‘It’s equal parts exciting and terrifying’: how authors are being influenced by their fans | Books | The Guardian

Luke Jennings

British author, dance critic and journalist, whose 2017 book Codename Villanelle was the basis for the BBC's Killing Eve TV series

My latest novel, #Panic, was inspired by an online chatroom, and a group of TV superfans. Five years ago, I knew little or nothing of this niche world, and wouldn't have dreamed of trying to write about it, but in April 2018, Killing Eve premiered on BBC America.

I had written the stories on which the show was based, and soon began to be contacted online by fans of the series. Most had questions about Eve and Villanelle: they wanted backstory details and inside information on characters who, in just a few weeks - a tribute to Phoebe Waller-Bridge's inspired screenwriting, and the brilliant acting of Jodie Comer and Sandra Oh - had become very real for them.