticipation about Prime Video’s announced plans to do the series justice when making Paedyn’s journey a reality.
The Powerless Show Will Avoid Repeating Game Of Thrones’ Biggest Problem
Game of Thrones Quickly Adapted Martin’s Works
With past examples of adapting books to the screen, there is a common obstacle that certain series have faced due to wanting to capitalize on the popularity of a recent hit. While iconic novels such as The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia had long wrapped by the time they were brought to screens in the 2000s, newer publishing hits have found themselves brought to screens as the series is still ongoing. This can be seen with franchises including Percy Jackson and The Hunger Games, but one infamous example can be found in the realm of television.
While there is a 15-year gap between the time of George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice of Fire‘s publishing in 1996, and the release of its HBO adaptation Game of Thrones in 2011, the series was far from complete. At the time of writing, Martin is still writing The Winds of Winter, the sixth novel of the overall series, while a seventh novel titled A Dream of Spring is planned to follow. However, within 4 years, the series had already caught up to the published novels.
In 2015, HBO aired Game of Thrones ​​​​​​season 5, which sought to adapt the events of the fourth and fifth novels, A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons. While Martin did provide insight into the events and revelations planned to feature in The Winds of Winter, it marked a turning point for the series, as the show became more reliant on the writing of showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. As such, the series began to drift from Martin’s planned narrative, subsequently also becoming less well-received.
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Game of Thrones‘ ending has become infamous for the fates it assigned many of its key characters, harming the franchise in the eyes of viewers for several years until House of the Dragon reintroduced Westeros to audiences. With Martin indicating that The Winds of Winter had been revised in 2020, it is evident that not only has the series outpaced its original source material, but that he did not share Benioff and Weiss’ vision. With the series having already wrapped, Powerless has no risk of drastically changing from its source material’s ending.
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The Trilogy’s Latter Books Are Controversial
That isn’t to say that Powerless‘ faithfulness to the source material won’t cause its own problems. The second novel, Reckless, has been critiqued as being a slower and less eventful novel, while despite only releasing in April 2025, Fearless has proven to be divisive among fans. The conclusion of the trilogy has been criticized as derivative of other recent hit novels, including The Hunger Games, while certain twists have been highlighted by readers as unnecessary, upending their feelings towards the entire trilogy.
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As it is unclear how involved Roberts is in the production, it is unknown whether she will have a significant part behind the scenes. However, should she be involved in the writing, it is possible she could amend the most controversial elements with rewrites or additional context. Furthermore, should the series incorporate the events of the side-story novellas into the Powerless television series, they may be able to please audiences by giving certain fan-favorite characters a greater role.
