A live-action Final Fantasy TV series is coming

Just yesterday, we reported that Myst — a video game series where you click around a mysterious world solving puzzles — is going to be adapted as a series of movies and TV shows. (Some of them “unscripted”; still not sure how that would work.) In news that makes a little more sense, it was announced today that video game giant Square Enix is teaming up with Sony Pictures Television and Hivemind, the people behind The Expanse and Netflix’s upcoming Witcher series, for a live-action show based on Final Fantasy.

Specifically, the show will be based on Final Fantasy XIV, the tremendously popular massively multiple online version of the franchise that’s been running since 2013. And it really is popular. Did you know that there’s a movie about an estranged father and son who connect through the game? It’s called Dad of Light, which is among the better titles for anything ever.

Anyway, the new show will tell an original story set in the world of Eorzea, with Final Fantasy staples like airships, chocobos and a guy named Cid all present and accounted for. “FINAL FANTASY XIV and Eorzea are the perfect gateway into FINAL FANTASY for longtime fans and newcomers alike,” said Sony Pictures Television Co-President Chris Parnell. “This show is about embracing and embodying all of the elements that have made the mythos such an endlessly captivating phenomenon, and it’s an immense honor to be bringing all of Eorzea’s iconic characters, settings, and concepts…to life for a television audience.”

Hivemind co-founder and president Jason weighed in, as well. “Television is the ideal medium to capture the extraordinary depth, sophisticated themes, and unparalleled imagination of FINAL FANTASY and its multitude of unique and fully realized characters,” he said. “We are working tirelessly to bring together artists from around the world who are united in honoring the extraordinary legacy of this franchise and its millions of fans around the world.” Brown will be an executive producer. Ben Lustig and Jake Thornton will be on the writing staff.

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A show about Final Fantasy makes more sense to me than a show about Myst, both because Final Fantasy is a lot more enduringly popular and because most of the games are narrative-driven experiences.

Then again, Square has tried to make Final Fantasy movies before, and it’s never gone well. Really, the movies got worse as they went along. Will this time be different?

Hey, that’s Lena Headey and Sean Bean’s voices in that trailer. A shame the movie wasn’t better.

Beyond Myst, there’s also a Halo live-action series coming, so a Final Fantasy show will fit right among the other video game-to-TV adaptations, not to mention the rest of the genre shows on the horizon. There’s interesting times ahead.

There’s no word on where the Final Fantasy show might premiere — HBO, Netflix, some proprietary Square Enix streaming service no one will get? — but I wouldn’t expect it anytime soon.

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