Film or TV (planned or optioned)
In December 2004, Phobos Entertainment acquired media rights to the novel and announced plans for a feature film and video game based on it.[67] As of 2024, nothing has come to fruition. In early 2017, the novel was picked up for production by Critical Content as a television limited series with Le Guin signed on-- at the time, before her death-- as a consulting producer.[68] As of 2024, nothing has come to fruition.
Theater and radio
In 2013, the Portland Playhouse and Hand2Mouth Theatre produced a stage adaptation of The Left Hand of Darkness in Portland, Oregon.[69] On April 12 and 19, 2015, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a two-part adaptation of the novel, starring Kobna Holdbrook-Smith as Genly Ai, Lesley Sharp as Estraven, Toby Jones as Argaven, Ruth Gemmell as Ashe, Louise Brealey as Tibe and Gaum, Stephen Critchlow as Shusgis, and David Acton as Obsle. The radio drama was adapted by Judith Adams and directed by Allegra McIlroy.[70] The adaptation was created and aired as part of a thematic month centered on the life and works of Ursula Le Guin, in honor of her 85th birthday.[71][72] The first university production of Left Hand of Darkness premiered in the University of Oregon's Robinson Theater on November 3, 2017, with a script adapted by John Schmor.[73] Many works of the transgender artist Tuesday Smillie exhibited at the Rose Art Museum take inspiration from the book.[74][75]
