In 2014, Kwame Alexander published The Crossover, a novel written in verse about two basketball-loving brothers navigating adolescence, diverging interests and their evolving family dynamics. The book soon garnered accolades, including the Newbery Medal, given annually to the most distinguished American contribution to children's literature.
Now an eight-episode series based on the novel is coming to Disney+ on April 5. Is this the first time a novel written in verse has been turned into a television series?
"Yes, let's claim it!" Alexander says laughing during a recent chat with TelevisionAcademy.com. Alexander, also the author of Swing and The Door of No Return, says it was the Newbery Medal that started to attract the attention of production companies. "Then it was just a matter of finding the right partner to mesh with my vision. The Disney brand is all about family and imagining a better world and our place in it so that union just made sense."
Although the story features two teenagers as its central characters (Josh and Jordan Bell, played by Jalyn Hall and Amir O'Neil, respectively), Alexander, who is executive producer and coshowrunner on the series, sees it as a series for everyone. "When I wrote The Crossover, my intent was not to write a middle-grade novel. It was to write a really good book that I would have loved to have read when I was twelve years old and I would love to read now. I've written about these kids and their journey crossing over from young adulthood to becoming these young men, but certainly it's a book, it's a story, it's a TV series that the whole family can enjoy."
The series — narrated by Daveed Diggs (Hamilton, Snowpiercer), who executive produces along with NBA great LeBron James — employs creative narrative devices, such as flashing forward in time and featuring the book's original poems. "We want to do some things that haven't been done in television," he says. "How do we put our stamp on it so when folks watch they say, 'I've never seen that before.' We really took that matter seriously and I think we came out with something pretty unique."
Alexander says poetry is a great foundation for television writing because both poems and scripts have "white spaces" where not everything is revealed. "Poetry lends itself to moments [that can be highlighted] to create narratives on screen. Writing a poem is a basic building block to a lot of genres of literature."
Bringing The Crossover to the small screen meant inviting the writers' room into the story and embracing narrative changes. The end of the pilot episode, for example, features a significant plot twist that wasn't in the novel. "That was one of those moments where a writer pitched that and my first instinct was, 'Whoa! Whoa! That never happened in the book. We can't do that.' And, of course, that happened a lot in the room and I got used to it. This is the next iteration of the story. At heart I'm a collaborative artist so I love working with other people, especially people that are smarter than me that I can learn from."
At the same time, everyone involved with the series was committed to staying true to the source material. "They said, 'We trust you to make sure the spirit of the book stays alive. We may take away some of your words but we are going to give you the soul of the story and we are going to rely on you to make sure it stays there."
"Ultimately it's a balance between listening to other people's ideas and viewpoints and taking what is going to help and not taking what's not going to help. It's like riding a bicycle. You've got to find that balance," Alexander says. "We all wanted the show to pop a wheelie. That's our goal."
The Crossover is produced by 20th Television for Disney Branded Television. Kwame Alexander, Damani Johnson and Kimberly A. Harrison serve as executive producers and coshowrunners. The SpringHill Company's LeBron James, Maverick Carter, Jamal Henderson and Lezlie Wills also executive produce alongside George Tillman Jr., Bob Teitel, Robert Prinz and Jay Marcus of State Street Pictures, and Daveed Diggs, Todd Harthan and Erin O'Malley.
