‘Shadowhunters’ Star Holly Deveaux Leads New Enemies-to-Lovers Romantasy Rom-Com ‘Romantasy & Ruin’

It seems that you can't walk into a bookstore these days without seeing half a dozen fantasy trilogies titled The Something of A Thing & Another Thing. Now, a new romantic comedy is taking a satirical look at the romantasy phenomenon—while still keeping the romance in the picture. Collider is proud to exclusively announce that Romantasy & Ruin is now in production in scenic Quinte West, Ontario.

The movie will feature an odd-couple pairing of characters thrown together by circumstance. Darcy (Holly Deveaux, who starred in the fantasy series Shadowhunters) is the bestselling author of An Account of Romantasy and Ruin, a best-selling trilogy of novels that's about to get a big-budget Hollywood adaptation; she's already written up a screenplay to take to the movie's producers. Connor (Jesse Rath, Supergirl's Brainiac-5) is a Silver Bear-winning filmmaker who can barely conceal his contempt for the romantasy genre—and he's just been hired to write the movie. Now, sparks are going to fly as this enemies-to-lovers duo have to work together to get this project off the ground, even as it goes from movie trilogy, to premium cable series, to streaming series, to vertical micro-drama.

In addition to Deveaux and Rath, Romantasy & Ruin also stars Damian Romeo (Ginny & Georgia), Brett Geddes (The Boys), Foad HP (Mayor of Kingstown), Sana Asad (Kim's Convenience), Farleena Khan (Ripple), and Trevor Martin (Odd Squad). Melissa D'Agostino (The Christmas Witch Trial of Le Befana) will pen the script; she will also co-direct with Matt Campagna (Six Days to Die) and act in the movie. It's a production of HighballTV and Hitsby Entertainment. Romantasy & Ruin is now in production; Collider has an exclusive behind-the-scenes production still below.

What Is Romantasy?

A portmanteau of "romance" and "fantasy," romantasy has existed since the Middle Ages in the form of ballads and poems like Le Morte d'Arthur, and progressing through William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene. However, the modern romantasy genre was dubbed as such on BookTok, the literary subsection of social media video blogging site TikTok. Book series like Fourth Wing and A Court of Thorns and Roses have garnered a great deal of popularity there.