Renegade producer Adi Shankar has been on a hot streak with video game adaptations lately. His Castlevania animated series ran for four seasons on Netflix and spawned a spinoff, plus his latest endeavor, a TV adaptation of Devil May Cry has been renewed for a second season on the platform. Shankar now has another beloved game property to add to his slate at his cheekily titled company Bootleg Universe: Duke Nukem. While there’s been several aborted attempts to give the character and his series of games the Hollywood treatment, it seems Duke Nukem has found the right storyteller with Shankar.
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Shankar broke the news that he acquired the rights to Duke Nukem last week in Esquire. “I’m being approached with different IPs and companies that want to work with me. I bought the rights to Duke Nukem.” Shankar shared. “Not the gaming rights, but I bought it from Gearbox.” Duke Nukem made his debut as the protagonist in a PC game series, then the larger-than-life, gruff-voiced hero transitioned to console games in the late ’90s and subsequently found his footing.
Shankar went on to profess his protectiveness over the franchise and his controversial approach to Nukem. “Duke Nukem can’t be made by a corporation, because the moment a corporation makes Duke Nukem, it’s no longer Duke Nukem. I don’t intend on having anyone tell me what to do on this one.”
Shankar Wants to Keep Duke Nukem as a “Middle Finger” to Everyone in Series Adaptation
Part of adhering to the character and game’s DNA for Shankar is not trying to put too much polish on Duke Nukem. “It’s a middle finger to everybody.” he explained. “When Duke Nukem blew up, a bunch of people sat around trying to turn it into a brand, when it’s just a middle finger.”
That’s a bold statement no doubt, but it is certainly in line with the essence of the character. Plus, Shankar has an unassailable track record when it comes to animated game adaptations for Netflix. Though Castlevania and Devil May Cry are Shankar’s most noteworthy shows, he’s also been the guiding creative force behind Netflix’s The Guardians of Justice (Will Save You!) and Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix.
The secret to Shankar’s success is a genuine love for the form, combined with a genuine desire to push American animation into a new space. “I grew up on action-heavy Saturday cartoons. American Saturday morning cartoons were f—ing sick. I didn’t even live in America and I watched them!” Shankar told Esquire. “They made me want to be here. But they were boxed in by broadcast standards, and I wondered what these stories would become if they weren’t held back.”
With Duke Nukem and his other endeavors, Shankar revealed a desire to “[build] something new rooted in American action storytelling. This genre needs a name, because it’s not anime. It’s something that lives between Saturday morning cartoons, prestige television, and R-rated cinema.”
Whatever this new genre becomes, Shankar will go down in history as the progenitor of it, and for good reason.
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Image courtesy of Netflix.
