News If We Were Villains M.L. Rio’s If We Were Villains To Be Adapted for Television Rio’s other novels include 2024’s Graveyard Shift By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on March 3, 2026 M.L. Rio photo credit: Helenna Santos Comment 0 Share New Share M.L. Rio photo credit: Helenna Santos The effort to adapt M.L. Rio’s 2017 mystery thriller If We Were Villains for television continues. According to Deadline, the Barnz—a producing team that includes Daniel and Ben Barnz, and their daughter, Zelda—are now developing an adaptation to pitch to various networks and streamers. If We Were Villains was an international bestseller, but here’s the blurb for the book in case you haven’t had a chance to read it yet: Oliver Marks has just served ten years in jail—for a murder he may or may not have committed. On the day he’s released, he’s greeted by the man who put him in prison. Detective Colborne is retiring, but before he does, he wants to know what really happened a decade ago. As one of seven young actors studying Shakespeare at an elite arts college, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingenue, extra. But when the casting changes, and the secondary characters usurp the stars, the plays spill dangerously over into life, and one of them is found dead. The rest face their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, and themselves, that they are blameless. This isn’t the first effort to adapt the novel. Back in 2022, writer Kristina Lauren Anderson was involved in an adaptation helmed by production studio Eleven. A Deadline source, however, called the Barnz’s effort “the strongest creative momentum for the project to date.” An adaptation would be welcomed by many, including Reactor’s social media manager, who had this to say about the news: “I want six episodes. I want it to be dark and moody. I want it to be a little bit bad. I don’t want to recognize a single face on the screen.” Time will tell whether those dreams will come true; no news yet on casting or if/when the project will be pitched out. [end-mark] The post M.L. Rio’s <i>If We Were Villains</i> To Be Adapted for Television appeared first on Reactor.