An animated Overwatch TV show, as well as Diablo, seems to be in the works if President of TV at Activision Blizzard Nick van Dyk’s LinkedIn profile is any indication. His profile lists him as “Executive producer of Diablo, a TV adaptation of Blizzard Entertainment’s IP, rendered in anime style. The show is currently in pre-production for distribution through Netflix.” As for Overwatch, the profile states “with my creative partner, developed and sold an animated series based on Blizzard’s Overwatch franchise.” Neither have been officially announced or confirmed by Activision Blizzard in any capacity.
Video game films have historically done poorly from a critical standpoint, but after the success of Neflix’s animated Castlevania series, as well as the live-action The Witcher show, interest seems to be turning towards new era of video game shows. Both Castlevania and The Witcher have been renewed for additional seasons, with the former due out in March. It’s unknown exactly when we’ll see the return of Geralt of Rivea on Netflix, but it will be at least the beginning of 2021 before his adventures continue.
Overwatch and Diablo both have video game sequels in the works, as well, but Blizzard has yet to announce when we’ll get to play them. Overwatch 2 was announced at Blizzcon 2019 and is expected to release for PS4, PC, and Xbox One in the future (PS5 and Xbox Series X haven’t been confirmed but are expected). Diablo IV was announced at the same event and is also in development for current generation hardware (also expected as a next-gen release in some capacity, though unconfirmed). If we are, in fact, getting TV shows based on both franchises, Blizzard might be trying to time their releases with the launch of the new games.
Although video game film adaptations have had a troubled history, the recent Sonic the Hedgehog film is performing well at the box office, with the best opening weekend in for a video game movie in North America ever. It currently holds a 65% “Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which is high compared to other adaptations, trailing only Detective Pikachu. The Uncharted film that has been in development hell for the better part of a decade has gone through numerous directors and release dates throughout its production. Perhaps TV is the way to go when it comes to adapting video games to film.
[Source: LinkedIn via IGN]
