PUBG – or PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, if you’re all fancy-like – is the latest big gaming IP to get the animated show treatment. Publisher Krafton has just revealed that its flagship battle royale game is getting an “animated project” which will be created and showrun by the executive producer of Netflix’s Castlevania show.
There’s no word on exactly what this animated project will be just yet, but Krafton does reveal that Adi Shankar will be taking the helm in a press release on the PUBG site. Shankar has previously worked on feature films such as Killing Them Softly (which starred Brad Pitt), Dredd (Karl Urban), The Voices (Ryan Reynolds), The Grey (Liam Neeson), and others. He also has an “Andy Warhol-inspired, award-winning, unauthorised video street art series, The Bootleg Universe, where he reimagines and subverts pop culture iconography”.
It turns out Shankar’s a long-time fan and player of PUBG, too. “As a player, I’ve been crushing the competition in the Battlegrounds since PUBG released in 2017,” he says in the release.
“I’m grateful to Krafton for the trust and confidence they’ve placed in me to execute my vision as a filmmaker and I’m excited to embark on this journey together.” He also adds that he looks “forward to revealing to everybody what winning a chicken dinner looks like.” It’s not clear how that’ll translate to the big or small screen, but PUBG now has a lore site, so perhaps the project will draw on some of those stories.
Noting that this project marks the studio’s move towards “expanding the PUBG Universe into a multimedia franchise”, Krafton CEO CH Kim says that Krafton is “excited to work with Shankar on exploring and realising a world that brings the game to life for our fans”. Kim adds that the PUBG team is looking forward to “sharing more about this animated project in the near future” – so, hopefully it won’t be long before we hear more about what this will be.
For now, you can check out our PUBG guide and PUBG weapons tips for some pointers on how to get your next chicken dinner.