HBO Already Has the Perfect 'Station Eleven' Replacement Dystopian Sci-Fi To Adapt

Published Oct 7, 2026, 11:15 PM EDT

Erin Konrad’s love for everything entertainment dates back to elementary school when she became obsessed with classic Hollywood musicals. When she’s not catching up on all her favorite television shows, she’s advising her friends and family on what they should binge watch next.

She has her Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. Creating content for Collider gives her the opportunity to combine her writing skills with her passion for television and movies. She spends her free time trying to beat her personal record of reading 137 books in a year and cuddling with her dog, Gracie.

There’s no doubt Station Eleven is one of the best sci-fi limited series ever made. Based on Emily St. John Mandel’s bestselling 2014 novel, the 10-episode show is a mostly faithful adaptation; four years later, we’re still thinking about its harrowing post-pandemic premise andcompelling characters. Mandel’s writing is rich with authentic, moving themes and creates stories that make us think about disturbing futures. After *Station Eleven *landed seven Emmy nominations and countless fans, it’s easy to argue that Mandel’s newest dystopian sci-fi novel is ripe for adaptation.

Exit Party, which hopefully won’t be as prescient as Station Eleven turned out to be, follows the story of a character who first popped up in Mandel’s 2010 novel,** The Singer’s Gun**. When we met Ari Waker in that book, she seemed to have disappeared after ordering the murder of her cousin. When *Exit Party *picks up, Ari has just been released from prison after nearly two decades. She was convicted for her paid assassination attempt, but the Los Angeles she returns to in 2031 is incredibly different than when she left.

The U.S. has been torn apart by a civil war, and there is no longer any semblance of normal. Ari ends up at a party celebrating the lifting of a citywide curfew, but strange events start occurring when she notices duplicate people milling around. These doppelgängers kick off a riveting sci-fi-fueled journey as we learn more about both Ari’s past and her future.

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