Sword Art Online Is Getting A Live-Action American TV Series

[MOONPHASE]

American independent production company Skydance Television announced on Tuesday that it has acquired the global live-action television rights for the Sword Art Online (SAO) franchise from Kadokawa.

The company plans to fast-track the launch of a live-action television series. Laeta Kalogridis (Avatar, Terminator Genisys) is writing the script and executive producing along with David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Marcy Ross of Skydance. Kalogridis, who also penned drafts for the live-action Alita: Battle Angel and Ghost in the Shell films, mentioned that she has "for years... been inspired by the inventive and masterful storytelling of the SAO franchise."

Skydance Interactive is also planning a Sword Art Online virtual reality experience after the television series. Skydance Media CEO Ellison said the company is planning "a full-scale and wide-ranging set of live action franchise extensions across our business verticals."

Reki Kawahara's original Sword Art Online light novel series has two television anime adaptations, an anime special, and an upcoming anime film. It has also inspired multiple manga series, games, and a virtual reality demonstration in Japan.

The story revolves around a boy named Kazuto "Kirito" Kirigaya who enters a virtual-reality, massively multi-player online (MMO) world called "Sword Art Online." There is no escape from this world unless the player clears the game, but "game over" means the death of the player.

Aniplex of America releases the anime in North America and Yen Press publishes the light novels and manga.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news...series/.104938

[alvarez468]

Cant wait to see if this gets made.

Sent from The Room of Space and Time

[pikagreg]

I like SAO but I hope they butcher it just because I would rather have something new. An American "trapped in a game" tv show sounds pretty interesting.

[neoz]

uhh...hmm I don't even know what to so. I mean I really love SAO. I have a feeling this won't end well. lol

[pikagreg]

In other news we get William Dafoe as Ryuk in the Netflix Death Note!

[ThatOneGuy]

Wonder if they will mimic it's horrible pacing.

[Snarfs]

Originally Posted by John Klein

Wonder if they will mimic it's horrible pacing.

Well the person writing the script said right there in the article:

"for years... been inspired by the inventive and masterful storytelling of the SAO franchise."

Also says she worked on Avatar. Seems like it'll probably be even worse than SAO. They should really get this Kalagridis to work on a live adaptation of Akame ga Kill...might be more in their wheelhouse

EDIT: For some reason my brain went immediately to the last airbender lol.

[Sylontack]

Originally Posted by Snarfs

"for years... been inspired by the inventive and masterful storytelling of the SAO franchise."

Welp. I'm out.
(Although they're stuck between catering to a small pre-existing fanbase, most of whom probably wouldn't touch a live action- and completely changing the writing and some plot elements to make it palatable for western audiences and losing the fans in the process)
I mean if this makes it through when Noir didn't I'm honestly going to be salty as all heck (outside of that I don't have to watch it and it won't damage my view of a show I don't care about or anything so I don't mind).

But seriously, Noir would have totally killed a good US TV adaptation. SAO might fare alright if it aims for the teen crowd and fans of stuff like The 100 (or on the other side of the spectrum, GoT). Getting such fans will require major rewrites of the cast re:women though, which I'm all for.

[CommanderShiro]

I do not know how I feel about this.

[Oniros]

Originally Posted by CommanderShiro

I do not know how I feel about this.

Very meh IMO. If it were SAO Abridged however...

[Elandyll]

Originally Posted by Sylontack

Welp. I'm out.
(Although they're stuck between catering to a small pre-existing fanbase, most of whom probably wouldn't touch a live action- and completely changing the writing and some plot elements to make it palatable for western audiences and losing the fans in the process)
I mean if this makes it through when Noir didn't I'm honestly going to be salty as all heck (outside of that I don't have to watch it and it won't damage my view of a show I don't care about or anything so I don't mind).

But seriously, Noir would have totally killed a good US TV adaptation. SAO might fare alright if it aims for the teen crowd and fans of stuff like The 100 (or on the other side of the spectrum, GoT). Getting such fans will require major rewrites of the cast re:women though, which I'm all for.

I thought the first season (presented as first half of season 1 on Netflix) is actually excellent, turning quite a few Online Multiplayer Game tropes on their heads or bringing in a lot of thought and emotions into them.
Episode 3 "The Red Nosed Reindeer" is when I knew the show was something special in particular.

And then, the Alfheim arc happened and SAO sh*t the bed...

Hopefully the Live TV series is far more geared toward the first half.

[Nothing371]

looking forward to the fairy king licking Asuna's face scenes.

[sammy033]

Could be good. Could be bad. However considering the fantasy realms I imagine it will be expensive to produce. Maybe go the Netflix streaming route since the seasons are short and there is more freedom. Certainly do SAO and GGO but dont do the one with the white elephant thing. Mainstream American audiences might find the brother-sister/cousin thing among adolescents a littke icky tho so they might avoid that plot.

[darkness2918]

This was unexpected news. I wanna get excited but the little voice inside is telling me not to

[KillaCam]

I'm just sitting here expecting this series to be horrible. If it ends up being decent I will be happy though. Hopefully this will get AoA to repress the Limited Edition Sets of SAO or they will release a box set. I'm still bitter over missing out on the LE's and don't want to get the standard sets just to have them release a better version.

I bought the standard sets of Madoka just to have them release a box set of them later on. Really wish I would have waited since it's the same price I paid but comes with the box and a booklet which I did not receive.

[zeze]

I'll check it out but I don't have high hopes. Americans usually butcher anything anime related when try try to adapt it (anyone remember the Dragonball movie).

[Gamma_Winstead]

Originally Posted by zeze

I'll check it out but I don't have high hopes. Americans usually butcher anything anime related when try try to adapt it (anyone remember the Dragonball movie).

It's not really butchering if the source material in question is awful as is the case with SAO though.

I wonder if they're going to spend a ridiculous amount of time on his dumb sister loving him for no reason like the show. Or if they'll take their strongest character and force her to live in a cage and get tentacle raped for half a season by slug monsters that show up for just that one scene and are never heard from again.

[Darth Helmet]

Originally Posted by Gamma_Winstead

It's not really butchering if the source material in question is awful as is the case with SAO though.

I wonder if they're going to spend a ridiculous amount of time on his dumb sister loving him for no reason like the show. Or if they'll take their strongest character and force her to live in a cage and get tentacle raped for half a season by slug monsters that show up for just that one scene and are never heard from again.

Or explain how someone who solo plays the game is able to level up higher than those who are in guilds. Anyone who plays RGPs will tell you this is impossible unless you cheat. But since the main character is able to cheat death, I'm not surprised.