Summary
- Blizzard reportedly had an Overwatch series in development at Netflix that was canceled due to a lawsuit over executive poaching.
- Overwatch as a franchise has struggled to explore its universe's stories in any major way, with Overwatch 2's planned story missions being scrapped.
- The lawsuit between Activision and Netflix also led to in-development adaptations of StarCraft and Diablo being canceled.
Blizzard reportedly had an Overwatch Netflix series in development that was canceled due to a lawsuit over the latter poaching an executive from the former. Had Netflix not lured an Activision Blizzard executive away from the company in the middle of their negotiations, Overwatch 2 fans might have been able to enjoy an animated series of their own.
The story of the Overwatch universe has been in a strange place since the first-person shooter originally released in 2016. The first FPS lacked a true storytelling medium outside its stellar animated shorts, and while the 2022 sequel originally planned to finally progress the story via its story missions, evidence suggests most of Overwatch 2’s PvE content has been scrapped.
Overwatch 2 Players Think Blizzard Missed Obvious Opportunities With The My Hero Academia Crossover
As the upcoming Overwatch 2 crossover with My Hero Academia approaches, players take to social media to point out Blizzard's missed opportunities.
Now, yet another missed Overwatch storytelling opportunity has revealed itself. According to Bloomberg reporter and author of PLAY NICE: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment Jason Schreier, Blizzard and Netflix were developing an Overwatch series in the late 2010s leading up to the release of Overwatch 2. Unfortunately, progress on these projects was ground to a halt when Netflix poached Spencer Neumann, former Activision CFO, leading to a lawsuit in 2020.
Netflix Almost Had an Overwatch Series
The Variety report on the lawsuit shared by Schreier during his AMA on Reddit explained that Neumann was courted by Netflix in late 2018, just over a year into his three-year deal with Activision, and in the middle of their negotiations for the animated series. This was in violation of Neumann’s “no shop” clause that prevented him from entertaining other employment opportunities while working for Activision, leading to his termination. Shortly after, in January 2019, he was signed on as Netflix's CFO, prompting Activision Blizzard to sue the streaming service for being in contempt of California state employment laws.
The lawsuit between Activision and Netflix killed not only the Overwatch series, but other Blizzard projects as well. Schreier confirmed that in-development Netflix shows for both StarCraft and Diablo also fell apart from this debacle, and given the bad blood from Neumann’s poaching, it is unlikely the two companies will be collaborating any time soon.
Needless to say, Overwatch 2 players were beside themselves upon hearing this news. One fan on Twitter called it “the fumble of the decade,” while another said “It’s like the universe itself doesn’t want the story of Overwatch to be told in any way.” With a large pool of heroes and plots to pull from, the possibilities for an Overwatch animated series is nearly infinite, but it seems storytelling in Future Earth is doomed to never get very far. It is always possible that Blizzard could surprise players with more Overwatch 2 stories in the future, but at the moment, players can only imagine what could have been.
Overwatch 2
-
OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 77 /100 Critics Rec: 65%
WHERE TO PLAY
Overwatch 2 is an always-on and ever-evolving free-to-play, team-based action game set in an optimistic future, where every match is the ultimate 5v5 battlefield brawl. Power up your railgun and disrupt the battlefield as Sojourn, or yield your axe and command attention as Junker Queen. Battle to take control of a robot and move it toward the enemy base in the new Push Mode. Bring the fight to new destinations across the globe in iconic locations like New York, Rome, Monte Carlo and Rio. Daily challenges and frequent updates mean there is always something new to play.
