Of all the video games Hollywood could adapt, PUBG might be the one with the least story to work with. That hasn’t stopped Netflix. The streamer is developing a live-action series based on Krafton’s battle royale, and it has handed the project to Donald Glover, who will write, direct, star in and executive produce it.
Glover is bringing his brother Stephen along as a writer and executive producer, reuniting the pair that made FX’s Atlanta. That show earned Donald two Emmys, one for acting and one for directing, and built a reputation for taking familiar setups somewhere strange and unpredictable. That quality may prove essential here, because PUBG offers almost nothing in the way of narrative. Up to 100 players parachute onto an island, scavenge for weapons and fight until one survivor remains. Since its 2017 launch the game has set seven Guinness World Records, but any characters, motivations or plot will have to come entirely from the writers’ room.
The series comes out of a first-look agreement between Netflix and Krafton, reportedly finalised after drawn-out negotiations. The production team includes Michael Schaefer for NEON TV, Fam Udeorji of Glover’s company Gilga, and Taeseok Jang and Sujin Lee from LV3H, Krafton’s entertainment arm. Neon’s involvement is an unusual signal. The studio is better known for awards-season cinema such as Parasite and Anora, both Best Picture winners, than for game adaptations.
This is also not Krafton’s first attempt to bring PUBG to the screen. The publisher talked up film and TV plans in 2020, and an animated series with Castlevania producer Adi Shankar was announced the following year before going quiet. The Glover project is the first with both a high-profile creative lead and a platform attached.
For Netflix, it joins a crowded games slate that includes an Assassin’s Creed series, a Gears of War film and animated takes on Minecraft, Magic: The Gathering and Clash of Clans. The company’s live-action record with games is uneven, though. Its Resident Evil series ended after a single season in 2022, while One Piece showed that a well-handled adaptation can work.
Glover’s availability is itself a story. His 2021 exclusive deal with Amazon MGM Studios has since shifted to a first-look arrangement, leaving him free to work elsewhere.
There is no cast beyond Glover, no plot and no release window yet, and given that the project is only now entering development, viewers shouldn’t expect it soon. The more interesting question is what a filmmaker known for surreal social commentary actually sees in a last-player-standing shooter.
