Are RPGs TV’s Next Goldmine? – ‘Blades In The Dark’ And ‘Exalted’ In Development
Not one but two different RPG franchises have announced TV shows in development. Blades in the Dark and Exalted will both be coming soon.
It’s not every day that a new TV series based on a roleplaying game is announced. But two in the same day? And neither of them Dungeons & Dragons? Quick, boy, what day is it? Because it seems like Christmas for sure. The spirits can do anything, and indeed they have because yesterday two different entertainment companies announced two different shows based on two RPGs: Blades in the Dark, the popular game of gaslamp rogues in a haunted, Dishonored style jolly ol’ London-tarn kinda city named Doskvol, and Exalted, which is White Wolf’s game of high-no-higher-than-that epic fantasy set in a world untold millennia before the World of Darkness where heroes are unquestionable god-kings and queens. Let’s take a look.
First up, UK-based production company Warp Films, partnering with Anglo-French producing and financing outfit Anton will work together to produce a TV show adaptation of John Harper’s Blades in the Dark, as Harper announced on Twitter earlier.
Blades in the Dark is being developed for television! I'm thrilled to finally share this news with you all. The people at @WarpFilms are amazing — I'm so excited to work with them to bring the world of Blades to life on screen.https://t.co/ifnz2C3TJg
— John Harper (@john_harper) August 31, 2021
The joint venture begins with an irreverent English language re-invention of the classic French novel Lost Illusions by Honoré de Balzac, about the perennial delusions of the pursuit of fame and power. The high-end television series is written by McCance. Also moving into development is Blades In The Dark – a television adaptation of the popular role-playing game.
But there’s more. Because Jenkins & Tate Entertainment, a gaming-focused production company (who weirdly enough are working on an upcoming TV show based on Scion) announced that they were also working on a popular RPG TV series: Exalted.
The fantasy TV show Exalted is set 800 years after the fall of the Solar Exalted. With the Scarlet Empress missing, those in the know believe the saviour of the realm will not return.
The bureaucrats and the eleven great Dragon Houses of the realm, nearly all of whom claim direct descent from the Empress, have done what they can to keep this secret and maintain peace and control. However, the realm sits on the edge of civil unrest as the Houses ignore the threat of the Celestial Exalted in order to position themselves and take control of the realm.
In a distant village to the east of the realm, a Solar Exalted will arise and a new journey will begin…
It’s anyone’s guess as to how either of these will be. The last time anyone took a stab at one of White Wolf’s properties, it was Kindred: The Embraced, and the less said about that beautiful trash fire of a show, the better.
But we’ve come a long way. And with the tabletop RPG space bleeding more and more into the mainstream culture, perhaps RPG worlds will become the next popular harvesting field for television. After all, it worked for comics.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments!
