Is Damsel based on a book?

As fans eagerly wait for Millie Bobby Brown’s new movie Damsel to premiere, many may be wondering if the film is based on an existing book.

Millie Bobby Brown is returning to Netflix in a less strange way, as she’s set to lead the platform’s new original film Damsel.

While Brown is no stranger to action-packed roles, this movie is a bit of a change of pace for her as she has been thrown into a much more medieval setting.

However, as fans eagerly wait to see Brown back on the small screen, many have wondered if her new movie is based on an existing book, so here’s everything we know.

Is Netflix’s Damsel based on a book?

Yes, Damsel is based on a novel of the same name by New York Times best-selling author Evelyn Skye.

Skye released her novel on April 18, 2023, which was part of a collaboration with Netflix and Random House Worlds as the movie version of her work was set to release in October of the same year.

Unfortunately, due to some delays, Netflix’s Damsel was pushed back to this year, but the book still released on time to glowing reviews as it currently sits at almost four stars on Goodreads.

In an unusual twist, the book was actually inspired by the movie’s screenplay which was written by Fast X’s Dan Mazeau.

“The easiest way to think about it is this: Dan Mazeau wrote the original screenplay. I was able to read an early draft and was given free rein to write my own version of the story, which ultimately became the novel. Both the novel and the movie may stem from the same origin, but they are also each their own unique works of art,” Skye explained in a statement obtained by The Hollywood Reporter.

Skye continued stating that she and the Damsel film team took turns “[riffing] off each other’s ideas, building details from the novel into the movie and vice versa, while also preserving our own versions of the story in our respective mediums.”