Netflix will this week be live-streaming their inaugural Geeked Week, bringing news and first looks at various projects just around the corner. The five-day event follows the smash success of DC’s Fandome and will be running from June 7 to June 11. We’ll be covering its entirety live, both on Twitter and with daily recaps right here on DiscussingFilm. Now onto Geeked Week day 5, featuring The Witcher, Cobra Kai, and the upcoming Cuphead show.
Friday
Each day of Netflix’s Geeked Week has a different theme, with yesterday’s Masters of the Universe and Zack Snyder’s Twilight of the Gods reveals focused on Animation and today’s being Films and Shows based on games and books. The big reveal of the day is expected to be a first look at season 2 of The Witcher. Following the announcement of the expanded cast for season 2, it will be interesting to see whether they continue following the narrative of the books, or borrow more elements from the vastly successful games in this sophomore season of Netflix’s flagship show.
Though not based on a book or game, Cobra Kai season 4 is set to be covered today by Geeked Week. While unclear just yet whether or not we will see any footage or simply a release date, the show is one of the most watched at Netflix since its purchase from Youtube Red following season 2. Add to this the upcoming Cuphead show and their live action Resident Evil project and today is set to be an unmissable day of Netflix reveals on Geeked Week day 5, the final of the week!
Cuphead
Cuphead is an upcoming Netflix show based on the 2017 game with a Fleischer inspired cartoon animation style. One of the games antagonist is King Dice, and we found out exclusively on Geeked Week Day 5 that the devious character would be played by none other than Wayne Brady.
Brady brings not only the acting chops required to the role, but the singing ability that his character demonstrates in the first look clip (shown below). With more details on the shown being held tight to Netflix’s chest, it will be fascinating to see who they fill out the rest of the cast with following this initial casting news.
Games to Series Adaptations
Further to the Cuphead information Netflix also announced and gave first looks multiple projects where hit video games are being adapted into series form. First up was upcoming League of Legends adaptation Arcane, in which we saw several first look photos as well as a first clip.
The hotly anticipated adaptation of the lore surrounding one of the biggest games in the world has gotten off to a strong start with the first looks. The animation style is beautiful and unique, borrowing elements of the game whilst retaining a unique aesthetic which looks set to differentiate itself from the game.
Next was a first look at the animated adaptation of Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell. The games (based on the series of Tom Clancy Novels) are bestsellers and leads to a high level of anticipation and worry around Netflix’s ability to translate this into a series.
These fears have been assuaged slightly by the announcement that Derek Kolstad, creator of the John Wick franchise was set to write the series. Kolstad is a hot commodity in the writing world, with his recent appearance as a writer on Falcon and The Winter Soldier alongside the announcement he was set to adapt another video game franchise, Hitman, into a TV series.
Finally, two new shows were announced to be adapted from video games during the final day of #GeekedWeek. First up was the INCREDIBLY named show, Captain Laserhawk, A Blood Dragon Remix.
Based on the Far Cry spin off game Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, the Anime show is set to feature various homages to Ubisoft characters, and maintain the 80s aesthetic from the game on which is it based. Continuing the Ubisoft to Netflix pipeline, they also announced an original Far Cry series. Whilst information is currently scarce, with there not even being any indication which of the 6 games it was set to be based on, the show will surely be hotly anticipated due to the beloved story of Far Cry 3 in particular.
Resident Evil
Following the recent success of Resident Evil: Village, Resident Evil hype is at a near all time high. Whilst fan sensation character Lady Dimitrescu is not announced to appear, iconic Resident Evil protagonist Albert Wesker has now been cast in the series.
Lance Reddick (Centre) has been announced to be voicing the iconic video game protagonist in the upcoming series. Whilst roles were not announced they also revealed Ella Balinska, Tamara Smart, Siena Agudong, Adeline Rudolph and Paola Nunez had all joined the cast.
Everything The Witcher
The big news of the day unsurprisingly came from The Witcher, one of Netflix’s flagship shows. First up was a first look at Ciri in season 2, with a rapid intercut of various shots being sure to evoke joy in red arrow breakdown YouTubers everywhere.
The most obvious detail to take from this appears to be hints towards Ciri training with Geralt and being able to fight herself. In the books and games Ciri becomes a formidable fighter, rivalling Geralt in skill, and so it is a good sign that the show appears to be taking the character in this same direction.
The final reveal of the day was WitcherCon, an event held July 9th by Netflix and CD PROJEKT RED (the publishers of The Witcher Games). Following cryptic tweets between the Witcher games and WitcherNetflix accounts earlier today, it appears that this event is what was being hinted towards. With updates on The Witcher season 2, the upcoming animated movie The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, and likely announcements of further projects (Maybe even a Witcher 4?) it looks to be an unmissable event for Witcher Fans.
