The Umbrella Academy’s Steve Blackman Adapting Horizon Zero Dawn for Netflix

Steve Blackman, the showrunner of Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy, will be responsible for adapting Horizon Zero Dawn into Netflix’s TV series adaptation of the game, Netflix announced this week. The announcement came in the form of an interview of sorts between Netflix and Blackman where the creator talked about the next season of The Umbrella Academy as well as his other two projects he has in the works, one of which is the Horizon Zero Dawn adaptation.

This show based on the game from Sony and Guerilla Games was first talked about months ago during an investor briefing from Sony, but this is the first time that Netflix has publicly discussed the project. Blackman opened his talks about the adaptation by describing it as a show that “takes place a thousand years in the future, in a world completely remade by massive machines.” Blackman continued to praise the game itself and confirmed that Aloy would be the main character in the story.

“Horizon Zero Dawn is an exceptionally well-crafted game with wonderful characters not often seen in the rank-and-file of the gaming world,” Blackman said. “Guerrilla Games has created an incredibly lush and vivid world of man and machine who find themselves on a collision course to oblivion. Their salvation comes in the form of a young female warrior named Aloy, who has no idea she’s the key to saving the world. Suffice it to say, yes, Aloy will be a main character in our story. My writing partner on this, Michelle Lovretta, and I are thrilled to be able to expand this remarkable IP into a series for all types of viewers.”

It’s worth noting that a production titled “Horizon 2074” was discovered recently and was presumed to be the title of this Horizon Zero Dawn adaptation, but Netflix did not name the show in the talks with Blackman. The Aloy players are most familiar with was born in the year 3021, so if that is the title of the show, it begs the question of how all of these details – her birth year, the show taking place “a thousand years in the future,” and her being the protagonist – will fit together.

Netflix did not provide a release timeframe for Netflix or any other details related to casting announcements, though crew info was supposedly revealed recently when the adaptation’s supposed name was discovered.