Video game movies have always been a bit of a coin toss, with most of those coins flying straight into the trash heap. But it’s 2022, video games are more popular than they’ve ever been and studios are determined to adapt them right. Amazon is producing a show based on Fallout and reportedly in talks to make series based on God of War and Mass Effect. Netflix knocked it out of the park with Arcane and is taking is premiering Resident Evil in July. Paramount+ just wrapped up its first season of Halo, which had mixed reviews but for my money did a lot more right than it did wrong.
And then there’s Twisted Metal, Peacock’s crack at the video game TV market. Compared to the rest of the series we just listed, Twisted Metal is an odd choice for a TV show. The video games are basically Mad Max-style brawlers where players duke it out in vehicles equipped with all sorts of outrageous weaponry until only one car remains. Peacock will need to develop an original story for this one.
And maybe that’s for the best. Twisted Metal is amassing a pretty serious pool of talent. Anthony Mackie (Sam Wilson from the MCU) is playing the main character, and the supporting cast is looking equally impressive.
Thomas Hayden Church and Neve Campbell will tear up pavement in Twisted Metal
Twisted Metal is being billed as a half-hour action comedy series. Mackie plays John Doe, a fast-talking milkman who’s trying to make it to New San Francisco in a post-apocalyptic United States. Thomas Hayden Church (Spider-Man 3), Neve Campbell (Scream), and Stephanie Beatriz (Brooklyn Nine-Nine) are all joining the show as well. That’s some serious star power; Campbell in particular is a film icon.
Per The A.V. Club, Campbell will play Raven. In the games, Raven is a goth who drives a hearse named Shadow. The character starts out as a teenager, but since Campbell is in her late 40s, we’ll assume the show will take her in a different direction.
As for Church, he’s playing Agent Stone, “a cold and unyielding post-apocalyptic highway patrolman who rules the roads with a silver tongue and a twisted iron fist.” So he’s one of the show’s villains. Beatriz will play Quiet, “a ferocious, badass car thief who acts purely on instinct.”
The jury is so out on this one that they don’t even remember where the courthouse is, but I can’t lie: I’m pretty damn intrigued to see what Peacock is cooking. The only way to pull off Twisted Metal is to lean into just how absolutely ridiculous the entire thing is, and from these early reports it sounds like Peacock knows this. Add to that the fact that the show is being written by Deadpool scribes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick and lists comedic talent like Will Arnett (Arrested Development, Bojack Horseman) among its producers, and you have a recipe for something that might just be outrageous enough to work.
There’s no release date for Twisted Metal yet. Anthony Mackie recently hinted that the show is due to start filming soon.
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