There’s been a renewed interest in live-action video game to TV adaptations in recent years, undoubtedly spurred on by the successes of HBO’s The Last of Us and Amazon’s Fallout. Netflix is looking to ride the momentum with a Horizon Zero Dawn series, but it seems things have hit a snag.
As reported by Rolling Stone, the project is being put on hold due to allegations against showrunner Steve Blackman. The screenwriter, best known for his work on The Umbrella Academy, faces accusations of “bullying, manipulative, and retaliatory behaviour” from 12 former colleagues, as well as creating “an environment of fear and distrust,” “[taking] credit for others’ work, and [making] comments that were “sexist, homophobic and transphobic.” Blackman has responded to the claims, describing them as “entirely untrue and “completely absurd”.
It should be noted that there’s no confirmation on whether the project will be canned entirely. The full sentence in the article reads, “Rolling Stone has learned that the two projects are no longer moving forward with Blackman,” which appears to indicate that Blackman is no longer attached, instead of a cancellation. Orbital, pitched as an original sci-fi thriller, is the other show in question.
First announced in 2022, Netflix’s Horizon Zero Dawn series was set to star Aloy, the protagonist of Guerrilla Games’ hit title. Updates have been scant since then, though Sony stated back in January 2024 that writing had begun. Netflix, apparently, declined to comment on the Rolling Stone story.
The game was released in 2017, and marks the studio’s first entry since Killzone in 2004. It follows Aloy, a young hunter in a world overrun by machines, who sets out to uncover her past, only to realise that she holds the key to save humanity from the edge of extinction. A sequel, Horizon Forbidden West, followed in 2022, with 16 new projects currently in the pipeline.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
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