Tomi Adeyemi, the woman who penned the popular African fantasy book, “Children of Blood and Bone” in 2018, has done something that so few Black authors have. She wrote an extremely successful book that garnered a huge fanbase and, just a few short years later, met with some of the top producers in Hollywood to adapt it for the big screen.
After a competitive bidding war in 2022, Paramount would walk away with the deal, and Adeyemi was set to write and executive produce the film. Things would only look up even more when the end of 2023 rolled around, and famed director Gina Prince-Bythewood signed on as director.
From there, the author’s vision to bring her world to life on the silver screen became even more of a spectacle once it was announced that a stacked roster of A-list stars had all signed on to make the project. Those famous faces included Damson Idris, Idris Elba, Viola Davis, Regina King, Cynthia Erivo and more, all of whom were announced in their respective roles at the top of 2025.
Fast forward to mid-2025, and it seemed as if filming was going according to plan and things were panning out beautifully for the film. In a June 2025 interview for the Quiet Conversations podcast, Adeyemi even expressed how excited she was during filming, raved about how “beautiful” certain scenes of the film were, praised director Prince-Bythewood for “putting her all” into the movie, and for how intentional she was about getting the production as close to the book as possible.
Related: Children of Blood and Bone Black All-Star Cast Revealed
“I promise you, this world is beautiful, and we’re all in it, and it’s so beautiful to me,” she said in part at the time.
She later added: “I think people will be very proud. I support [director] Gina [Prince-Bythewood], and she has put her all into this. She is one of the hardest-working people I know. She signed her deal on a Saturday; we were on a three-hour call on Sunday. Every day before we filmed a scene, she goes back to the book to read the scene.”
It would seem then, that all the right things had fallen into place and this beautifully Black film was poised and ready to be yet another box office sensation, akin to “Black Panther.”
However, fast forward to July 2026, and those dreams of a successful movie have now been threatened thanks to some unsettling comments from Adeyemi that point to there potentially being some trouble brewing behind the scenes. Now, in a move that’s shocking everyone inside and outside Hollywood, she’s publicly denounced the film in not one, but two videos. And what she has to say, her tone, and demeanor are all a complete 180 from the joy she felt just one year ago.
But how exactly did we get here? Well, the answers for now are pretty vague, yet alarming at the same time. However, the contrast between her past excitement and her complete repulsion of the forthcoming film is now sending shockwaves all over and causing a whole lot of chatter online.
The latest post from Adeyemi came in an all-new video posted on Wednesday. In it, she described the hard time she experienced while making the movie and said that she left the set “hyperventilating and sobbing.” She also explained that when they came back to America (they shot the film in South Africa), she suffered “severe, somatic pain.” What was perhaps her most shocking claim, though, was that she was still being “antagonized” by people who worked on the film behind closed doors.
“I knew it was so bad that I would never, ever be able to watch this film. And I’m at peace with that. But as it is being marketed and as I am still being antagonized behind the scenes, which is where I hoped all of this would stay, it’s become apparent to me that that reality needs to be made known,” Adeyemi said. “So that you guys can understand how this film, which I worked on to make it a little better for us to be alive, is also the worst thing I’ve ever had to live through.”
She continued by saying that she wished this all could’ve been left behind the scenes, but that her suffering was feeling worse by not speaking up about it. The author concluded by saying that she didn’t want to speak about the film, the people involved, or anything related to it moving forward, as she prepares to release her next book.
However, despite how concerning she appeared in her video, it didn’t seem to faze a lot of people online once they got wind of it. In fact, it made more than a handful of folks on social media feel skeptical as they felt she wasn’t really saying anything, but was instead bringing more drama ahead of the highly-anticipated film’s January 2027 release.
Over on Threads, one person explained their POV, writing in part: “May catch some backlash, but that video Tomi posted felt hella performative. She said she hopes to leave all this drama behind the scenes, yet was the one who brought it to light!”
They continued, “Then wanna say she don’t wanna talk about it cause it was too traumatic and wants to move on? If you gon tell it, then damn tell it. Don’t get on here, dropping breadcrumbs, letting folks run wild with speculation and misinformation and then be like ‘actually this is too much!’”
Another person questioned: “Now that the trailer for Children of Blood and Bone is out, I’m even more curious what Tomi Adeyemi saw/experienced that made her disown the movie because at least visually and how they are presenting the story, it’s so far so good to me.”
“I had to watch this twice to make sure I didn’t miss it, but she was saying a whole bunch of nothing for five minutes with these dramatic pauses and not looking at the camera,” wrote one user on X/Twitter.
“Oh this lady is so annoying and hypocritical. If everything was okay from start to finish, why is she throwing a tantrum now? I hope they never work with her again. Completely unprofessional,” said another.
One other user wrote, “I don’t want to be dismissive of her experience. Because maybe something really bad did happen. But being this vague invites all kinds of speculation, which may not be fair to the cast and crew of this project, particularly the director Gina Prince-Bythewood.”
Added another: “It’s such a twist, as the enthusiasm here was genuine and infectious. It has to be something pretty serious, to go from this to complete upset and detachment.”
Adeyemi’s new video comes just weeks after she previously spoke out and officially distanced herself from the film. As we told you earlier this month, while she failed to explain her exact reason for doing so (similar to the vague info she presented in the aforementioned video), she did post a TikTok video with screenshots between her and one of the film’s stars, Amandla Stenberg. In it, you could clearly see Adeyemi tell Stenberg not to “ever use her name in an interview or video again,” not to call or text her ever again, and subsequently blocked her.
“I have not seen the film, and I will not watch it. It’s been painful holding this back from you all. And I’m sorry if any of you thought I didn’t care. I will always care about US, more than any glitter,” the author said at the time.
Neither Prince-Bythewood nor any of the cast have publicly responded to Adeyemi’s claims. But she and star Thuso Mbedu are set to preview exclusive footage of the film as well as participate in a panel at the upcoming Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival (MVAAFF) beginning Aug. 7. We don’t doubt that all eyes will be glued on what they’ll have to say in light of these current circumstances.
“Children of Blood and Bone” is set to hit theaters on Jan. 15, 2027.
