When Overwatch launched in 2016, it drew in a lot of players who would normally never play a competitive first-person shooter. Part of the draw came from its innovative take on shooter gameplay, but a large part was because of its characters. Overwatch’s diverse cast is packed with heroes with interesting backstories and incredible designs. Since the early days of the game, developer Blizzard Entertainment’s drip-feed of details about its characters has had players demanding more fleshed-out stories. So it’s not all that suprising to learn there was actually an Overwatch TV adaptation in the works with Netflix — until Blizzard reportedly tanked it.
This news comes from Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier, who recently held a Reddit AMA to promote his upcoming book, Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment. As first shared by Overwatch Cavalry on social media, Schreier revealed that Blizzard was working with Netflix on adaptations for not only Overwatch, but also Starcraft and Diablo. In the same post, however, Schreier links to a 2020 Variety report that Activision Blizzard was suing Netflix for allegedly poaching chief financial officer Spencer Neumann, implying that the series fell apart after the suit.
Animated adaptations of both Overwatch and Diablo were rumored back in 2020, so this isn’t the first we’ve heard of those projects, but the reveal of a Starcraft series is new. There hasn’t been a new Starcraft game since 2010’s Starcraft 2, though the real-time strategy game did get several DLC releases up until 2016. Schreier also recently reported that Blizzard is working on a first-person shooter based on the series, which makes it the third attempt at such a game after the canceled Starcraft Ghost and a game codenamed Ares. So Starcraft fans may still have something to look forward to, if the shooter comes to fruition. Diablo players likewise have the Vessel of Hatred expansion, which is set to launch on October 8.
That leaves Overwatch fans as the ones probably suffering the most on account of a potential Netflix deal ending. Overwatch 2 is still an immensely popular game, of course, but one that has recently brought a slew of bad news for players — from the introduction of controversial gameplay changes to axing the single-player mode this past March.
Of all three series, Overwatch is also the one most primed for an adaptation. Players have latched onto their favorite characters ever since the original game launch, and Blizzard has used the widespread love of Overwatch’s roster as a way to promote the game. The game’s website hosts dozens of comics and short stories building out the world’s narrative, which is never explored in detail in the actual game. Several characters have even been featured in animated shorts of their own, fleshing out their backstories and giving players more reasons to stay invested in their favorite heroes.
The existence of these animated shorts is makes the series’ cancellation sting all the more. Despite clocking in at under ten minutes each, these shorts help bring the characters to life, giving players a glimpse at what their lives are like outside of the constantly repeating battles seen in Overwatch. While heroes get very little characterization in the game itself, the stories and traits established in these shorts help them feel more like complex individuals and certainly account for at least some of why players choose which to bring into battle.
Still, most animated shorts are essentially character spotlights without room for much ongoing plot, and the comics and short stories are considerably more niche, mostly catering to people who are already hardcore fans of the series. A Netflix adaptation could do for Overwatch what Arcane did for League of Legends, appealing even to people who would never come near their source material.
So once again, it feels like long-suffering Overwatch fans are getting the rawest deal. The game’s focus on characters and hints at a larger backstory have fed into rampant fan demand for a stronger narrative, but its player-versus-player gameplay doesn’t really allow for that in the game. That makes a separate adaptation the perfect vehicle to speak to non-players while still giving existing fans what they’ve always wanted. If there’s a silver lining here, it’s that Blizzard clearly wants an adaptation to happen. While it won’t be coming to Netflix, there may still be a chance for an animated Overwatch show some time in the future — as long as another lawsuit doesn’t get in the way.
