Let’s face the facts, it has been almost 3 years since the launch of Overwatch and none of us know jack about the lore. Yeah, these events are cool and fun for exactly a day and that’s it. It only grants brief insights towards the vast and complex nature of the OW universe.
The multiplayer nature of the game and initial animated videos is what initially drew me towards the game and the self-depracated nature of competitive is what kept me playing throughout the years.
But Blizzard, I need more. WE need more. I would binge watch seasons of Overwatch animated series more than I do Game of Thrones or something of equivocal nature because THAT IS HOW MUCH STORY YOU HAVE TO TELL.
WHAT STARTED THE OMNIC CRISI? WHAT DOES TALON ACTUALLY WANT? WHAT HAPPENED TO REYES AND MORRISON TO GIVE THEM GOD-LIKE ABILITIES AFTER THEIR BATTLE? WHAT ROLE DOES THE LAST SURVIVING BASTION UNIT HAVE IN THIS WORLD?
SWEAR TO GOD IF I HAVE TO WAIT FOR ONE - TWO ANIMATED SHORTS EVERY YEAR THAT ONLY FURTHER UNLOCK ANOTHER COMPLEX SUBSET OF LORE WITHOUT REVEALING THE OVERARCHING GOVERNANCE OF THE CONFLICT IN THE FIRST PLACE, I WILL LOSE MY MIND.
Netflix, Hulu, IDC, just please piece this story together through other means of annual events and animated shorts.
While I would love an animated series, that stuff is hard to make, because animation is expensive as hell and I think it would be hard to keep the plot interesting for so long
Eventually the show would be filled to the top with filler episodes
I think it was Jeff or someone else who said something along the lines of, that Doomfist short from 2017 was (paraphrasing) a way for them to experiment with 2D animation, which could potentially lead to an Overwatch animated series in the future.
However, as much as I’d like for there to be an Overwatch animated series (if only so I could get a fix of my Blue Wife Pharah on a routine basis), I’m also afraid of how the writing will be given well, you know, how inconsistent the writing is now.
I suppose that could be solved by the fact that the OW writers (a.k.a Chu) won’t be writing all of the episodes and whatever network that takes on the series will have to hire writers who will have to write scripts specifically for the show. But for now, I’m 50/50 and have mixed feelings about whether or not they should do an animated series.
(Though if they had one I would totally you know, watch it, if only so I could finally see Pharah out of her suit and would be able to appreciate her in all of her gleaming, and more importantly, muscular glory.)
It’s been time for years. Overwatch in its current state feels like a tie-in to a larger media product that currently doesn’t exist. It should’ve been an animated series to begin with.
Granted, I know some are hesitant because of the idea of bad CGI, but I say go for a different style. Use something like what Young Justice has and it should be good.
I really want a Netflix series, but animation is expensive and time consuming. Hopefully they can do at least a Live Action series (a movie wouldn’t cut it, just look at the Warcraft movie).
Here’s the thing, Overwatch WAS supposed to be a movie originally. It only became a game because they didn’t have the resources to make it anything else.
Blockquote However, as much as I’d like for there to be an Overwatch animated series (if only so I could get a fix of my Blue Wife Pharah on a routine basis), I’m also afraid of how the writing will be given well, you know, how inconsistent the writing is now.
I suppose that could be solved by the fact that the OW writers (a.k.a Chu) won’t be writing all of the episodes and whatever network that takes on the series will have to hire writers who will have to write scripts specifically for the show. But for now, I’m 50/50 and have mixed feelings about whether or not they should do an animated series.
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Pretty sure that if they did make a series, they’d hire more lorewriters, set aside a decent budget for it, and make it a Netflix series. At least with a Netflix series (or HBO) they’d be able to get away with a lot more, specifically in the adult content department. Do you really think they would make a cinematic that showed Hanzo mutilating Genji and just post that online? That would be WAAY too gruesome for the general audience. Too much blood and gore. However, the lore fanbase REALLY wants to know what really happened that night. Even though we know what happened, we don’t know the specifics, but it would contain too much adult content for the kids that play the game. I’m sure there are other parts of the lore that would fit into this category too, but the most obvious one is Genji’s “death”. Netflix would let them get away with showing stuff like that. HBO too, but they don’t carry animated series, so it’d have to be a live action series to be on HBO.
It’s cheaper than doing live-action. For reference, the average budget for an animated series is give or take $300,000. That’s below game development, and especially live-action TV.
Really, this is what makes me kinda mad. If they put even a small percentage of the profits this game has made into lore development, we’d be all set. But no, nothing.
And forget doing a live-action series on Overwatch. This game wears its cartoony and comic influences on its sleeve. Can you imagine someone like Reaper, Roadhog, Reinhardt, Widow, or anyone else in live-action? No thanks.
Could always ask Matt Mercer to do a 8 million dollar Kickstarter on Blizzard’s behalf, since, y’know, moneys tight for them like he did for an animated series based on his D&D campaign.
Second point: Have you seen the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Overwatch’s heroes are either somewhat based on some of the same concepts or coincidentally so. If they had the budget, it wouldn’t be too hard to make characters like the ones you mentioned seem realistic if you had good CGI and makeup artists, as well as impeccable type casting. The only heroes I can see a problem with are the Omnic heroes (Bastion, Orisa, and Zenyatta) and Genji (for similar reasons). Robotic characters in live action are really hard to do right, especially if they don’t have builds that are exactly human. Oddly enough, Zenyatta would be the hardest to act for given that, as an omnic, his body is way more slim than a human’s is, and would have to be primarily done through motion capture. Bastion and Orisa are at least large enough to have a human puppet operator, but would still need to be CGI in many aspects. Genji presents a bunch of the same problems, despite having the more natural humanoid shape (since he is still human), but if you were to shoot a scene with him outside of his combat suit, much of his body would likely be motion capture or pure CGI. Even with the combat suit, much of that would be CGI as well, with only the main standout parts actually being real costume fabrication. Not to mention the swords, shurikens, and dragon. Plus, whoever the stunt actor is who would do Genji in battle would have to be attached to wires for half of the stunts Genji is known to be able to pull off, not to mention the kinds of things Genji hasn’t been seen doing, but probably can do anyway (I’m talking in the kind of league of Alita: Battle Angel, which he may or may not have some inspiration pulled from).
But yeah, I agree with your points, just presenting my own side of the thought process.