Orphans of Mossflower, the 23rd Redwall novel, is scheduled for release on Sept. 7, 2027, with Brian Jacques billed as its author. It’s a posthumous addition to his fantasy series, though details about the manuscript and how it was completed have not been disclosed.
A new boxed set containing the other 22 novels is due out alongside it. The releases are tied to Redwall’s 40th anniversary: the series first appeared in the U.K. in 1986, followed by its United States debut a year later. The 2027 publication therefore marks 40 years since the American launch.
Jacques’ original run spanned 25 years, from 1986 to 2011. The Rogue Crew arrived in 2011, three months after his death, and has remained the final published entry for 15 years. For more than a decade, though, readers have had a specific reason to suspect another book existed in some form: a character-naming contest whose winning character never appeared in that final novel.
Publisher Penguin held the contest in 2010, giving one fan the chance to name a character in the next Redwall book. When the winner shared details in 2015, fans noticed that the character was missing from The Rogue Crew. That discrepancy fueled the theory that Jacques had worked on a 23rd installment.
The character was Reisa Kartwell, a cartographer. According to details the contest winner supplied to the Redwall wiki, “her map depicting efficient travel paths proves invaluable when the Redwallers must quickly reach Salamandastron when Redwall is under attack.” Those details offer a possible clue to the new book, but they aren’t an official synopsis.
No official plot synopsis for Orphans of Mossflower has been released. Jacques’ last several novels took place consecutively, while earlier books jumped around the Redwall timeline. That pattern gives some basis for speculation that the new novel could directly follow The Rogue Crew, but its place in the chronology remains unconfirmed.
Mossflower Woods is a recurring setting in the series, with Redwall Abbey its most notable landmark. The new title suggests that the Abbey’s residents might have to leave their home, an interpretation that fits the contest winner’s account of an attack and a hurried journey to Salamandastron. That’s still an inference, not a confirmed description of the story.
The book’s announcement also follows the cancellation earlier in 2026 of Netflix’s planned screen adaptation. Over the Garden Wall creator Patrick McHale had been slated to develop the Redwall adaptation, but the Netflix projects were canceled.
More details about the book will likely emerge as publication approaches. An official synopsis would help establish whether Reisa Kartwell’s map finally has a place in a published Redwall adventure. Information about the manuscript would answer a separate question: how Jacques’ previously unpublished work reached this release.
