Overwatch & Diablo – Picture: Blizzard Entertainment
With Blizzcon 2021 been and gone, it’s still unclear whether or not Netflix is working on or set to release two series based on Blizzard’s biggest IP, Overwatch and Diablo. Are they in development? Let’s take a look back at what has been documented so far.
Both video game franchises really require no introduction. Diablo is a hack and slash dungeon crawler and Overwatch is a team-based shooter. Both games are currently working on new entries which is Diablo IV and Overwatch 2 – we’ll revisit these in a bit.
Before we get going, we should state that neither a Diablo or Overwatch series has officially been announced by either Netflix or Activision Blizzard.
Where did this all begin? We have to rewind the clocks back to August 2018 for the first mention of a Diablo series. It came via Andy Cosby (who has long since deleted the Tweet) who stated to a question that “I guess I can confirm I am indeed in final talks to write and show-run the new DIABLO animated series for Activision and Netflix. It’s very exciting and I hope to High Heavens it all works out.”
In a since deleted tweet (cached here https://t.co/25OuXRBbhW) Boom! Studios founder Andrew Cosby confirms he is in "final talks" to write and show-run the new DIABLO animated series for Activision and Netflix. pic.twitter.com/21UpDv1aO2
— Xbox Tavern (@XboxTavern) September 21, 2018
Roughly six months later, a trademark was registered for the Diablo series. Around the same time, Andrew Cosby Tweeted (which is still available) to tease his next project. Cosby serves as the co-founder of Boom! Studios which struck a first-look deal with Netflix back in April 2020.
It's killing me that I can't talk openly about my new super secret project, because my new super secret project is just so frikkin' cool! Soon… very soon…
— Andy Cosby (he/him) (@andycosby) March 14, 2019
It was then two years later (February 2020) when on a LinkedIn profile for Nick van Dyk who serves as the co-president of Activision Blizzard Studios had animated series listed for both Overwatch and Diablo. This was the first time an Overwatch series was mentioned with the profile stating: “With my creative partner, developed and sold an animated series based Blizzard’s Overwatch franchise.”
BlizzardWatch has been ultimately very skeptical about the existence of either series questioning why neither party has announced it just yet. However, that’s not completely uncommon for Netflix. They tend to keep some of their animated projects pretty well hidden until a few months until release. Look no further than the recent animated series DOTA based on the Valve game.
No smoke without fire?
So with it being several years since the first mentions of either animated series, what’s going on? Well, our speculation is that these series are in development (or have been in some form) and it’s most likely that the two will be tied to upcoming game entries.
Overwatch 2 was recently delayed due to a myriad of reasons not least due to COVID-19. The aforementioned Diablo IV has been officially known about since 2019 but has gone quiet ever since.
So right here right now, we’re going to have to just sit and wait for any future announcement of the two projects but our guess is that they are on the way but we’ll have to keep waiting.
Netflix and Activision have somewhat worked together in the past. Netflix adapted the video game series Skylanders which ran for four seasons before being announced it would not return for season 5.
The good news for fans of both games is that there’s been plenty of additional content released for you to watch right now. Overwatch, for instance, has north of 90 minutes of animated shorts to watch right now.
Assuming the shows do eventually materialize, they’ll be joining a massive suite of video game IP that’s made its way onto Netflix in various forms (with plenty more on the way).
Do you want to see Overwatch and Diablo make their way over to Netflix? Let us know in the comments.
