Halo, The Last of Us, Twisted Metal: The flurry of game-to-series adaptations isn’t slowing down any time soon. The latest video game in development as a series is Sony’s Horizon Zero Dawn, which is in development at Netflix.
Here’s Sony’s summary for Horizon Zero Dawn (the game):
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The City Inside
In an era where Machines roam the land and mankind is no longer the dominant species, a young hunter named Aloy embarks on a journey to discover her destiny.
In a lush, post-apocalyptic world where nature has reclaimed the ruins of a forgotten civilization, pockets of humanity live on in primitive hunter-gatherer tribes. Their dominion over the new wilderness has been usurped by the Machines – fearsome mechanical creatures of unknown origin.
Horizon Zero Dawn made plenty of best-of lists in 2017, when it was first released. Entertainment Weekly listed it as the #4 game of the year (behind Resident Evil 7, Super Mario Odyssey, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild), saying, “This stunning open-world action-RPG introduces a bold new heroine and a brave new world where nature has reclaimed civilization and feral Machines rule the land. … It’s the best original creation of the year, and the start of an exciting new franchise.”
No details about the series adaptation have been announced beyond that it’s in development. And it’s not the only new game adaptation on the way: A series adaptation of the racing game Gran Turismo is also in the works, and the previously announced God of War series—the one possibly being developed by The Expanse‘s Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby and Wheel of Time‘s Rafe Judkins—is officially going to Amazon.
Video games are getting movies, series, all of it. Question is how many will see the light of day. I remember years ago while Eureka was airing there was talk of a mass effect movie. Was a long time ago.
I am not sure how I feel about this. I love the game, but not sure how the things I love about the game will fare in a tv series format. On the other hand, anything that serves to make HZD less exclusive is a good thing.
It’s an interesting case because so much of HZD is already cinematic, so the story has kinda been told in movie-form already, and Aloy is a character who already has a face and a voice. Unless they find someone with the same energy as (the amazing) Ashly Burch, I’m gonna struggle to see this new Aloy as Aloy.
That said, it would be a very cool world to explore further.
Personally, I’d be a lot more interested in seeing an adaptation of the apocalypse backstory from the historical records you find around the game.