The company behind Mr Robot and The Revenant to make a TV show based on EA's Battlefield

EA’s long-running Battlefield franchise is gearing up for another spectacular entrant in the form of Battlefield 1. The game is unique for the franchise in that it’s set in World War 1; it’s expected to debut in October this year.

In a blog post, EA has revealed that Paramount Television and Anonymous Content are looking into creating a TV series based on the popular franchise. It’s also been revealed that Michael Sugar, producer behind the Oscar-winning Spotlight, will work on the show. Paramount is very well known of course, but despite the name, Anonymous Content is far from anonymous. They’ve worked on the likes of Mr Robot, True Detective and even the movie that finally won Leo an Oscar, The Revenant. The Battlefield franchise isn’t particularly well known for its single-player campaigns, but its popularity stems from its frenetic multiplayer action and massive, 64-player maps. The franchise has spanned everything from World War 2 (with Battlefield 1942) to the Vietnam war and modern warfare (there’s a pun in here somewhere). Battlefield 1 takes things back to the First World War, a subject not touched upon in most games. The footage we’ve seen looks promising, if not historically accurate (Running and gunning on the surface of blimps?). I’m certainly excited to hear of a Battlefield-based TV series and I’m curious to see what it’s about. Will it be made along the lines of Band of Brothers (among my favourite TV shows), or will it tell a more personal story? How will it tie in with the Battlefield universe? TV shows and movies based on games have traditionally been terrible. With the minds behind Mr Robot and True Detective at work, and the generic nature of Battlefield, I think we might finally see that trend bucked, however.