Peacock Hopes Another Post-Apocalyptic Video Game Translates to Successful Series

Twisted Metal, based on the classic PlayStation video game, debuts on Peacock July 27. The action comedy is about a motor-mouthed outsider who is offered a chance at a better life if he can deliver a mysterious package across a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

“With the help of a badass axe-wielding car thief, he’ll face savage marauders driving vehicles of destruction and other dangers of the open road, including a deranged clown who drives an all too familiar ice cream truck,” said Peacock.

Anthony Mackie stars and executive produces. Mackie played Sam Wilson/Falcon/Captain America in the film Captain America: The Winter Soldier and the Disney Plus series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. 

Joining him in the cast are Stephanie Beatriz, Joe Seanoa, Will Arnett and Thomas Haden Church. Neve Campbell guest stars.

There are ten 30-minute episodes. 

The video game has a demolition derby motif, where players choose a vehicle to engage in battles with other drivers. Weapons are accumulated, and one driver remains at the end. HBO successfully converted a video game to a series with The Last of Us, which saw Joel, played by Pedro Pascal, escort teen girl Ellie (Bella Ramsey) across a nation ravaged by a pandemic.

A review of Twisted Metal in The Hollywood Reporter called the series “quite decent.”

“Both as colorful and as deep as a shimmering oil slick on a sweltering stretch of abandoned blacktop, Twisted Metal lacks the budget and ingenuity to consistently live up to the game’s sense of unrelenting mayhem,” it continues. “But its limitations make room for a solid character-based story to develop around stars Anthony Mackie and Stephanie Beatriz.”

A review in A.V. Club said Mackie is the “saving grace” to an otherwise “messy” affair.

Exec producing Twisted Metal alongside Mackie are showrunner Michael Jonathan Smith, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, Will Arnett and Marc Forman, Jason Spire, Peter Principato, Asad Qizilbash and Carter Swan from PlayStation Productions, and Hermen Hulst, head of PlayStation Studios.

Sony Pictures Television, PlayStation Productions and Universal Television produce the show.