Pop culture news for readers: March 25, 2026

Here's how pop culture and literature have been intersecting lately ... 

• If We Were Villains, the 2017 novel by M.L. Rio, is being adapted for TV (Deadline). 

• Maya Hawke, most recently of Stranger Things fame, will play investigator Judy Luptack in Netflix's adaptation of The God of the Woods by Liz Moore (Deadline). 

• See which singers will be starring in various adaptations of classic literature (Book Riot).

• Filming on the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings trilogy — starring Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins — began in 1999, but Wood has just now begun reading the books (Entertainment Weekly).