Captain Laserhawk Creator Adi Shankar Talks Tackling Video Game Adaptations

Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix will soon be showing off a very unique video game adaptation, and creator and producer Adi Shankar talked about his process when adapting these video games into a new series! Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix was first teased as a new anime take on the Far Cry 3 spin-off, Blood Dragon, but through promotional materials released since its announcement it was revealed that the series will actually be expanding to the entire Ubisoft library with references and characters from throughout its long video game publishing history. It’s quite a lot to juggle in an adaptation. 

In an email correspondence with ComicBook.com, Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix creator and producer Adi Shankar opened up about how he tackles video game adaptations much like he’s done in the past with the likes of Castlevania, and first revealed that he looks beyond the “commercial footprint” of the source materials to find something beyond and work from there, “I don’t think about it. My process is I fall in love and allow that love to guide me. My attraction to source material transcends their commercial footprint.” 

How Adi Shankar Adapts Video Games to Screen

“When your creative decisions become too tightly tethered to sales data it creates ‘content,’” Shankar continued. “While I don’t believe ‘content’ is necessarily bad, I just don’t want to spend any of my life force making it. My career commitment is to infuse my creative energy into projects that I am deeply passionate about with the hope that it resonates through authenticity.” This authenticity is why Shankar sought out to explore more of the Blood Dragon spin-off despite its obscurity.

“So while Blood Dragon might not be as broadly recognized, the distinctive aesthetic Dean Evans, Alexandre Letendre, and Jason Eisner crafted with their Blood Dragon expansion pack for Far Cry 3 played a pivotal role within the evolution of internet art culture. I have a deep love for this aesthetic Dean, Alexandre, and Jason crafted and am excited to be a part of that aesthetic’s journey.” Shankar then reflect on the growing influence of this kind of aesthetic as well.

“I also love that the synthwave genre continues to grow and influence mainstream culture,” Shankar continued. “You don’t get STRANGER THINGS without the synthwave. The Weeknd’s album ‘After Hours’ and its visuals & music videos like ‘Blinding Lights’ come from synthwave. Lady Gaga’s album ‘Chromatica’ was part of this movement. So the bottom line here is that there is an art movement happening that dates back to the 2010’s and Blood Dragon is a seminal deep cut within it.”

Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix will introduce more of this synthwave inspired attitude when it premieres on Netflix on October 19th.