Exclusive: Berserk Live-Action Series In The Works
Giant Freakin Robot has an exclusive that a Berserk live-action series is in development. This will be one of the great new worlds to explore
This article is more than 2 years old
Fans of Guts are definitely going to want to hear this one. With so much new content being produced these days, it’s often only a matter of time before your favorite comic book/ anime/ manga series gets the live-action treatment of its own. And it looks like that’s going to be the case with Berserk. Giant Freakin Robot has learned from our trusted and proven source that the popular manga series is being adapted into a new show. A Berserk live-action series looks like it could be headed for HBO. This is an incredibly exciting development and one that could become one of the bigger series out there if everything goes according to plan.
Few other details about this Berserk live-action series are available right now, but if it landed on HBO we would have a sense of just how they wanted to produce this kind of story. Though it was originally sold as a comic book and then an anime series, there are elements of the Berserk story that definitely lend themselves to an older crowd. Not being hamstrung by network sensors is pretty important for telling the central story and establishing a world filled with all manner of evil, some human and some not so much.
A Berserk live-action series would base itself on the manga that first hit bookshelves in comic book form back in the late 1980s. Written by Kentaro Miura, it follows the story of Guts, a mercenary who had, let’s just say inauspicious beginnings. Eventually, he goes on to join the Band of the Hawk, led by the evil Griffith. It takes place in a medieval world in which elements of fantasy are definitely at play. Guts is a branded Black Swordsman, destined to fight off creatures from other dimensions and planes of existence. He’s missing his right eye and is an honest, but brooding and violent character. He’s fighting battles on multiple fronts, both in this world against Griffith and his Band as well as the God Hand, a gang of demons. It’s a rough scene for the dude.
A Berserk live-action series would combine elements of fantasy into this medievalesque background, and there’s a chance for a dark and violent story on our hands here. The original series pulls few punches on the violence level and sets its tone in a rather grim world. But at its backbone is a central story about finding one’s place in the world, realizing some self-actualization even while fighting off skeleton demons. That’s while being surrounded by all manner of corruption and other evils of course. There are a lot of ways this Berserk live-action series could take shape.
While the Berserk live-action series is the first time we’d have actual, real-life folks up on the screen for the action, the series has been adapted a few times before for the animated crowd. There was the first adaptation that hit screens in 1997. It lasted for 25 episodes and, at this point, is mostly just available in DVD form. Then there was the 2016 series which is still available to watch on Crunchyroll. This part of the story picked up a little later in the Berserk timeline. It’s unclear where the Berserk live-action will have its plot, though it’s reasonable to expect this is something of an origin story, branded for a new crowd. We should have more details on the Berserk live-action series soon.
