Not long ago, the possibility of watching good television series was a real utopia. There were hardly any video game adaptations, almost all of them were for the cinema, and it’s hard to remember any that were good. But in the last four or five years, something has changed. Good adaptations have arrived for the cinema. Television has shown that good video game series can be made. And it seems that this has not been just a good streak.
The next video game that we know will receive an animated series is Golden Axe. With 10 episodes already ordered by Comedy Central, Deadline has stated that it will be “hilarious and respectful” to the game it adapts. Because, in addition, they have good material to make something funny.
If you don’t know Golden Axe, it is a long beat ’em up franchise, heavily inspired by Conan the Barbarian, where we have to advance through a harsh fantasy land, defeating all kinds of evil monsters and enemies. You can choose between a barbarian, an amazon, and a dwarf warrior, and all the games in the franchise have consisted of advancing by slashing, hacking, and occasionally well-placed magic shots. All this in a world where people don’t ride horses, but cockatrices. A creature with a dragon body and a rooster head.
If we say that it can make an excellent comedy, it’s not because we think it can’t also be a good drama series. It’s because the producers of the adaptation are known for being outstanding comedy writers. Not for nothing, behind the Golden animation series are Mike McMahan and Joe Chandler. Two names you may not know, although you have seen their work. McMahan is the creator of Star Trek: Lower Decks and Chandler is a veteran writer of Father Made In USA. Something that ensures that the series will not only be hilarious, but probably much better than we expect.
With McMahan and Chandler writing the first episode and Chandler serving as showrunner, we have some details about the cast. Matthew Rhys will play Gilius Thunderhead, the dwarf warrior. While Lisa Gilroy and Liam McIntyre will play Lisa Gilroy and Ax Battler, the amazon and the barbarian respectively. And no. We still don’t have a release date and it’s not a joke that the barbarian is named Ax Battler, but we eagerly await this unexpected adaptation.
