'The Mortal Instruments': New novellas and a TV show are coming

'Mortal' author Cassandra Clare is writing a new series of novellas set in the world of the 'Mortal' books, while the books themselves are reportedly being adapted as a TV series.

Fans of Cassandra Clare’s multiple book series set in the world of her “Mortal Instruments” novels are about to get new material on multiple platforms.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Clare is working with authors Robin Wasserman, Sarah Rees Brennan, and Maureen Johnson for novellas that will be released in e-format. They’re titled “Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy,” which refers to the location where many of the books’ characters learn how to fight otherworldly beings. 

One novella will be released every month.

“Wrapping up the ‘Mortal Instruments’ series was a hugely emotional time for me,” Clare told EW. “It was so hard to let the characters go, but I felt I’d left them in good places. All except Simon – his ending was unconventional and open for more story. I knew I wanted him to go through the training process to become a Shadowhunter, something we haven’t really seen… The stories will follow Simon, but also flip back and forth in time so you can expect to see Jace and Clary, Will and Jem, Tessa, and Emma – characters old and new!”

Clare’s series “The Mortal Instruments” concluded this past May with the book “City of Heavenly Fire.” She has also published a trilogy, “The Infernal Devices,” that was set in the same universe as the contemporary “Mortal” books but which took place in the Victorian era. The first book in her forthcoming series “The Dark Artifices,” which will be set in the same fictional world, is set to debut in 2015. The series “The Bane Chronicles” is a group of novellas centering on the character Magnus Bane from the “Mortal” series. Johnson and Brennan worked with Clare on “Bane.”

Meanwhile, the world of “Mortal” is reportedly coming to TV. The first “Mortal” book, “The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones,” was adapted as a film that was released in 2013 and now, according to the Hollywood Reporter, “Unforgettable” producer Ed Decter will be the showrunner for a TV series based on the “Mortal” books.

“It actually makes sense to do [the novels] as a TV series,” Constantin Film film and TV head Martin Moszkowicztold the Hollywood Reporter. (Constantin has the rights to the “Mortal” books and produced the movie.) “There was so much from the book that we had to leave out of the Mortal Instruments film. In the series we'll be able to go deeper and explore this world in greater detail and depth.”