These video game adaptations are finally hitting their stride. The Super Mario Bros. Movie broke countless records on the way to its $1.3 billion haul at the box office, The Last of Us successfully mutated one of the best video game stories into prestige television, and the Sonic the Hedgehog movie was popular enough to warrant two sequels. Peacock’s new original series Twisted Metal — based on the PlayStation games — looks to follow in their footsteps.
Sony shared a teaser in April, but on Monday, Peacock released the official trailer for its Twisted Metal adaptation. While the post-apocalyptic setting might look familiar to fans of The Last of Us, this show will have a decidedly different tone than the HBO drama.
I’m not sure how to feel about this show yet, but the cast is inarguably stacked. Anthony Mackie stars as John Doe, “a motor-mouthed outsider offered a chance at a better life, but only if he can successfully deliver a mysterious package across a post-apocalyptic wasteland.”
He is joined by Quiet (Stephanie Beatriz), a car thief who helps him navigate the wasteland as he faces off against terrifying threats like the murderous clown Sweet Tooth, played by wrestler Samoa Joe and voiced by Will Arnett. The cast list also includes Thomas Haden Church, Neve Campbell, Mike Mitchell, Richard Cabral, and Lou Beatty Jr.
Not every video game adaptation can be as successful as The Last of Us was, but the concept was thought up by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, who wrote Zombieland and all three Deadpool movies. Plus, Twisted Metal showrunner Michael Jonathan Smith previously worked on Cobra Kai, one of Netflix’s best originals. The pedigree is certainly there.
Twisted Metal premieres on Peacock on July 27.
