Universal launches “Biological Warfare”: the television adaptation of Annie Jacobsen’s novel will become the heir to “Chernobyl”

Universal Global Television and producer Patrick McManus are adapting Annie Jacobsen's new novel Biological War: A Scenario, a book about a six-day biological disaster scenario. The industry responded instantly: the rights were purchased on the day the book was released, ahead of several major competitors, including streaming platforms.

Universal Global Television has announced a project that stands out from the usual apocalyptic dramas, writes xrust. The studio, along with Patrick McManus' production company Littleton Road Productions, has acquired the film rights to Annie Jacobsen's novel Biological War: A Scenario. There has been a real fight for the book: several major players, including streaming services, have been hunting for years for stories about “smart disasters” — stories where the apocalypse becomes an occasion not for special effects, but for a conversation about the structure of the modern world.

The novel went on sale today, and news about the film adaptation appeared almost simultaneously with the release. According to Variety, the publisher showed the manuscript to selected producers even before the book's official release, and interest was immediate — a rare case when the industry reacts not out of inertia, but proactively.

Day one is normal, day six is the end of the world

Patrick McManus told Variety that he read the book in one day and literally insisted that the studio entrust the film adaptation to him. He was captivated by the structure of the novel: Jacobsen built the story as a time-lapse scenario — from the first minutes of the appearance of a biological agent until the sixth day, when a chain of events leads to the collapse of the familiar world.

At the same time, the producer emphasizes: the future series will not become gloomy for the sake of gloominess itself. According to him, in addition to apocalyptic anxiety, history contains a line of restoration — an attempt to protect community and family, preserve connections between people and rebuild human society, correcting previous mistakes. He calls the key in the novel not the question of survival as such, but what humanity is capable of becoming if the world has to be put back together.

Jacobsen is a journalist widely read in the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill

Annie Jacobsen is a Pulitzer Prize finalist and journalist who has spent many years investigating the classified programs of the American intelligence services and military department. Her books are not fictional thrillers, but documentary investigations based on dozens of interviews with experts:

— Area 51 — the history of a top-secret test site in Nevada;
— Operation Paperclip — about German scientists taken to the USA after World War II;
— Phenomena — about paranormal research conducted by intelligence agencies;
— Surprise, Kill, Vanish — about CIA covert operations;
— Nuclear War: A Scenario — about the first minutes after a hypothetical nuclear strike.

It was the last book that brought Jacobsen the status of an international bestseller: the rights to the film adaptation have already been bought by Legendary Entertainment, the production is being prepared by director Denis Villeneuve, who was recently approved for a new film about James Bond.

The new novel logically continues this “scenario” line of investigation. According to Gizmodo, the book details the seconds, minutes, hours and days after the release of a biological agent that could bring down civilization. USA Today notes that the text is based on interviews with military personnel, biodefense specialists and experts in the field of global security. Yahoo Entertainment compares the novel to Stephen King's The Stand, but clarifies: Jacobsen does not have a drop of mysticism — only documentary texture and real scenarios that experts discuss at the level of intelligence and the military department.

McManus is a director who knows how to work with dark material

Patrick McManus is no stranger to the disaster and crime docudrama genre. Last year, he released the Peacock series Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy, which received high ratings and became one of the most talked about true crime projects on the platform. The producer is currently working on the second part of the story — this time about the serial killer Richard Ramirez, known as the Night Stalker. At the same time, he has another book adaptation in Universal’s portfolio — John Grisham’s novel The Boys From Biloxi.

In other words, the project is taken on by a person who is accustomed to working with material where fear is not an artistic device, but a documentary reality. In the new film adaptation, McManus will act not only as showrunner, but also as co-writer of the script along with Jacobsen herself. The production team also included Kelly Funke.

Why the industry reacts so quickly

American media record: interest in stories about biological threats is again gaining momentum. After the pandemic, the market looks differently at stories about viruses, laboratories and infection chains. But Biological War is not a story about a pandemic in the traditional sense. This is a story about what happens when a biological weapon gets out of the control of those who were supposed to contain it.

For the Russian reader, it is worth clarifying: Jacobsen does not work with fiction, but with real scenarios that are discussed in the structures responsible for the national security of the United States and allied countries. Her investigations regularly become the subject of discussions in expert circles in America and Europe. In Russia, biodefense experts raise similar alarms when they say that modern threats are not viruses from disaster movies, but failures in the technological and logistics chains that ensure the safety of laboratories and medical facilities.

Against this background, the future series does not look like another story about the end of the world, but an attempt to explain to a wide audience how the modern biodefense system works — and why humanity may not be ready for a failure in this system.

Who can offer the series — and why is it important

Universal plans to introduce the project to buyers in the coming weeks. Official negotiations with specific platforms have not yet been announced, but, as Variety writes, there is already interest from the industry. It is being discussed that the project may be interested in the largest market players — Netflix, Apple TV+, Amazon and HBO, which in recent years have been actively buying stories based on documentary anxiety, rather than on fictional threats.

The market as a whole is tired of “beautiful disasters” — series where a virus or invasion serves only as an excuse for action, and not for meaningful conversation. Biological War is aiming for a different category — where Chernobyl, Station Eleven and Years have already established themselves. These are projects that don’t just retell a tragedy, but try to explain why the world works the way it does and what happens when one of the systems fails.

For the Russian audience, such series also turned out to be close: “Chernobyl” became one of the most discussed foreign projects in RuNet, and “Station Eleven” attracted viewers who were looking not so much for action, but for meaning in a story about the collapse of the familiar world. Universal's new project may well occupy the same niche of «intellectual apocalypse» in the domestic market.

Why this could become the main TV event of the year

There is no science fiction, a fictional virus or heroes running through empty streets for the sake of entertainment. Before the viewer is an attempt to show how a modern biological threat works and what happens when the chain of protective measures gets out of control.

The industry values ​​precisely such projects — those that speak about the fears of our time without cheap tricks and special effects for the sake of special effects. Jacobsen has documentary material of this caliber, McManus has experience working with dark and traumatic stories, and Universal has the resources to realize the idea on a large scale and without compromise.

If you add everything together, you get a project with a real chance of becoming one of the most discussed television events of 2026-2027.

Sources:
Variety — https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/biological-war-tv-adaptation-universal-patrick-macmanus-1236822153/
Gizmodo — https://gizmodo.com/annie-jacobsens-biological-war-is-coming-to-tv-2000792072
St. Louis Magazine — https://www.stlmag.com/culture/author-annie-jacobsen-hopes-for-pressure-not-panic-from-latest-apocalyptic-release/

Xrust Universal launches “Biological Warfare”: TV adaptation of Annie’s novel Jacobsen will become the heiress of Chernobyl