With the second season of their Batman series going full speed ahead, the first season of their Guardians of the Galaxy just finished, one last season of The Walking Dead confirmed and The Wolf Among Us finally getting a second season, Telltale has got their hands full with adaptations on every corner.
They’ve gone through a broad spectrum of stories so far, from the bloody and brutal Walking Dead series, to the noir style of The Wolf Among Us, to the comical Tales of the Borderlands. They even tackled a Minecraft series which went for two seasons, which both got fairly good reviews (the second even more than the first).
There’s a bunch to pick from that would fit, and a bunch more that have potential if done in unorthodox ways, so here are my five picks for Telltale game adaptations that I’d throw my money at the screen to see.
1. Westworld
hbo.com
Westworld is already a TV show that keeps you on the edge of your seat until the final moments of the season and beyond, with existential crises to boot. Questions like “what makes me human?” and “am I really in control?” would be right at home in a Telltale game, adding on to the pressure when you try to weigh your answer as carefully as possible in a limited time frame. On top of that, the structure of the Westworld amusement park that the show revolves around would make it possible to have a story where the player goes through the amusement park doing what they want to, without any AI haywire business going on, and have it slowly devolve as the AI start getting more and more self-conscious and start to remember.
It would also make sense to have the player play one of the robots that inhabit the amusement park, especially if it’s not obvious for the player at first. They could also play in one of the other planned amusement parks that we don’t see much of in the show.
2. The Dark Tower
The recently butchered movie which showed exactly how far Idris Elba’s acting ranges (from the usual great to flatter than a pancake under a steam roller) is based on Stephen King’s The Dark Tower book series, which has a huge range of lore that could be covered. From the first sentence in the series, it’s filled with mystery, and binds a lot of lore from Stephen King books together.
Having the player play as The Gunslinger would probably be the best choice in this franchise, although there are plenty of characters in his story that one could play as, especially in moments when he’s immobilized for one reason or another. It would also be possible to play the story before this franchise, especially with the many stories Roland Deschain tells of his past.
3. Harry Potter
With a bunch of games on the way anyway, the Harry Potter franchise is ripe for the picking. It has a huge bandwidth of stories to be told, from the time periods covered in the Fantastic Beasts franchise to the time around Harry’s birth, the death of Voldemort, to even The Cursed Child and more.
The different schools and the information on Pottermore.com would be perfect to adapt to a new story with a new plot, but even playing through a story that we’d always heard about, like the Order of the Phoenix before the death of Harry’s parents and the disappearance of Voldemort, would be a really interesting and probably fun way to dive in to the lore of the wizarding world. What would without a doubt be the most fun is a story where you play a witch or wizard in Hogwarts or any of the other schools of magic around the world and follow a brand new story with some new characters, but also some we’ve seen before.
4. The Wicked + The Divine
The Wicked + The Divine is probably one of the greatest comic series of all time, and it follows a group of people who have become the hosts of gods and have exactly two years left to live. Every ninety years these gods get new hosts that also only have two years to live, although a crony old lady with superiority complex called Ananke predates most of these, and seems to be the one that chooses the hosts. These gods of the pantheon are loved and hated, the ones that appear in our time and age are celebrated as celebrities, whereas 90 years ago they were high society.
The Wicked + The Divine would have so many different ways you could do it, but the most interesting would probably be playing as someone who isn’t a god of the pantheon at the beginning, but is then turned into one as the story progresses. It wouldn’t even have to take place now, it could take place 90 years ago or even further back (into the future wouldn’t work well though, as it would negate certain possible endings for the comics).
5. Magic: The Gathering
Magic: The Gathering is the longest running TCG, having started in 1993 and still going today. Between 1998 and 2007, each cycle of sets had 3 books released, with the story of the respective set. Before that, five books were released in 1995 and four in 1996. On top of this amassing of lore in the form of books, most cards have flavour text on them, and in the Weatherlight saga from 1997 to 2001, going through 13 sets, many of the cards had art and/or flavour text relevant to a large overarching story about the Weatherlight ship and its crew.
However, with the path that Wizards of the Coast has recently been trying to take Magic: The Gathering, it would probably make the most sense to have players play as a Planeswalker, having them team up or fight against some of the biggest threats in Magic: The Gathering history.
Those were my five picks for franchises I want to see Telltold. What would you have picked? Are there any entries on my list that you think are bullshit?
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