Over the years, Gina Prince-Bythewood has earned a reputation for treating beloved books with the care they deserve. From The Secret Life of Bees to The Old Guard, she’s been able to translate beloved source material to the screen—that’s because she respects the craft, and obviously, she’s a master at what she does. Her latest project may be her biggest challenge yet: Children of Blood and Bone, the long-awaited adaptation of Tomi Adeyemi’s bestselling 2018 fantasy novel.

Published to widespread acclaim, Children of Blood and Bone quickly became one of the most celebrated young adult novels of the past decade. Inspired by West African mythology, the story follows Zélie Adebola, a young woman determined to restore magic to the kingdom of Orïsha after it is violently erased. The novel debuted at No. 1 on The New York Times Best Sellers list, earned multiple literary honors, and launched a trilogy that captivated readers around the world.

Now, Prince-Bythewood brings Orïsha to life with one of the year’s most impressive ensembles. Thuso Mbedu leads the cast alongside Damson Idris, Amandla Stenberg, Tosin Cole, Viola Davis, Cynthia Erivo, Idris Elba, Regina King, Lashana Lynch and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Filmed in South Africa, the production reunites Prince-Bythewood with many of the artists and craftspeople she worked with on The Woman King, while composer Terence Blanchard returns to score another epic collaboration.

Prince-Bythewood also co-wrote the screenplay with Adeyemi, an experience she says became one of the film’s greatest strengths. “I spoke to her about my vision of how I wanted to approach it, of bringing all of us into this incredible fantasy world to allow all of us to see ourselves reflected beautifully and heroically,” she told ESSENCE. “It was from that moment that we were completely aligned on vision.”

Ahead of the film’s release, Prince-Bythewood spoke with ESSENCE about adapting Adeyemi’s beloved novel, assembling its star-studded cast, returning to Africa and bringing the world of Children of Blood and Bone to the big screen.

ESSENCE: Congratulations on the upcoming film, Children of Blood and Bone. It’s highly anticipated, and I’m really excited for it to finally hit theaters. What made you want to direct this particular film, and what connected you to the story?

Gina Prince-Bythewood: What’s actually fascinating is that I was approached twice before over the last seven years to make this film and I turned it down both times. I don’t know. I think one time I was doing The Woman King and the other time I think I just wasn’t ready. But I guess “the third time is a charm,” as they say. And this time when I read the book, I just felt so connected to this young hero’s struggle to find her purpose and so inspired by her courage and her resilience and her fight. And I started to see the film and when that happens, I know I have to make it. After The Old Guard and The Woman King, I knew how to make it. I think that was a big part of it as well. This is a huge epic fantasy with a beautiful cultural specificity and it was a gift, and I am so grateful that I got to be the one to bring this incredible world to life.

On the second occasion when you felt as though you weren’t ready, could you expound on that a bit? Also, why did you feel as though you were ready the third time? 

GP: I think it was both things. I think I needed to know how to make this film because this film is huge and all the things that come with that. And I didn’t know if I was emotionally ready as well because there was something about me reading the book this time that I just felt so connected to the lead character. And that’s a beautiful thing. Again, that’s what I need to take on a film. I need to have that guttural connection. And I think every film I’ve taken has come at a time where I needed it and just this time I needed it.

One of the things that really excited me when I was doing research for this interview, was that Terence Blanchard would be composing the score for the film. What made him the right person to create the music for this story?

GP: Terence is a genius and we had such an incredible collaboration on The Woman King. He created a score that had just never been done before. We both felt like we had started this beautiful musical conversation that we wanted to continue and there was no other person I was going to go to for this. Also, the songs within this score are all Afrobeats. And with Terrence creating a score that married both traditional orchestral with African instrumentation, it just created this thing that people haven’t heard before. And he was the only person that I felt could do that.

Film adaptations have always been really interesting to me. I wanted to ask you, how do you balance staying true to the original novel while bringing your own vision to the film? 

