Persona is coming to television. Netflix is developing a live-action TV series based on Atlus’ supernatural high school RPG franchise, according to Variety — and the production team behind it should turn some heads.
Stranger Things Producers Take on Atlus’ RPG
The series is being developed by Story Kitchen — the production company behind Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog film franchise — and 21 Laps, the company founded by Shawn Levy, producer of Stranger Things, Deadpool & Wolverine and Free Guy. Christopher Monfette is attached to write the adaptation and to serve as executive producer and showrunner. Monfette’s credits include Star Trek: Picard, Syfy’s 12 Monkeys, Fox’s 9-1-1, and Marvel Television’s upcoming VisionQuest for Disney+.
As Polygon notes, the adaptation doesn’t sound like a done deal just yet — but it reflects the streamer’s continued heavy investment in video game adaptations.
Netflix’s Video Game Track Record
Netflix has had notable success adapting games for animation — Arcane, based on Riot Games’ League of Legends, plus animated series based on Castlevania, Cyberpunk 2077, Devil May Cry and Tomb Raider. Live action has been trickier: its Resident Evil series lasted a single season, and a BioShock movie is still in the works.
Why Persona Is Ripe for Adaptation
Atlus’ Persona series began in 1996 on the original PlayStation as a spinoff of Shin Megami Tensei, and has since spawned four mainline sequels and a long list of spinoffs and rereleases. The games typically follow a group of Japanese high school students balancing their daily lives with supernatural adventures — summoning Personas to help them in battle against the forces of evil. The concept, as Polygon puts it, “sounds like perfect TV fodder.”
The franchise is in the middle of a moment. Persona 6 was announced in early June with no release date yet, and the next release is Persona 4: Revival — a remaster of 2008’s beloved Persona 4 — launching February 18, 2027 on PS5, Windows PC and Xbox Series X.