The first teaser for Twisted Metal, the TV series based on the classic series of PlayStation car combat games, dropped over the weekend.
The show, a 30-minute action-comedy, is based on an original concept by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (Deadpool, Zombieland) and written by Michael Jonathan Smith (Cobra Kai). The show follows a motor-mouthed, down-on-his-luck loner (played by Anthony Mackie (Captain America, The Hate U Give)) in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. When our hero is offered a life-changing reward for the simple delivery of a package, he finds himself drawn into savage chase, avoiding heavily-armed marauders in cars bristling with machine guns and a messed up clown guy in an ice cream truck full of murder tools (yes, I’m talking about Sweet Tooth).
All this, and he has to put up with his axe-wielding new bestie, who is also a car thief (played by Stephanie Beatriz (Brooklyn Nine-Nine)).
Twisted Metal and its sequel are fondly remembered greats of the PlayStation 1 era. The series returned in the PS2 era with Twisted Metal: Black in 2001, and again in 2008 after Twisted Metal: Head On was ported from the PSP. It was rebooted for the PlayStation 3 in 2012, reverting the title to just Twisted Metal. Though the series has been dormant since, Sony has a studio working on a new game in the franchise. In January last year that reboot changed hands, moving from Destruction All-Stars developer Lucid Games to internal studio Firesprite, which launched Horizon: Call of the Mountain earlier this year. To date, Sony hasn’t had anything further to say about the game.
The TV adaptation was announced last year, as PlayStation looked to expand its transmedia portfolio and capitalise on the brand-recognition of its most popular games. Twisted Metal‘s selection came as a bit of a surprise, considering the publisher hasn’t done anything with the IP in over a decade. Clearly, Sony hopes to use the TV show to drive interest in the new game, whenever it eventually pulls the covers off. Nevertheless, the series clearly still holds a special, nostalgic place in the hearts of PS1 owners everywhere.
It will be the next TV series from PlayStation Studios, which has had a run of wins recently and is currently basking in the overwhelmingly positive reception of The Last of Us on HBO. Twisted Metal is produced by NBCUniversal.
Twisted Metal will stream on Stan in Australia from July 27.
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