Twisted Metal Releases First Bonkers Poster For Upcoming Series
We get our first look at Twisted Metal thanks to a strange poster featuring Anthony Mackie.
A new poster image has been released for the upcoming Peacock series Twisted Metal, based on the popular line of video games. Starring Anthony Mackie, Marvel’s Falcon and Captain America, the new comedy streamer looks to be as insane and over-the-top as its namesake. The games feature vehicular combat, with a weaponized demolition derby of insanity at their core, and this image signals the silliness to come.
While Twisted Metal hardly positions itself as serious fare, the madcap visuals in this poster image portend either hilarity or insanity, and it’s hard to be sure which one or if it will be both. As if the massive, hulking title graphic wasn’t enough, the poster features explosions, twin flying rockets, derelict vehicles, and an ominous shot of Sweet Tooth, the psychotic clown’s demented ice cream truck. In the foreground, Mackie gives us some self-aware side-eye as his car races forward, sidearm guns a-blazing, which is apparently less important to his character at the moment than looking cool.
The comical collision of destructive violence and aloof confidence hints at Twisted Metal committing to destructive vehicular conflict that takes itself none too seriously. And of course, that’s much more fun than if the series had tried to make something more dramatic and intense out of its inspiration’s very loose premise. Smashing and shooting vehicles for fun needs only a little narrative context to fuel a video game.
This new Twisted Metal adaptation has, according to Games Radar, been talked about since 2019, while an earlier film adaptation failed to materialize. And it’s not the only video game adaptation on Peacock’s plate. The streaming service is also developing a series based on the first-person shooter Doom. That game had previously been adapted into a film starring Dwayne Johnson that did not fare well.
The Twisted Metal series hopes to meet with more success and has attracted an impressive roster of stars, starting with Mackie. The cast also boasts the presence of Wil Arnett, who will be providing the voice of Sweet Tooth, to be portrayed onscreen by AEW superstar Samoa Joe. The cast also includes stars such as Neve Campbell and Thomas Haden Church.
Co-starring with Mackie in Twisted Metal will be Stephanie Beatriz, whose vocal talents were featured in Disney‘s Encanto, as well as animated properties ranging from DuckTales to Bob’s Burgers. Of course, taking a straightforward, shoot-and-smash video game into a streaming series requires more than big action and madcap comedy. We’re hoping the series’ writers also come up with fun, interesting stories to tell, even if they stay fairly silly and lighthearted.
The Twisted Metal game series has been around for a long time, dating back to the original PlayStation in 1995. The games evolved with the PlayStation and have had several sequels and spin-offs, but have also seen several potential games canceled while still in development. The most recent title in the line was a reboot of the series in 2012 that featured characters like Dollface, Mr. Grimm, and the aforementioned Sweet Tooth.
Whether this new Twisted Metal series will fare better than the attempted movie or the failed game titles has yet to be seen, but with the game franchise inactive for more than a decade, Mackie has a lot more to worry about than where he’s shooting his car guns.
