Netflix has officially announced a live-action Gears of War movie and animated series currently in the works at the streaming giant. The live-action movie will be followed by an adult animated series, but multiple Gears of War projects are also planned beyond that. The news was revealed yesterday to coincide with the series’ 16th anniversary.
Netflix is partnering with developer The Coalition, which made Gears of War 4 and Gears 5, to work on the live-action Gears of War movie and television series. Little else is known beyond that. A Gears of War movie was originally planned over a decade ago by Hollywood, but it went through radio silence and development problems until it faded out from memory. Netflix is bringing the live-action potential of Xbox’s franchise back into cinema.
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Gears of War remains one of Xbox’s biggest and most lucrative properties, selling over 22 million units in total across the franchise and grossing over $1 billion when the IP was acquired from Epic Games in 2014. Before the fourth entry, the games were primarily developed by Epic Games and series creator Cliff Bleszinski before shifting over to The Coalition. Bleszinski recently spoke about how Epic ran out of ideas for the series which led to it selling off the franchise to Xbox.
Actor Dave Bautista, best known for playing Drax in the MCU’s Guardians of the Galaxy, has been petitioning to play Gears of War protagonist Marcus Fenix in a live-action movie for years. This might be his chance to claim the role with the movie finally moving ahead at Netflix.
Like PlayStation, Xbox is also making some moves to turn its biggest gaming franchises into movies and TV shows. Microsoft recently produced the Halo TV series under Paramount+, while PlayStation Productions will release The Last of Us under HBO in January next year along with a multitude of other projects including a Horizon Zero Dawn series at Netflix, a God of War series at Amazon and live-action movies for Ghost of Tsushima and Gran Turismo.
Source: Netflix
