Warrior Nun Adaptation Coming to Netflix

Manga fans rejoice! Warrior Nun will be adapted into a new ten-episode series as part of Netflix’s increased science fiction slate. Inspired by the Warrior Nun Areala manga novels created by Ben Dunn, Warrior Nun revolves around a 19 year-old woman who wakes up in a morgue with a new lease on life and a divine artifact embedded in her back. She discovers she is now part of an ancient order that has been tasked with fighting demons on Earth, and powerful forces representing both heaven and hell want to find and control her.

Whether or not the 19-year-old protagonist will be modeled directly after Sister Shannon Masters from the graphic novel remains to be seen, and the dropping of the name “Areala” may indicate a change from the original mythology involving the angelic origins of the warrior nun’s powers. However, the supernatural battle between good and evil that is at the story’s core should remain intact.

Warrior Nun is being brought to the small screen by creator and showrunner, Simon Barry, who is known for his breakout hit Canadian time travel series, Continuum, and who recently produced a short-lived, supernatural series for Syfy called Ghost Wars. He is joined on the production side by Terri Hughes Burton of The 100 and Eureka, and Amy Berg of Counterpart fame will be on board as a consulting producer.

The Warrior Nun manga is an American title that began in 1994, and it ran for most of the following decade under different writers. The series was not without its controversy for its portrayal of religious iconography in a less than pious context, but many of the central storylines that revolve around a cold war of sorts between heaven and hell, if the Netflix series mines those arcs, seem ripe for the picking.

The announcement that Warrior Nun is in development joins other such news from Netflix, which include orders for October Faction, The I-Land, The Order, Wu Assassins, Locke & Key, V Wars, and Another Life.

Michael Ahr is a writer, reviewer, and podcaster here at Den of Geek; you can check out his work here or follow him on Twitter.