*Bestselling author Kennedy Ryan’s emotionally layered romance “Before I Let Go” is officially headed to Peacock, and the team bringing her “Skyland” world to television reads like a serious gathering of Black Hollywood creative power.
Peacock has ordered the drama to series, with Universal Global Television and Universal Television producing. Ryan and “The Best Man” filmmaker Malcolm D. Lee created the adaptation together and co-wrote the pilot, while Lee will also direct and executive produce, per the news release.
For Ryan, the greenlight turns a long-awaited adaptation into something much more tangible.
“Getting the chance to bring the ‘Skyland’ series to life onscreen is a dream come true,” Ryan said in the series announcement. “These characters have meant so much to so many readers, and none of this would be possible without the people who have supported my work for years.”
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Yasmen And Josiah Get Another Shot At Love
“Before I Let Go” centers on Yasmen and Josiah Wade, a couple whose marriage couldn’t survive a pair of devastating losses.
Divorce follows, but their lives don’t neatly separate. They’re still raising their children together, and as Yasmen begins reclaiming happiness for herself, being around Josiah keeps feelings alive that neither may have completely put behind them.
The central question isn’t simply whether two exes will reconcile. Ryan’s story explores what happens when grief changes a marriage, healing takes people in different directions, and love remains after the relationship supposedly ends.
It’s that emotional complexity that attracted Lee to the material.
“From the time I read Kennedy Ryan’s ‘Skyland’ series, I was fully engaged in the lives of these characters and invested in their outcomes,” Lee said. “Adapting the pilot with her has been an absolute treasure to experience and we plan on bringing all the feels to her fans and her new TV family.”
Attica And Tembi Locke Will Run The Series
The talent behind the camera extends well beyond Ryan and Lee.
Sisters Attica Locke and Tembi Locke will serve as showrunners, writers and executive producers. Attica’s television credits include “When They See Us” and “Little Fires Everywhere,” while Tembi is the author of the memoir that inspired Netflix’s “From Scratch.”
“We could not be more thrilled to bring Kennedy Ryan’s ‘Skyland’ series to life,” the sisters said. “We love and feel uniquely suited to bring books about love, family and healing to screen.”
Dominique Telson will executive produce through Blackmaled, while John Legend and Mike Jackson are executive producers through Get Lifted Film Co. Veteran producer Debra Martin Chase is also aboard through Martin Chase Productions.
Legend and Jackson praised Ryan’s story as an exploration of “love, loss, family and the possibility of finding your way back to one another,” while calling Attica and Tembi Locke ideal creative partners for the adaptation.
A Beloved Romance Makes The Jump To Television
Ryan’s “Before I Let Go” was published in 2022 and launched her “Skyland” series, which has built a devoted readership around contemporary Black characters navigating romance alongside complicated adult realities.
That makes Peacock’s order notable beyond the familiar book-to-screen pipeline. At its center is a Black divorced couple dealing with parenting, grief, emotional recovery, and the possibility that a broken marriage doesn’t necessarily mean the love disappeared with it.
The series also arrives with Ryan directly involved in shaping that transition rather than simply watching Hollywood reinterpret her characters from the sidelines.
Peacock has not yet announced casting for Yasmen and Josiah or revealed a premiere date.
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