The novel was previously due to be a series at HBO.
In 2020, HBO and Warner Bros. announced that they’d be developing Ibi Zoboi’s Pride into a series, but it ultimately never came to pass. After the options expired, Netflix snapped at the opportunity to develop the title into a movie, which is currently in early development at Netflix with Alloy Entertainment and Obama’s Higher Ground Productions producing.
We first became aware of the project in early August 2024, although development was thought to be incredibly nascent then. Hence, we’ve been holding off on reporting. Today, Deadline was the first to report that the movie is in the works.
Ibi Zoboi’s novel Pride was first released in September 2018 and is dubbed a Pride & Prejudice “Remix” in that it adapts the famous Jane Austen novel with a “timely update.” The goal of the update is to include modern issues of cultural identity, classics, and gentrification. Zoboi is also known for other novels, including American Street, Punching the Air, Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America, and Star Child: A Biographical Constellation of Octavia Estelle Butler.
Karen Joseph Adcock (The Bear) is writing the adaptation, which falls under Netflix’s extensive overall deal with Obama’s production company. They’re behind numerous scripted and documentary titles for Netflix, including Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution, Becoming, and American Factory. Alloy Entertainment, which is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Television, is best known for franchises like Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars, and The Vampire Diaries.
The official synopsis for the novel is as follows:
“Zuri Benitez has pride. Brooklyn pride, family pride, and pride in her Afro-Latino roots. But pride might not be enough to save her rapidly gentrifying neighborhood from becoming unrecognizable. When the wealthy Darcy family moves in across the street, Zuri wants nothing to do with their two teenage sons, even as her older sister, Janae, starts to fall for the charming Ainsley. She especially can’t stand the judgmental and arrogant Darius. Yet as Zuri and Darius are forced to find common ground, their initial dislike shifts into an unexpected understanding. But with four wild sisters pulling her in different directions, cute boy Warren vying for her attention, and college applications hovering on the horizon, Zuri fights to find her place in Bushwick’s changing landscape, or lose it all.”
The news of this adaptation comes just a week after it was reported that Netflix is also developing a Pride & Prejudice TV series (which we just revealed our dream cast for today). Before that, Netflix had planned to release a project called The Netherfield Girls starring Never Have I Ever’s Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, although the development of that has been silent since 2021.
