PlayStation Productions has a lot going on at the moment. TV shows like Twisted Metal and The Last of Us are getting their second seasons, and movies like Ghost of Tsushima and Uncharted 2 are about to start filming (but they’re still a long way off). Another big IP adaptation is Netflix’s live-action Horizon Zero Dawn series, but it looks like that’s been delayed…
With apocalyptic video game adaptations like Doom and Fallout raising the bar in recent years, the Horizon TV series seemed like a pretty safe bet, so what happened? Well, its current incarnation wasn’t canceled due to dreaded “creative differences” between artists and studio. Instead, it all came to naught due to allegations of “retaliation” and a “toxic work environment” during the development and production of the hit Netflix series The Umbrella Academy; the company had chosen its showrunner Steve Blackman to crack the adaptation of the hit PlayStation IP, but Rolling Stone says his next two shows have been canceled (after first reporting on those allegations).
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This is a huge blow to both Netflix and PlayStation Productions’ upcoming slate. Netflix is coming to an end with two of its highest-grossing shows of all time, Stranger Things and The Witcher, and is looking for new hits that can be as big as those two. Meanwhile, Sony’s video game adaptation division is preparing to start filming Horizon and God of War (set on Amazon’s Prime Video) as soon as possible.
Unsurprisingly, Blackman has so far denied the allegations: “These allegations from a small number of disgruntled employees are completely false and outrageous and in no way reflect the collaborative, respectful, and successful work environment that Mr. Blackman has fostered,” a spokesperson said in a statement to the Los Angeles Times in July. The fourth and final season of The Umbrella Academy is set to premiere on August 8, so it remains to be seen how Netflix will handle this PR crisis in the coming weeks.
Even though the Horizon IP’s cultural impact has been limited to “it’s a beautiful open-world game with cool robot designs” after two blockbuster releases, the IP is still huge for Sony, so we don’t expect the project to languish for too long, but whenever it reappears, it will be a full-blown reboot. With Guerrilla Games likely continuing to work on a sequel to Forbidden West and the people at PlayStation busy with new system-selling products, it’s reasonable to expect a Lego version of the IP to launch on PS5, PC, and even Nintendo Switch later this year, even though no one asked for it (but it looks cute enough).
