Amazon MGM Studios and Blur Studios (of Love, Death and Robots fame) collaborate on an animated, video game-themed anthology: Secret Level. As Prime Video continues its successful foray into speculative fiction, their latest installment will feature familiar videogame characters and their associated worlds in fifteen entirely new animated features.
I would call it pandering IF the juxtaposition between Blur Studios and video game cuts scenes, turned into full length stories wasn’t the holy grail of videogamer fandom. The technology has been here for at least a decade and many games have cut scenes whose sophisticated graphics were already movie-ready. Even my non-gaming wife has asked me on more than one occasion after seeing an animated cut scene: Why did this idea take so long to become reality?
Love, Death and Robots has been an animation high point in the last decade and the three seasons have offered outstanding science fiction with brand new intellectual properties, an achievement few companies can boast. Debuting on December 10, the Secret Level trailer gives us clips from Warhammer 40K, SIFU, Dungeons and Dragons, Megaman, Armored Core, Exodus and many others. The one that got my attention were the clips from Warhammer 40K because of the reluctance of Games Workshop to put their beloved Adeptes Astartes into films, until recently. A reluctance I believe was overcome when fan creators were producing animations which made them believe their product could become more than just fringe comics and overpriced, plastic figurines.
If the five seconds of video we get to see gets to become fifteen to thirty minutes of pestilence and Chaos-smashing Space Marine awesomeness, done with the loving patience that Blur Studios has demonstrated to date, there is no doubt this will be one of the highlights of the series, for me. News around the camp fire says, voice actor, Clive Standen (Vikings) will reprise his role as ‘Titus’ in Secret Level. He’s appeared as the voice of Titus on the popular videogame, Space Marine 2. the Secret Level Warhammer 40K episode called “Chaos” is directed by Patrick Osborne, who worked on such projects as Nimona, and Big Hero 6.
Pander on, dudes. Bold words were bandied about by the studio head today when he said:
“Secret Level weaves a tapestry of iconic games across multiple mediums, to tell a series of unique and captivating stories,” said Vernon Sanders, head of television, Amazon MGM Studios. “Created and led by Tim Miller, Blur Studio, and Supervising Director Dave Wilson, each episode will take our global Prime Video customers on a brand new journey with breathtaking animation and imaginative storytelling.”
Each episode of Secret Level taps into worlds from beloved gaming classics and new titles. Here is a list of games who inspired the 15 stories in Season 1: Armored Core, Concord, Crossfire, Dungeons & Dragons, Exodus, God of War, Honor of Kings, Mega Man, New World: Aeternum, PAC-MAN and properties from various PlayStation games including, Sifu, Spelunky, The Outer Worlds, Unreal Tournament and Warhammer 40,000.
There is almost no game listed here whose backstories (um, except PAC-MAN) don’t lend themselves to expansion in the hands of skilled writers, unconstrained by limited video game budgets, to write something meaningful for beloved characters of gamers worldwide. The final image of Pac Man in the Secret Level trailer is kinda terrifying increasing my need to know more.
Secret Level, produced by Amazon MGM Studios and Blur Studio, is created by and executive produced by Tim Miller. Dave Wilson serves as executive producer and supervising director. It will debut December 10th on Prime Video.
Thaddeus Howze is an award-winning writer, editor, podcaster and activist creating speculative fiction, scientific, political and cultural commentary from his office in Hayward, California.
Thaddeus’ speculative fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies and literary journals. He has published two books, ‘Hayward’s Reach’ (2011), a collection of short stories and ‘Broken Glass’ (2013) an urban fantasy novella starring his favorite paranormal investigator, Clifford Engram.
