The Microsoft-Activision deal better not mean the Diablo Netflix show is canceled
Microsoft’s pending purchase of Activision Blizzard, if the government gives it the OK, is first and foremost a deal about about video games. This is a deal about Call of Duty, Game Pass, and the future of virtual entertainment. Or maybe it’s a deal about the metaverse, Web3, and making the HoloLens as ubiquitous as an iPhone. It’s a big deal.
But it could also be a deal about TV shows. While not a focal point of either company at the moment, there are a few potential TV shows whose fates remain up in the air after Microsoft’s potential purchase was announced. Chief among these are plans for adaptations of Diablo and Overwatch.
Details on these shows are few and far between. News of the adaptations first appeared on former Activision president Nick van Dyk’s LinkedIn page in 2020, where under his achievements van Dyk mentioned being an executive producer of “Diablo, a TV adaptation of Blizzard Entertainment’s IP, rendered in anime style. The show is currently in pre-production for distribution worldwide through Netflix.”
Van Dyk’s LinkedIn page also noted that he had, with a creative partner, “developed and sold an animated series based on Blizzard’s Overwatch franchise.” Mention of both specific shows has been deleted from the current page, replaced with a note that van Dyk “executive produced additional shows in a number of animated formats.”
Diablo feels a little more real than Overwatch, since Andy Cosby, a co-creator of Eureka and the co-founder of Boom! Studios, tweeted in 2018 that he was in “final talks” to write and act as showrunner. Cosby also mentioned that “I hope to High Heavens it all works out.” The tweet has since been deleted, so there’s a chance things didn’t, in fact, work out. Polygon reached out
Read more on polygon.com
