Clue Is Now A TV Series
Fox Entertainment has announced they are developing a new animated TV series based on the classic Hasbro mystery board game, Clue.
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For over 70 years, Clue has been one of the most beloved board games, as a group of players try to figure out who killed the game’s victim, where they were murdered, and with what weapon. As a game with multiple characters and outcomes, Clue is one of the few classic board games that lends itself to adaptations. Now, Clue is becoming an animated series at Fox.
This Clue adaptation will be co-produced by Fox Entertainment, eOne and Bento Box Entertainment, which is acting as the animation studio. Bento Box Entertainment is probably best known for their work with Bob’s Burgers, as well as shows like Apple TV+’s Central Park, Fox’s recent The Great North, and The David S. Pumpkins Halloween Special. Hasbro acquired eOne last year, and Clue marks the second board game adaptation they have currently in the works. Earlier this year, it was announced that Beau Willimon, the creator of Netflix’s House of Cards, would be making a TV adaptation of Risk.
Little else is known about this animated take on Clue, but one would expect we will see the usual characters – Miss Scarlet, Mr. Green, Colonel Mustard, Professor Plum, Mrs. White, and Mrs. Peacock – in animated form. Since this is the first collaboration between Entertainment One and Bento Box, it’s hard to predict what the show will look like, but currently, Fox has three Bento Box productions on their network: Bob’s Burgers, Duncanville, and The Great North.
But for Hasbro, Clue has always seemed to be one of their favorite properties. The company has given Clue tons of variations over the years, and over a dozen video games. Clue has also received a series of books and a pair of comic book runs. Clue was an Off-Broadway show in 1997, and a play in 1985. There was also a five-part miniseries that aired on The Hub in 2011.
The most popular alternate iteration of Clue was the 1985 film, which starred Tim Curry, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean, and Eileen Brennan, amongst others. The film cost $15 million to make and only made $14.6 million at the box-office. But the film has become a cult comedy classic over the years, thanks to an over-the-top performance by Curry, and multiple endings that kept audiences rewatching over and over again.
Most recently, there were talks that another Clue film was on the way. This new film has been in the works for over a decade, but the project really picked up when Fox announced in 2018 that Ryan Reynolds would be starring in this latest adaptation. As of last year, the Clue film was still in the works with Reynolds attached, with The Muppets and Dora the Explorer director James Bobin planned to direct.
Clue has received so many adaptations over the years, it’s certainly a Hasbro property with plenty of longevity and possibilities. While it’s unclear how this murder mystery will be stretched throughout an entire television series, Hasbro has shown over and over how malleable the Clue brand truly is.
