Amazon Is Officially Making a 'Wolfenstein' TV Show, Because Killing Nazis Never Goes Out of Style
Just when you thought Amazon's quest to adapt every video game under the sun couldn't get more ambitious, they've gone and aimed their sights on the granddaddy of Nazi-slaying simulators. According to an exclusive report from Variety, a live-action TV series based on the ‘Wolfenstein’ franchise is in development at Amazon MGM Studios. And to make things interesting, they’re bringing in the same crew that just made radiation poisoning a hit with the ‘Fallout’ series.
The Brains Behind the Blasting
So, who’s wrangling this beast? The project has attached Patrick Somerville, the creator of mind-benders like ‘Maniac’ and ‘Station Eleven,’ to serve as showrunner, writer, and executive producer. The man’s apparently been a fan of the games since he was a kid, so at least he knows the source material.
Backing him up are the folks at Kilter Films—Jonah Nolan, Lisa Joy, and Athena Wickham—the very same executive producers who just delivered ‘Fallout’ to Amazon on a silver platter. They're joined by Jerk Gustafsson from MachineGames, the studio behind the modern ‘Wolfenstein’ titles, so there’s at least one person in the room who knows the difference between a Panzerhund and a Panzerschreck.
A Story as Old as Time
If you're wondering about the complex, nuanced plot, the official logline is, and I swear to god this is real, simply: “The story of killing Nazis is evergreen”. No notes. Absolute perfection.
For the uninitiated, the ‘Wolfenstein’ games follow U.S. soldier William “B.J.” Blazkowicz as he punches, shoots, and generally liquidates his way through the Third Reich, only to discover they’re messing with all sorts of occult weirdness and grotesque super-science. It’s a franchise that started way back in 1981 and essentially created the first-person shooter genre as we know it with Wolfenstein 3D in 1992.
All Your IPs Are Belong to Us
This is just the latest cartridge in Amazon's shotgun blast of video game adaptations. The company is already juggling projects for ‘Mass Effect,’ ‘God of War,’ and whatever the hell Henry Cavill is doing with that ‘Warhammer 40,000’ series. Tapping the ‘Fallout’ producers for another Bethesda property shows a clear strategy: if it worked once, bleed it dry. So, is this going to be good? Who the hell knows. But with a proven team, a premise that’s basically impossible to screw up, and a delightfully straightforward mission statement, there's a sliver of hope this might be more than just another algorithm-driven content drop. We'll be watching. Cynically, of course.