Sony Television and Hivemind Entertainment, in a joint announcement have revealed that they are entering into a partnership with Square Enix to develop a live action TV series based on the immensely popular online game, Final Fantasy XIV. This will be the first time since the major box office flop that was Spirits Within that the company will attempt to create a major media spinoff/add on for their beloved franchise.
The TV series will be set within the world of Eorzea, and will have its own story line to boot. The production company, Hivemind, are known for Amazon’s The Expanse and the upcoming The Witcher series on Netflix. Ben Lustig and Jake Thornton have been brought in as the principle writers for the show, and will be a part of a larger executive production team.
According to the news release, Cid Garlond is going to be a central character in the show. Garlond is a famed airship engineer in the game, as well as bearing the Cid name as per tradition in nearly all Final Fantasy games. Other than this tidbit, no other information was given in the release, which indicates that the project is still in the very early stages of development.
The aforementioned Final Fantasy Spirits Within isn’t the only outside venture that Square Enix has taken with their franchise. They’ve also made the Final Fantasy VII film Advent Children, as well as the prequel film to Final Fantasy XV, Kingsglaive, albeit these were all CGI films. Out of all the Final Fantasies, XIV arguably has the biggest potential for a great TV series. It’s an online only game, which gives the writers all sorts of possibilities for branching stories and arcs, and could make hedge ways for newer content for the game and it’s players directly.
However, this will also pose some risks, as do many video game to live action series. History has not been kind to these projects, but as time goes on the people in Hollywood seem to be more understanding of how gamers come to love and appreciate what they play each and every day. Either way, it will probably be a long time until we hear more about this one, so for now let’s just celebrate the fact that the game is getting some nice star-like treatment.
