Peacock is bringing Kennedy Ryan’s Before I Let Go to television. The streaming service has handed out a series order for an adaptation of the novel, the opening book in Ryan’s Skyland series. The project arrives with a creative team built around the book’s author, filmmaker Malcolm D. Lee, and showrunners Attica Locke and Tembi Locke.

Ryan and Lee created the series and co-wrote its pilot. Attica Locke and Tembi Locke will serve as writers, executive producers, and showrunners, placing the pair in charge of shaping the project beyond its first episode. Universal Global Television and Universal Television are producing.

There is no cast, production timetable, premiere date, episode count, or specific Peacock availability information attached to the order at this stage. What is clear is that Peacock has moved beyond a development commitment: Before I Let Go is now set up as a full series, with the core producing and writing leadership already named.

A second-chance romance built around loss and family

The story follows Yasmen and Josiah Wade, a former couple whose relationship and household are reshaped by consecutive personal tragedies. Their marriage ends in divorce, and shared custody becomes the reality they must navigate. The premise is not simply about whether two people who once loved each other can reconnect; it centers on the difficult work that comes after a family’s life has broken apart.

Yasmen is beginning to rediscover happiness when continuing closeness to Josiah stirs up unresolved emotions. That proximity also reopens the pain both characters have endured. The central question is whether the Wades are truly ready to leave their former relationship behind—or whether the bond that remains can become the foundation for something new.

That framing gives the series potentially weighty terrain: grief, marriage, parenting after separation, healing, family responsibility, and the particular uncertainty of a romance that comes with history rather than a blank slate. A reunion story can easily become a simple will-they-or-won’t-they engine. Here, the established premise puts the harder questions ahead of the easier ones. Love mattered to Yasmen and Josiah, but it was not enough to prevent their lives from coming apart. Any path forward has to account for that.

For viewers who follow relationship-driven television, the project joins a crowded but flexible field. The best versions of this kind of drama tend to make the past an active force in every present-day choice. The Wades’ shared custody arrangement means neither character can simply exit the other’s orbit, which creates room for an ongoing emotional story rather than a one-time reconciliation plot.

Kennedy Ryan’s Skyland world moves to the screen

Before I Let Go is the first Skyland novel. Ryan has also published This Could Be Us and Can’t Get Enough in the series. Peacock’s order specifically concerns Before I Let Go; it does not confirm adaptations of the subsequent books. Still, the existence of a broader novel series gives the screen project a meaningful literary setting to draw from if the show establishes its own audience.

Related coverage includes Peacock Orders ‘Before I Let Go’ Series From Kennedy Ryan’s Skyland Novels.

Ryan’s involvement is especially significant because she is not only an executive producer but also a co-creator and co-writer of the pilot. That is a more direct role than an author simply licensing a book and stepping back. Lee said he connected strongly with the Skyland characters and their outcomes after reading the books, and described writing the pilot with Ryan as a rewarding collaboration. Ryan likewise characterized the onscreen adaptation as a long-held ambition and emphasized how much the characters mean to readers.

Authors taking part in a television adaptation does not eliminate the inevitable changes required by a different medium. Novels can live inside a character’s private thoughts for pages at a time, while a series must make inner conflicts visible through performance, dialogue, structure, and recurring situations. But Ryan’s role means the person who originated Yasmen and Josiah is present at a foundational stage of the adaptation.

It also makes the show a notable addition to a continuing wave of book-to-screen projects. Familiar titles can arrive with an invested readership, but the television version still has to work for people who have never opened the novel. The creative assignment is to retain the emotional specificity that drew readers in while making the show complete on its own terms.

The team behind the camera

Lee brings a filmography that includes The Best Man franchise and Girls Trip. His collaboration with Ryan on the pilot positions him as a key bridge between the book’s original voice and the show’s initial shape. Dominique Telson of Lee’s Blackmaled banner is also an executive producer.

Attica Locke and Tembi Locke take on the showrunner roles. Both have prior ties to From Scratch, while Attica Locke’s credits also include When They See Us. In their statement on the order, the Lockes pointed to the material’s themes of love, family, and healing, saying those are subjects they feel well suited to bring to the screen. That focus aligns closely with the central situation facing Yasmen and Josiah.

Mike Jackson and John Legend are executive producing through Get Lifted Film Co. Debra Martin Chase is also an executive producer through Martin Chase Productions. Together, the producing lineup pairs Ryan and Lee’s direct creative participation with the Lockes’ day-to-day series leadership and a group of established producers.

  • Creators and pilot writers: Kennedy Ryan and Malcolm D. Lee
  • Showrunners, writers, and executive producers: Attica Locke and Tembi Locke
  • Executive producers: Ryan, Lee, Dominique Telson, Mike Jackson, John Legend, and Debra Martin Chase
  • Production companies: Universal Global Television and Universal Television

Jackson and Legend praised the pilot written by Ryan and Lee, while highlighting the Lockes’ ability to navigate the characters and the story’s emotional layers. Their comments underline what the series will need to balance: a romance with considerable heart, but one anchored by loss and a family trying to find its footing.

Why the order matters for Peacock’s scripted slate

A straight-to-series order is a material milestone. It establishes that the project is being assembled for production rather than merely considered through a pilot or early development phase. It does not, however, answer many of the practical questions viewers often want first. Peacock has not announced who will play Yasmen or Josiah, when cameras will roll, or when audiences can expect to see the series.

Until those details emerge, the clearest way to view Before I Let Go is as a high-profile drama centered on a former married couple confronting whether their shared past can lead to a renewed future. The combination of an author involved in the creative work, Lee’s pilot collaboration, and the Lockes’ showrunning appointment gives the adaptation a defined leadership structure from the outset.

It is also a reminder that serialized television can be a natural format for stories about repair. A feature can capture a decisive emotional turn, but a series has the space to show the repetition involved in rebuilding trust: conversations revisited, boundaries tested, family obligations handled, and old wounds resurfacing at inconvenient moments. Whether Before I Let Go leans toward a limited, tightly focused arc or a longer-running drama has not been specified, but its premise has the ingredients for intimate character storytelling.

Fans waiting for more television adaptation news can keep an eye on other ambitious genre projects, including the latest details on Marvel’s VisionQuest. Peacock’s newly ordered drama is operating in a very different emotional register, but both projects show how much a series’ identity depends on the people chosen to guide it before audiences ever see a trailer.

What has not been announced

For now, viewers should be careful not to read unconfirmed details into the series order. The announcement does not identify performers, directors beyond the creative personnel already listed, filming locations, a release window, or whether the other Skyland novels are formally part of Peacock’s plans. It also does not say how closely every event in Ryan’s novel will be translated to the show.

Those unknowns are normal at this point. The information available paints a focused early picture instead: Before I Let Go will be a Peacock series based on Kennedy Ryan’s first Skyland novel, developed by Ryan and Malcolm D. Lee, with Attica and Tembi Locke leading the show as showrunners. Its emotional core is Yasmen and Josiah Wade’s attempt to live with what they have lost and decide what, if anything, remains possible between them.