Summary
Amazon Prime Videois continuing its trend of video game adaptations. First, there wasFallout. Then, traction finally began on theirMass Effectshow. Now, a third prominent gaming franchise is in line for a television series.
Video game adaptations have become big business on television over the past decade.HBOhas hadmassive success withThe Last of Us, you know, if you consider 40+ Emmy nominations and great audience ratings as successful. Netflix has gotten into the video game adaptation craze with animated series likeArcane,Castlevania, andCyberpunk: Edgerunners. TheSonic the Hedgehogfilm series got a television spinoff on Paramount+ in the form ofKnuckles. Venerable series likeTwisted MetalandHalohave gotten expensive (and a bit lackluster) streaming shows. At the moment, a host of video game franchises are in various states of live-action television show development. Everything fromFinal FantasyandTomb RaidertoMy Friend PedroandLife is Strangehas been eyed for their own TV shows at some point over the past five to ten years. Well, it’s time to add another legendary gaming franchise to the list.
Varietyis reporting that Amazon MGM Studios is putting together a television adaptation based on the belovedWolfensteinvideo game series.After the success they’ve had withFallout, it seems Amazon is moving forward with their various gaming adaptations, including the previously announcedGod of WarandMass Effectshows they are actively developing.Patrick Somerville, the creative mind behind streaming hitsManiacandStation Eleven, is set to serve as creator, writer, executive producer, and showrunner on the show.Christopher Nolan’s brother Jonah—who also worked onFalloutand co-createdWestworld—is also set to work on the project, as is MachineGames' Jerk Gustafsson.
Amazon Has Put A Television Series Based OnWolfensteinInto Production
Anyone Know If Steve Rogers Is Available To Punch Some Nazis?
What is there to say about thevenerableWolfensteinseries? The first game in the series,Castle Wolfenstein, was released way back in 1981 for the Apple II, with Atari, MS-DOS, and Commodore 64 ports following suit over the next few years. A sequel,Beyond Castle Wolfenstein, came out in 1984, but things were taken to a new level for the series in 1992 withWolfenstein 3D. To this day,Wolfenstein 3Dis lauded as one of the best and most influential video games ever made. It sold like hotcakes and was one of the progenitors of the first-person shooter craze that kicked off in the early 1990s, along withDoom.
“The story of killing Nazis is evergreen.” - Official Wolfenstein Television Series Logline
A bunch of middlingWolfensteinsequels were released throughout the 1990s and 2000s, but the series found its way back into the forefront of gamers' minds with 2014’sWolfenstein: The New Orderby MachineGames. Although their latest game was the well-receivedIndiana Jones and the Great Circle, MachineGames is basically synonymous withWolfensteinat this point, having released five games in the series from 2014 to 2019. If Somerville and company can capture the essence of MachineGames' recent entries in the series, the sky is the limit forAmazon Prime Video’sWolfensteinseries.
