EXCLUSIVE: Lionsgate Television is developing Witch Season, based on Julia Bianco‘s upcoming romantic contemporary fantasy novel, with Bruna Papandrea‘s Made Up Stories on board to executive produce.
Bianco’s debut novel will be published on June 30 by St. Martin’s Press in the U.S. and Headline Publishing Group in the UK as part of a two-book deal.
Bianco will pen the adaptation and executive produce. A search is on for a showrunner. Casey Haver, Steve Hutensky, Jeanne Snow and Papandrea executive produce through Made Up Stories. Lionsgate Television is the studio.
Here is the book’s official synopsis per publisher St. Martin’s Press: “Katherine Barnes is an enforcer, charged with upholding the rules of the notorious Los Angeles-based Aestas coven. It’s her job to maintain order and bring unsettled witches – people who aren’t aware they have magic until it explodes out of them in a catastrophic burst – into the coven’s fold. As a former unsettled witch, Katherine owes her life to Sylvia Page, coven leader and silver-haired rebel who founded Aestas years ago.
When Silas Khatri, heir to Noctis, the most powerful coven in the world, arrives to take Aestas to task for some of their more unconventional practices, Katherine’s dislike for him reaches blistering levels. She hates his money, his good looks, his coven’s dangerous attitude towards unsettled witches. She can absolutely overlook that he sets her off in more ways than one.
But a powerful threat is about to rise. Stronger than any one coven. More insidious than the decades-long power struggle that exists in the hidden witch world. One that will pull Katherine and Silas together despite their differences. And one that will lead to an all-out war.
Bianco is currently staffed in the writers’ room on an upcoming project from Fifth Season and Made Up Stories, and was one of four writers selected for Fox Entertainment’s 2025 Writers Incubator. She previously served as assistant to showrunner David Hemingson, director Jon M. Chu, and as the assistant to showrunners Amy Pocha and Seth Cohen on HBO Max’s Head of the Class, executive produced by Bill Lawrence. Her writing has appeared on Chapters, MTV News, Funny or Die, Screenrant and Looper, among others. She is a graduate of Boston University’s Master’s in Television program. Bianco is repped by CAA and Artists First.
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