GP: Honestly, it’s easy for me. This is my fourth adaptation and my respect for authors is always my north star. For me, the book is always the Bible. It’s not a blueprint. There’s a reason why people fell in love with the book and I’m no different. And so I’m of course going to honor the source material that everyone fell in love with. And this is a book that I loved. Now that’s not to say this wasn’t hard. I mean cracking this was a beast; five writers and two studios before me were unable to crack it. But the second I read the book, I started to see the film and just felt so deeply inspired by this vision of how to bring it to screen. This film is beautifully inspired by Nigeria and inclusive of the whole diaspora. I get to create this fantasy world and I wanted all of us to be able to see ourselves in this world, the full breadth of us, our full humanity, every beautiful hue, because I truly believe that’s where our magic lies. The beauty of this process is that Tomi and I were aligned in that vision. So, this film is a true celebration of the Black diaspora from the story to the casting to the world building designs, costume, action, choreography, music, all of it.

You brought up casting—which leads me to my next question. Children of Blood and Bone is probably one of the most expansive casts as far as star power that I can remember in recent years. How did the cast come together and what is your process when choosing who to play each particular role? 

GP: This is an epic ensemble. I watch the film sometimes and I’m like, “How did we do this?” When the first cast announcement went out, someone tweeted that “we’re stacked like the ‘96 Bulls.” And it’s true. This is the best of the best. I’m so fortunate. I reached out personally when I came aboard this film. I reached out personally to Lashana, Regina, Viola, Chiwetel, Cynthia and Idris. And some of them I’ve worked with before. Others through the years we’ve talked about having a desire to work with each other and just asked them, “Hey, do you want to come play in this incredible sandbox?” They all recognize foremost the beauty of the script, but also the rarity of a film like this. This film is one of one.

The chance to do something that hadn’t been done before excited everyone. The chance to work with each other, that excited everyone. And then with our four young heroes, I knew as soon as I got this gig that Thuso was going to be Zélie. She is a generational talent, and was so phenomenal in The Woman King. I met with Damson. It was the first time I met him and immediately I saw our Prince. And now having worked with him, he is absolutely our next. With Tosin and Amandla, they both read and both were undeniable. They’re just such special talents. And Amandla has this innate vulnerability that makes you care. With those four especially, I needed to trust that they were going to put in the insane amount of work that it would take to embody these characters to be able to do their own fighting and own stunts because that’s so much a part of my process when I take on a film like this, an action film, and they looked at me and promised that they would, and they absolutely did.

I love that. You co-wrote the screenplay with the author Tomi Adeyemi. What was the collaborative process like?

GP: So as I said, this is my fourth adaptation and my approach to it is foremost, I want the author to love what we do. We’re all here because of what came out of their brain. And so in collaborating with her, it started with the script and she had written the first draft and then I came aboard and took over the draft and wrote my vision. And it’s always funny, every single time I do it, it’s always the scariest person to show the script to the author. But as it has been in the past, she loved it. And then from that point on, I really brought her into the process I think more than I actually have in the past. And just because it was exciting to be able to have this experience, it’s a miracle to get any film made, but to get this film made is an absolute true miracle. 

There was just such excitement from her about everything. It was fun to share. And that’s getting her thoughts on casting and sharing the production design and the costume and the fights, just everything she loved. And I wanted her to be excited by every element and to be able to have that beautiful collaboration. It meant a lot to me. 

How did you two know that the film was “ready?”

GP: It happened early on with our first meeting. I spoke to her about my vision of how I wanted to approach it, of bringing all of us into this incredible fantasy world to allow all of us to see ourselves reflected beautifully and heroically. It was from that moment that we were completely aligned on vision. And that just continued through the script process when I would show her the artwork, which was always exciting, costumes, fights, etc. Everything that I was showing her and creating to build this world, she was enthralled by. And that’s inspiring as a director because again, we’re here because of something that came from her and we want to honor that. And so to get her co-sign on this was everything.

I wanted to talk about the film’s beautiful backdrop, which is Africa. You filmed The Woman King in Africa as well. What was it like returning to that beautiful continent to make Children of Blood and Bone? 

GP: There was no question that we were going to shoot this on the continent. There’s such beauty there and a connection there. That’s the most important thing, the connection. As I said, this film is beautifully inspired by Nigeria, but it’s a fantasy world where I got to create a new magical land and I knew I could do it there. Also, I had worked with such incredible people in South Africa and to bring so many of them back to tackle this, which was even bigger, really wanted to build on that experience. And one of the beautiful things that I’m most proud of from The Woman King and now Children of Blood and Bone is that when we got there, we created a whole new stunt community because we needed that for The Woman King. So, training people who were athletes and dancers, and turning them into stunt performers and giving them another opportunity to do something really special and shine, that was just incredibly meaningful to me.