Adi Shankar is a name that is slowly but surely making its way into the hearts of video game fans. The producer behind such great segments as Dirty Laundry (the Punisher short film featuring Thomas Jane and Ron Perlman) and the mature-oriented Power/Rangers mini-movie has been hard at work as of late, not only putting together an amazing Castlevania anime series that will debut on Netflix this Friday, but also signing on to work with Ubisoft on an Assassin’s Creed animated series.
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He’s been grateful to work on both projects…so why stop now? Obviously he’ll be busy over the next few months with these two forthcoming hits, but when he’s done, we can’t help but suggest a few other franchises that he could work his magic on.
So here now is a short list of five video games that we’d love to see get made into animated series under Shankar’s care. Some of them may be stretches (particularly since they aren’t the most popular game franchises out right now), but we’d still love to see what he can do for them.
Gunstar Heroes
Some of you may not recall this spectacular little gem from the Sega Genesis library, but, even twenty-something years after its release, it remains one of the best action games ever made. This anime-style Contra-esque shooter would do well as an animated series, especially with a prominent team handling the design of the show, so that it replicates the game material. For good measure, Shankar could even throw in a few Treasure references for the gaming nerds, including nods to classics like Radiant Silvergun and Ikagura. I’m already drooling at that particular idea…
Darksiders
Over the past few years, Darksiders has carved out an incredible little niche in the gaming world, with Joe “Mad” Madureira and his team at Vigil Games bringing us two great adventures. Now, we’ve got a third game on the way, so the time seems right to bring forth an animated series that digs deeper into the lore of the Four Horsemen, and their battle with the apocalyptic events surrounding the world. With all the fascinating characters that have been introduced with this series, we’d love to see more of the lore explained.
Oh, and this project would totally earn bonus points if they brought back Michael Wincott to voice Death. He was perfect in Darksiders II.
Prince of Persia
Back a few years ago, this franchise was a pretty big deal. Disney had just released a big-screen adaptation featuring Jake Gyllenhaal as the Prince, and Ubisoft also released several games to tie in with it, including a noteworthy Prince of Persia HD trilogy for PlayStation 3. But it’s been years since we’ve heard from the franchise, and it seems like the kind of legacy that would work well for an animated series. If Shankar could work alongside the franchise’s creator, Jordan Mechner, and some great animation hands, there’s no reason this Prince couldn’t return back to his throne.
God of War
While Kratos’ tale has unfolded spectacularly over the past few games in the God of War series, we still can’t help but think there are some blanks that can be filled in, such as how he became such a nimble warrior, or, more importantly, the events that unfolded between past God of War games and the most current one coming in 2018. And what better way to tell such a story than with brilliant, mature-rated animation, with Shankar working alongside the team at Sony to bring it to life? We’d watch for sure, especially when it comes to telling the story about Kratos and his son.
Metroid
This is probably a pipe dream, but Nintendo has talked about bringing back Star Fox for an anime series, so why not Metroid? There’s still plenty of time to put this together, since Metroid Prime 4 is still a ways off from release, and Shankar could assure that the legacy – and more importantly, the series’ main star, Samus Aran – is treated with respect. We could even get details about what happened in her life leading up to the events of both Samus Returns and Prime 4. We’d watch that in spades – we’re talking epic binge session here, folks.
