By Hot off of a second season of Castlevania and an upcoming Devil May Cry animation for Netflix, Adi Shankar will be continuing his gaming streak with an adaptation of Hyper Light Drifter, the 2016 neon science-fantasy masterpiece developed by Heart Machine, directed by Alex Preston.
The above trailer for the original game should clue those not in the know in on one of my absolute favorite games of the past decade. Hyper Light translated the gameplay of classic Zelda to an incredibly beautiful, atmospheric world, telling an ambiguous story while stringing players along with sharp gameplay and gorgeous environments to explore.
The project is still early on, with Preston and Shankar “actively reaching out to writers to lead the TV adaptation.” This early on, the tone for the series is yet to be found. Hyper Light Drifter the game was a without dialogue, something easier to pull off in a video game than a TV series, perhaps. On this, Preston mentions “There’s still a question of how much dialogue we really have, if any. Could it be a more silent series or would we have voice acting?”
On his involvement, Shankar professed a love for video games and his passion in adapting them, regardless of the source materials size or appeal. In reference to Castlevania and Devil May Cry, Shankar made it clear that it’s “important for [him] not to just all of a sudden become the AAA junkie. To just go like, ‘OK, what are the biggest franchise, I’m going to jump on all of them.’ That’s not why I’m trying to do this.”
Hyper Light Drifter TV series in the works from creator Alx Preston and Castlevania’s Adi Shankar [Polygon]