Tomi Adeyemi, author of the bestselling novel Children of Blood and Bone, has described the film adaptation process as "the worst thing I have ever had to live through" in a roughly five-minute TikTok video posted on 30 July 2026 (The Guardian).

Adeyemi, who co-wrote the screenplay for the Paramount production, said she left the set "hyperventilating and sobbing." After returning to America, she suffered "severe somatic pain and so many panic attacks." The experience, she said, was "a reality that I've had to live with for about a year and a half" (The Guardian).

The film is directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood and stars Regina King, Damson Idris, Cynthia Erivo, Idris Elba, Tosin Cole, Viola Davis, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Lashana Lynch, Thuso Mbedu, and Amandla Stenberg, who portrays Princess Amari. A first trailer was released on Monday, 27 July 2026, with Prince-Bythewood speaking at an event to mark the occasion. The same week, she gave an interview to the Los Angeles Times (The Guardian).

Adeyemi posted the TikTok in part as a response to the trailer release and the film's ongoing marketing campaign. She said the people involved continued to "antagonise" her, and that "everyone involved, at least at the highest level, has been made aware of this reality, and they haven't done anything to make it better" (The Guardian).

The dispute extends beyond the production itself. A now-deleted TikTok video from Adeyemi appeared to show a group chat including Amandla Stenberg. In it, Adeyemi wrote to Stenberg: "Do not ever use my name in an interview or video again. Do not text me. Do not call me." Adeyemi also stated that she blocked Stenberg (The Guardian; Los Angeles Times).

Adeyemi had previously said she did not intend to watch the film. In the TikTok, she went further: "I knew it was so bad that I would never ever be able to watch this film, and I made peace with that." She closed with a blunt appeal: "I never want to hear about this project again" (The Guardian).

Variety published its own report on the dispute on 29 July 2026 under the headline "Children of Blood and Bone Author Tomi Adeyemi Left Film's Set Sobbing" (Variety). The Los Angeles Times published its article the same day (Los Angeles Times).

For fans of the novel, the film carries a cast that reads like an awards-season roster and a director with a proven hand in epic drama. But the author's very public rupture with the production means that every trailer drop and press appearance now arrives alongside the story of the person who created the world on the page — and who says she cannot bear to see it on screen.