The tabletop gaming universe World of Darkness, encompassing classics like Vampire: The Masquerade and Werewolf: The Apocalypse, is getting adapted for multiple TV and film projects by a team previously involved in The Witcher and Shadow and Bone. Roll 20 for hype check.
According to Variety, Eric Heisserer (Shadow and Bone) and Christine Boylan (The Punisher), in partnership with production company Hivemind (The Witcher) and game publisher Paradox Interactive, are working on adapting the World of Darkness tabletop gaming universe for film and TV.
The World of Darkness story universe is deliberately and unapologetically inclusive and diverse. It has always made a point of including equal gendered characters, protagonists and antagonists of every race, and representation of all creeds — bringing a female and diverse audience to gaming like nothing prior. Its games and fandom are a place where women, POC, and the LGBTQI community feel welcome and we are very proud to bring these stories to life.
Launched in the 90s, World of Darkness is a series of tabletop RPGs revolving around the hidden gothic underbelly of the modern world, featuring vampires, werewolves, mages, and a variety of other supernatural beings going about their angst-riddled business. As the games’ popularity grew, they branched out into multimedia projects like live-action role playing, comics, card games, and video games. If your friends ever went through a phase of stabbing each other with plastic forks in public places, you can probably blame World of Darkness.
The latest World of Darkness adaptation team hasn’t made any distribution deals yet, but we should hear more about the specific tiles in the coming year and I fully expect Netflix to put its hand up to claim yet another mega-popular franchise.