Exclusive: Live-Action DOTA Coming To Netflix
A Dota live-action series is in the works at Netflix.
This article is more than 2 years old
A Dota live-action project sounds like it might be something a little too wild for most audiences. The franchise was born out of the Warcraft series but has now become its own fantasy world that stands on its own. Netflix recently produced an animated series called Dota: Dragon’s Blood and it seems like the streaming giant wants to stay in the business of making installments in this series. In fact, Giant Freakin Robot has obtained some exclusive information that says Netflix is planning to go all-in with this particular property.
According to one of our trusted and proven inside sources, Dota is headed for live-action. Our source could not confirm whether the plan is to make this a movie or a series, but considering that Netflix is more well-known for their series, we are guessing that the plan will be to make Dota into a live-action series. We don’t have any information in regards to who is attached to the project, but we can confirm that the story will focus on fighting the Demon Marauder Terrorblade. Other than that, we were not able to uncover any other details about the project.
We have to wonder just how confident Netflix must feel to devote some serious coin to a Dota live-action series. They already have one major fantasy series under their belt – The Witcher – but that show is a much darker and gritty take on the genre. This would offer a more colorful fantasy series for Netflix to market, though it is unclear at this point what kind of age range the show would be aiming for. The animated series they produced is TV-MA so the assumption is that their live-action series would also be trying to grab an adult audience.
It is also worth wondering just what the popularity ceiling on a Dota live-action series could be. The franchise is extremely popular in esports but has not managed to break through to a lot of mainstream pop culture. Warcraft was a far more popular series and the feature film adaptation of that was unable to really break out here in the United States. Would the same be true of Dota if it decided to go the live-action route? And if it does, just how much time, effort, and money is Netflix willing to put into a project that will require a ton of special effects and other production elements in order to nail the heightened fantasy world of the franchise?
We will have to see whether or not Netflix decides to move forward with full force on the Dota live-action series. Our source says this is in the earliest stages of development which means nothing has been nailed down. Whether or not the project gains any momentum could depend on whether or not the numbers for the animated series are good. In fact, if Netflix is even considering a live-action project, it would sound like those numbers might have instigated this potential production. We will keep our eyes and ears out for any more updates on this project.
