First-Ever Final Fantasy Live-Action TV Series in the Works at Sony

By Christine Fernando  |  June 27, 2019 | 1:37pm
Image courtesy of Square Enix Co., Ltd.
Video Games News Final Fantasy
First-Ever Final Fantasy Live-Action TV Series in the Works at Sony

The iconic, long-running RPG series Final Fantasy is the latest videogame to get its first-ever live-action screen adaptation.

Sony Pictures Television and Hivemind, the company behind Netflix’s forthcoming adaptation of The Witcher, are teaming up to develop the beloved videogame franchise into a live-action series.

That’s right: After 30 years, we finally get to see a real-life Chocobos, CGI feathers and all.

The series will follow an original storyline, set in the fantastic and expansive world of Eorzea, and based on Final Fantasy XIV.

“Inspired directly by the world and characters of the title’s fourteenth installment, the project will embrace the bold and genre-bending sensibilities of the revered and long-running Final Fantasy series as it explores the struggle between magic and technology in a quest to bring peace to a land in conflict,” the project’s announcement explains.

That means we’ll get all of the iconic Final Fantasy hallmarks—magitek, beast men and airships, oh my! And of course, we’ll get the live-action debut of our beloved grizzled anti-hero Cid, one of the game’s most central and classic characters, who’s appeared in almost every installment.

But it turns out we’ll also get some new faces. No word yet on who that will be.

“This show is about embracing and embodying all of the elements that have made the mythos such an endlessly captivating phenomenon,” Sony Pictures Television co-president Chris Parnell said in a statement.

But why a series and not a film?

Hivemind co-founder and co-president Jason Brown says TV is the best form to bring the franchise’s extraordinary legacy to life and to pack in all the lush landscapes, dense mythology and complex characters that make the game special.

“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,” Brown said in a statement.

Brown, Sean Daniel and Dinesh Shamdasani from Hivemind are set to executive produce the series. Newbie scribes Ben Lustig and Jake Thornton, both writers for the forthcoming Viking mythology Winter’s Knight, have been brought on as writers. The duo are relatively new to screenwriting, so only time will tell what they’ll decide to do with the classic franchise they now have on their hands. All we know is that they better do it justice.

Developed by videogame giant Square Enix, the Final Fantasy games have sold more than 144 million units worldwide since the franchise’s 1987 debut and across its 14 main entries since then.

But it was 2013’s Final Fantasy XIV that truly paved the way for the franchise, and cemented it as perhaps the most storied and influential franchise in gaming history.

Each installment generally serves as a stand-alone story that follows a new group of heroes battling great evil and personal struggles in worlds pulled from history, pop culture, mythology and cultures around the world.

Final Fantasy leaves a multibillion-dollar legacy as one of the most influential pieces of pop culture in the past three decades. Its cultural footprint spans consoles, toys, card games, manga, soundtracks, concerts and live events.

But now the saga has left the Chocobo nest and is reaching a new milestone—a live-action series.

 
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