Why "Ancillary Justice" Poses Unique Challenges for Screen Adaptation
By Published Apr 12, 2026, 4:45 PM EDT
Faith Roswell is a Senior Writer on Screen Rant's Classic TV team. Since earning her degree in Creative Writing over a decade ago, Faith has written articles on film and TV from a variety of different angles. Faith now combines her knowledge of psychology with her love of monster movies to give more insight into what makes the best ones.
You may have read her Screen Rant lists and features covering horror, sci-fi, and fantasy, or read her Amazon Top 10 book, "Movie Monsters of the Deep."
Faith has had an extensive career as a writer, appearing on BBC live radio, researching true crime for Rotten Mango podcast, and writing for publications including Mental Floss, Atlas Obscura, and The Daily Jaws before beginning here at Screen Rant.
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Of all the many storytelling genres, sci-fi can undoubtedly be one of the most ambitious and complex. Unlike fantasy, which can often explain many plot points with magic, many . For example, The Expanse TV show was regularly praised by astrophysicists for its attention to scientific concepts, and Star Trek even influenced real-life innovation.
Unfortunately, the very thing that makes the sci-fi genre unique can stand in the way of great novels being adapted for the screen. The storylines can be so mind-bending and philosophical that even the often have to leave out details or drastically simplify the story. This problem is one reason why Ann Leckie's excellent novel has not been adapted.
Leckie's debut novel, Ancillary Justice, is the first in her Imperial Radch trilogy, which is set in thousands of years in the future, where spaceships control AI-powered human bodies as extensions of the host ship's mind. These "ancillaries" are used as soldiers and are all referred to as "she." The story follows the last survivor of a ship, who meets another survivor on an ice planet.
Why Ancillary Justice Is So Hard To Adapt In Live-Action
While the idea of a hive mind has been brought to the screen in Vince Gilligan's Pluribus, this is shown through the eyes of the human protagonist. On the other hand, Ancillary Justice's protagonist, Breq, is a final remaining fragment of a larger consciousness. Conveying this, especially in a nonlinear timeline, would likely require a lot of exposition and setup before the events can happen.
At the time of writing, none of Ann Leckie's novels have been adapted for the screen.
The main characters in Ancillary Justice's world are also gender blind, meaning that they do not differentiate between each other on the basis of gender. This is illustrated by the fact that they not only refer to each other as "she" but struggle to identify other characters by gender. This is a complex concept even in today's society, and would be difficult to reflect through actors.
It is likely that a TV show with a character that uses just one pronoun for the other characters would be a challenging adjustment. Breq even struggles to conceptualize gender, which is a fascinating idea in a book but very hard to translate visually in our gendered society, as we naturally differentiate people based on visual cues.
The biggest obstacle in the way of an Ancillary Justice adaptation is simply the English language. Many world languages, like Hungarian, Turkish, and Farsi, do not use gendered pronouns, and so an adaptation of the epic space opera would likely make more sense and be easier to understand in a language without these, as Breq would naturally use the same pronoun for everyone.
What Happened With The Planned 2010s Ancillary Justice TV Adaptation
Despite being a daunting task, it was decided that this unadaptable , and the novel was optioned for television in October 2014, just a year after it was published. Ann Leckie had a major role in the development and discussion, and expressed concern over how the genderless Radchaai characters could be portrayed.
Sci-fi is often one of the most forward-thinking and progressive genres, and it appeared that Leckie wanted to continue the good work done in sci-fi. With many of the characters having dark skin, she was also adamant that she intended the casting to reflect this, without the show being whitewashed. Unfortunately, then announced that the adaptation had "collapsed."
Ancillary Justice has won the sci-fi "triple crown," the Hugo, Nebula, and the Arthur C. Clarke awards.
Leckie said that despite scripts, casting, and designs being worked on, the project was no longer going ahead, saying that "The person who had intended to make the show was, I think, nearly as disappointed as I was." That said, some for screen, so there may still be hope for Ancillary Justice one day.
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