One of gaming’s biggest battle royales is getting the prestige-TV treatment — from one of the most decorated creators in Hollywood. Netflix is developing a live-action series based on PUBG, and it will be written, directed by, executive produced by and starring Donald Glover, with his brother and frequent collaborator Stephen Glover attached as writer and executive producer. Variety broke the news on October 29, and the announcement landed as a genuine surprise: nobody had PUBG on their adaptation bingo card this year.
What We Know About the PUBG Series
Beyond the Glovers, Variety reports that Michael Schaefer of Neon TV and Fam Udeorji for Gilga will executive produce, along with Taeseok Jang and Sujin Lee for LV3H, Krafton’s entertainment division — the same company that developed the game and, more recently, canceled its PUBG: Black Budget spinoff less than a year after revealing it. There’s no word yet on additional casting, a release window, or any story details. Given that this is a project where the suits at Netflix could still kill it before it airs, everything remains firmly in the early-development stage.
Why Donald Glover Makes This Interesting
Glover’s résumé needs little introduction: his FX series Atlanta won seven Emmys and collected 26 nominations, and across writing, acting and music he has stacked up two Primetime Emmy awards, two Golden Globes, five Grammy Awards, two Peabody Awards and five Writers Guild of America Awards. His 2024 Amazon series Mr. & Mrs. Smith drew 16 Primetime Emmy nominations for its first season, including Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for Glover himself. He’ll also be familiar to Nintendo fans — he voices Yoshi in the Super Mario Galaxy animated movie. The brothers’ joint track record includes Atlanta, Swarm, the musical Guava Island and Mr. & Mrs. Smith.
A Game With No Story — On Purpose
Here’s the curious part: PUBG doesn’t really have a story. It’s a battle royale in which 100 people drop onto an island and shoot one another for loot and the promise of a chicken dinner — with a frying pan as the most trusted piece of armor. But that absence is arguably the point: the game’s lore hints at a bloodsport tournament of some kind staged to entertain elites, which leaves a show like this room to go full Squid Game or Hunger Games. And as TheGamer notes, the franchise is far from dormant — PUBG still draws “hundreds of thousands of active users daily,” per Variety, and Krafton has a Kickstarter-backed trading card game and a newly announced roguelite spinoff, PUBG: Ded.Net, in the pipeline.
Netflix’s Gaming Adaptation Machine
The PUBG series joins a rapidly growing slate. Netflix already has a live-action Assassin’s Creed series and a Gears of War feature film in the works, plus adaptations of Cyberpunk 2077, Tomb Raider, Castlevania, Sonic the Hedgehog, Arcane, The Witcher and Devil May Cry on the platform — and Blizzard recently partnered with the streamer on an animated Diablo series. It’s all part of the same wave that had Netflix offering Xbox $500 million for its games’ film and TV rights before that deal collapsed. A Glover-helmed PUBG might be the most unexpected swing yet — then again, Atlanta taught us that the strangest premises can end up being the best television.
Sources
- Engadget — Netflix is making a live-action PUBG show written and directed by Donald Glover
- PC Gamer — Donald Glover is heading up a PUBG live action series for Netflix
- TheGamer — Netflix Announces Live-Action PUBG Show From Donald Glover
- Insider Gaming — Netflix Developing Live-Action PUBG Series With Donald Glover