invisible manWith Halloween just around the corner, various forms of entertainment are flooded by scary and supernatural things. From ‘It’ to ‘It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown’ to ‘Hocus Pocus’, our programming is bursting with stories meant to give us a bit of a fright. So considering what time of year it is, a network announcing a project based on the Invisible Man does seem incredibly apropos. Although, while this may be pretty disappointing to some of our readers to hear, this article isn’t about the traditionally spooky kind of invisible man. Although, it’s scary to think that things in this story actually happened in our country.

According to Variety, Hulu has started developing a new series based on the seminal novel ‘Invisible Man’ by Ralph Ellison, which follows an unnamed African-American narrator that believes that he is invisible to everyone around him because of the color of his skin as he recounts the events from his life that saw him grow up in the South before making his way up to New York City. Before this news broke, the streaming service reportedly had acquired the rights to the award-winning and critically acclaimed landmark piece of American literature from 1952 earlier this year from the Ralph and Fanny Ellison Charitable Trust. While there is currently no writer, director, or star attached to the project, Ellison family friend and literary executor John Callahan is on board as an executive producer.

This news comes after Hulu has garnered some major success with their previous literary adaptations. In addition to bringing the works of Stephen King to life with the miniseries ’11.22.63’ and the upcoming ‘Castle Rock’, the streaming service won eight Primetime Emmy Awards for their take on Margaret Atwood’s feminist dystopian novel ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ starring Elisabeth Moss. Depending on whether they get the right people working on it, it’s easy to see how ‘Invisible Man’ could also reach the same level of success considering the various themes in the story and how they would apply to the social landscape of the world today.

What do you think about Hulu adapting Ralph Ellison’s ‘Invisible Man’ for television/streaming? Who would you like to see get involved both in front of and behind the camera? And do you think audiences will be as receptive to this story as they were to the network’s other literary adaptations? Share your thoughts and theories in the comments.