TV adaptations of video games are gathering steam. Netflix successfully adapted Castlevania and The Witcher into successful shows. This has encouraged other studios to jump on the bandwagon as well. Adapting a successful video game into a show has its own pros and cons. On one hand, the show will already have a brand equity attached to it due to the popularity of the video game. It will have a fan following even before the first trailer drops. On the other hand, it will be under immense pressure to live up to the high expectations set by the video game.
With the release of Halo, a military science fiction tv show based on the X-Box video game franchise of the same name, around the corner, let’s take a look at three highly anticipated video game adaptations:
1) HBO’s The Last of Us
The Last of Us is based on the video game of the same name developed by Naughty Dog. The Last of Us is a third-person action-adventure survival horror video game created exclusively for PlayStation 3 and was later remastered for the PlayStation 4.
The series takes place 20 years after modern civilization has been destroyed. The series is based on Joel, a hardened survivor, who is hired to smuggle Ellie, a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone across a post-apocalyptic United States.
Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian, Wonder Woman 1984) and Bella Ramsey (HBO’s His Dark Materials and Game of Thrones) will star as Joel and Ellie. The series will be written and executive produced by Craig Mazin (HBO’s Chernobyl) and Neil Druckmann, of The Last of Us and Uncharted video game franchises.
The release date of the show has not been announced yet. HBO and HBO Max Chief Content Officer Casey Bloys had last provided an update saying the show is expected to be aired in 2023 and is not going to air this year.
2) Amazon’s Fallout
Fallout is a role-playing video game developed and published by Interplay Productions. The game features a post-apocalyptic and chiefly retro-futuristic setting, taking place in the mid-22nd century decades after a global nuclear war.
Like the video game on which the show is based, the world of the Fallout show is one where the future envisioned by Americans in the late 1940s explodes upon itself through a nuclear war in 2077.
As per a Variety report, Walton Goggins has been cast in a lead role. Apart from this, not much is known about the cast of the show.
Nolan and Lisa Joy’s Kilter Films, creators of Westworld, are set to be executive producers as part of their overall deal with amazon. Nolan is also set to direct the premier of the show. Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner are co-showrunners. Bethesda Game Studios’ Todd Howard and Bethesda Softworks’ James Altman are also on board as executive producers.
The show is set to begin production in 2022 with no clarity on release date as of yet.
3) Netflix’s Assassin’s Creed
Assassin’s Creed is an open-world action-adventure stealth video game franchise published by Ubisoft. The Assassin’s Creed games depict a fictional millennia-old struggle between the Assassins, who fight for peace and free will, and the Templars, who desire peace through order and control.
Back in October 2020, Netflix officially announced that they’d be teaming up with Ubisoft (for new projects under the Assassin’s Creed franchise. Netflix plans to have multiple plans for the franchise. The deal includes multiple different series, the first of which will be a live-action epic, while the others will be animated and anime adaptations.
Ubisoft’s Jason Altman and Danielle Kreinik are serving as executive producers on the live action series. It was later announced that Jeb Stuart, who co-wrote Die Hard and The Fugitive, among other films, has boarded the show as well. Jeb Stuart will serve as a writer on the series.
As is the case with other shows, no release date has been announced for the show.
Fans of TV shows adapted from video games will be closely awaiting release details of the above shows. For now, they can look forward to the release of Halo on March 24th, 2022. Halo will be available to stream on Voot Select in India.