When it comes to book-to-TV adaptations, we’ve been having a great time of it recently. From Dolly Alderton’s Everything I Know About Love to the upcoming Netflix adaptation of Lady Chatterley’s Lover and Paramount+’s The Flatshare, some of our most beloved novels (whether classic, new or otherwise) have been getting the small screen treatment – and we’re totally here for it.

One of the absolute classics now coming to our screens as a new series is Kindred. The Octavia E Butler book is not only a magnificent genre-defying tale of time travel and enslavement but it’s also a groundbreaking analysis of the past and present. Basically, it’s a sci-fi masterpiece and is continually acknowledged to as one of Butler’s best.

So it’ll come as no surprise to hear we were overjoyed when news emerged that Kindred was being adapted for FX, and now we finally have a release date for the upcoming series.

With that, here’s everything you need to know. 

According to Deadline, the new series will centre on Dana James (Mallori Johnson), “a young Black woman and aspiring writer who has uprooted her life of familial obligation and relocated to Los Angeles, ready to claim a future that, for once, feels all her own”.

The synopsis continues: “But before she can settle into her new home, she finds herself being violently pulled back and forth in time. She emerges at a 19th century plantation, a place intimately linked with Dana and her family. An interracial romance threads through Dana’s past and present, and the clock is ticking as she struggles to confront secrets she never knew ran through her blood.”

If you’re a fan of the novel, the synopsis hints that it’ll be sticking quite close to the original plotline, but we’re intrigued to see how it’ll all play out on the small screen. 

Kindred stars Mallori Johnson (WeCrashed) as Dana James, Micah Stock (Bonding) as Kevin Franklin, Ryan Kwanten (True Blood) as Thomas Weylin, Gayle Rankin (Glow) as Margaret Weylin, Austin Smith (Russian Doll) as Luke, David Alexander Kaplan (Jerry & Marge Go Large) as Rufus Weylin, Sophina Brown (Shark) as Sarah and Sheria Irving as Olivia. 

Not yet. However, in a recent FX trailer for its slate of upcoming shows, we do get our first glimpse of the series among other clips from series including The Patient, The Bear and Fleishman Is In Trouble. Watch it here: 

FX also revealed the first official poster for the series, and with it confirmed a December release date that, frankly, can’t come soon enough. 

The series will premiere exclusively on Hulu in the US on 13 December and will be made available on Disney+ under the Star banner in the UK and all other territories. While an exact release date for Disney+ is yet to be confirmed, we’ll be sure to update you once we know more.

Watch this space. 

Images: FX; Getty