Paradox Interactive’s “World of Darkness,” an IP including Vampire: The Masquerade and Werewolf: The Apocalypse, is apparently headed to the small screen, the big screen, and maybe even more.
According to a report from The Hollywood Reporter, the World of Darkness is getting its own film and television universe.
Per the THR report, Christine Boyer and Eric Heisserer are set to develop a “shared universe” for the World of Darkness’ many properties for Hivemind and Paradox Interactive. There’s a lot to unpack there, so here’s some facts:
- Boyer was a writer/producer on hit shows such as The Punisher and Castle
- Heisserer earned an Oscar nod for his screenplay for Arrival and is the current showrunner for Shadow and Bone on Netflix
- Hivemind is the company behind the excellent The Witcher TV show
- Paradox Interactive publishes some of the most popular grand strategy video games in the world
While details remain scarce (we’ve contacted the folks at Paradox Interactive for more information, but they’re staying mum for now), it appears as though this isn’t just good news for WoD fans… but great.
Firstly, it’s been a long time since WoD graced the screen in a traditional format. My favorite TV show is the LA by Night stream, which is excellent, but it’s something entirely different from Hollywood or Netflix-style scripted entertainment.
To the best of my knowledge, we have to go all the way back to Kindred: The Embraced, a show that aired only a handful of episodes in the spring of 1996, in order to find the World of Darkness in a traditional TV or film format.
It’s awesome that we’ll be getting something new after all these years, but wait, there’s more!
Per a report from Variety, the producers intend to bring multiple WoD IPs to the screen. For those unfamiliar, the brand includes dedicated lore for different kinds of monsters. There are entire gaming and novel series in the WoD universe dedicated solely to a single type of creature ranging from monstrous human mages (wizards) to vampires, ghosts, demons, shapeshifters, and werewolves.
In essence, we could be looking at a Marvel-style cinematic universe encompassing numerous movies and TV shows. Maybe I’m dreaming here, but it does seem possible given the connections and clout of the producers involved and the sheer breadth of history and material covered by decades of World of Darkness games and books.
It’s easy to imagine mainstream audiences falling in love with the dark, horror-filled World of Darkness, especially in the modern light: Paradox Interactive has taken great pains to make sure its products are inclusive and able to appeal to everyone.
We’ll keep our eyes and ears open for more information as it’s available. In the meantime, here’s hoping the cast of LA by Night gets some starring roles. Can we get Xander Jeanneret and their “X” character their own show please?