Even after reports of the animated series surfaced last week, one of the most surprising announcements at Gamescom’s Opening Night Live was Secret Level. This 15-episode anthological animated series focuses on different video game properties, and is coming to Amazon on December 10. Deadpool director and Blur Studio co-founder Tim Miller is leading the project, and there are some pretty big franchises attached to the project. You can check out the full trailer right here, but for an extended breakdown of each video game getting an episode in the series, read on.
Armored Core
An episode based on FromSoftware’s mech franchise Armored Core is already one of the most notable teased in the Secret Level trailer, as it appears that Cyberpunk 2077 and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 star Keanu Reeves will play a role in the episode. We see several shots of a character who appears to be modeled after Reeves enters a mech. Hopefully, Reeves is also voicing the character rather than just lending his likeness. Though, given that this show seems to already be operating with a huge budget, what’s one stunt casting?
Concord
Firewalk Studios’ hero shooter is one of the newest franchises featured in Secret Level, as Concord isn’t even out to the public yet as of this writing. However, it looks like an episode of the anthology will be dedicated to the Guardians of the Galaxy-esque scrappy science fiction world, as well as known characters like Star Child.
Crossfire
Crossfire, the tactical shooter from Smilegate Entertainment, might not be as immediately recognizable to western audiences as some other games featured in Secret Level, though it’s massively popular in other parts of the world. The glimpse of gunman squads we see in the trailer is likely from this episode.
Dungeons & Dragons
The Dungeons & Dragons multiverse is always ripe for a new story with recognizable iconography even if it’s not following the same characters. We can see the aforementioned dragons throughout the trailer. Now we just need to see the dungeons.
Exodus
Like Concord, Exodus isn’t even out yet and will be the focus of a Secret Level episode. The game was announced at The Game Awards in 2023 and stars Interstellar actor Matthew McConaughey. Whether he appears in Secret Level remains to be seen.
Honor of Kings
TiMi Studio Group’s MOBA Honor of Kings is also getting an episode in Secret Level. While it’s unlikely the episode will feature every character in the long-running game given there are over 100 heroes to choose from, that does mean there’s a lot of material to pull from.
Mega Man
Capcom’s iconic robot boy will star in one of Secret Level’s episodes. We can see him suiting up and putting on his blue helmet in the trailer, and he looks pretty dope in the show’s somewhat but not entirely realistic art style. It’s giving Alita Battle Angel but hopefully without the weird uncanny valley effect.
New World: Aeternum
Given Amazon is behind Secret Level, it’s not surprising that it slipped its own New World: Aeternum into the anthology and featured it prominently in the trailer. The MMO will be the focus of one of the episodes just two months after the game launches on consoles in October.
Pac-Man
One of the stranger things we see in the trailer is the inclusion of Pac-Man. Bandai Namco’s mascot character seems to appear in the show as a robot complete with a scary Terminator-ass camera in his mouth. This is, of course, very much out of context and it’s unclear just what this is, but nevertheless, Pac-Man will be featured in Secret Level in December.
PlayStation Studios games
This is one of the most interesting parts of the Secret Level trailer and all the promotional material Amazon has put out for the show thus far. An episode will be dedicated to what seems to be multiple games from Sony’s first-party studios rather than focusing on a single one. We can see God of War’s Kratos and Ghost of Tsushima’s Jin Sakai, but it’s unclear just how or if they will interact. Are we getting the PlayStation All-Stars sequel we deserve through a television show?
Sifu
One of the most easily recognizable franchises in Secret Level is Sloclap’s martial arts beat-em-up Sifu. The episode appears to forgo the realism of other episodes in favor of sticking to the distinct stylized look of the game.
Spelunky
Meanwhile, the characters in the Spelunky episode look nothing like the 2D sprites of the roguelike. We see a brief shot of a spelunker spelunkin’ in the trailer, but the Secret Levels trailer doesn’t linger on it for very long, unfortunately.
The Outer Worlds
Obsidian’s sci-fi RPG The Outer Worlds pops in the brief glimpses we get of it in Secret Level. The running theory is that the show’s episode might follow a young Phineas Vernon Welles, who appeared in the original game. But that’s unconfirmed.
Unreal Tournament
The Unreal Tournament episode seems to focus on a battle within the titular tournament. We see a shot of a stadium with ads for the Izanagi Corporation, an entity within the game’s universe. There hasn’t been a new Unreal Tournament since 2007, so fans can enjoy the crumbs, I suppose.
Warhammer 40,000
Last up is Warhammer 40,000. The episode will reportedly focus on characters from the upcoming Space Marine 2, set to launch on September 9.
That’s all we know about the episodes so far. The trailer doesn’t spend too long on any one part of the anthology, so we mostly just know the tone of the project as a whole, rather than much in the way of specific details. I’m most curious about the PlayStation Studios one because I’m interested to see just how deep down that well Amazon goes. Kratos and Jin in a crossover episode is fun enough, but for something with this big of a budget, I hope we see them really dive into the PlayStation catalog.
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