Anthony Mackie hypes up Peacock’s Twisted Metal show

Video game adaptations have a shaky reputation, but they’re seeing a pretty big resurgence right now. Hollywood has been grabbing up rights to major game properties left and right; HBO is making The Last of Us; Netflix has Arcane and an upcoming series based on Resident Evil; Paramount+ is currently airing the first season of Halo; and Amazon has adaptations of Fallout, Mass Effect, and possibly even God of War on the way. At the movies, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Uncharted, and Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City have all released in the past few months.

One of the more interesting game adaptations in the works is Twisted Metal, which is in development at Peacock and stars the MCU’s current Captain America, Anthony Mackie. I say “interesting,” because on the surface Twisted Metal is about as unlikely a choice for a small screen adaptation as it gets. The games are arena-style brawlers where players try to blow up each other’s vehicles, which are all equipped with outrageous weapons and paint jobs. It’s Mad Max, but if there wasn’t really any story and the whole point is just to blow up your friends. How do you make a TV show out of that?

The first Twisted Metal game came out in 1995 on the Playstation. The series has spanned nine games in total, but the last one, also conveniently titled Twisted Metal, came out for the PlayStation 3 in 2012. Technically this makes it the longest running exclusive series Sony has on the PlayStation platforms, but it’s been a decade since we’ve seen any new title in the franchise, which makes you wonder how much of a fanbase is waiting in the wings for this thing. Nonetheless, if there’s anything shows like Arcane and now Halo are proving, it’s that game adaptations don’t need to follow the source material exactly to be a success.

Anthony Mackie will be “driving cars and blowing stuff up” in Twisted Metal

Speaking of Mackie, the Falcon and the Winter Soldier star recently hyped up the Twisted Metal series while he was on the red carpet at the CMT Awards, which he co-hosted. Mackie revealed that while he’s not actively filming any projects right this second, he’s preparing to start shooting Twisted Metal “in a few weeks.”

Per SyFy Wire, Mackie plays John Doe, “a fast-driving and quick-witted milkman looking for a true sense of belonging in the post-apocalyptic landscape of vehicular mayhem.” It sounds just as crazy as the games, which means it just might work.

“My new project Twisted Metal is gonna be on Peacock. I’m about to start shooting that. If you remember the video game, it’s just us driving cars and blowing stuff up and trying to make it to New San Francisco,” Mackie told Extra TV. “I’m excited!”

Twisted Metal will be a half-hour action comedy series, with Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (the writing duo behind Deadpool and Zombieland) penning the script. Reese and Wernick also serve as executive producers, along with Mackie, Will Arnett and Marc Forman of Electric Avenue, Jason Spire of Inspire Entertainment, Asad Qizilbash and Carter Swan of PlayStation Productions, Hermen Hulst (head of PlayStation Studios), and Michael Jonathan Smith. Smith was a writer and executive producer on Cobra Kai, and will be serving as the showrunner for Twisted Metal.

There’s no word yet on a release date for Twisted Metal, but considering it’s just about to start shooting we likely won’t see it until 2023.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels