James R | On 27, Aug 2022

A TV series based on Horizon Zero Dawn is in the works at Netflix.

The 2017 RPG is set in an era where machines roam the land and mankind is no longer the dominant species. In a lush, post-apocalyptic world where nature has reclaimed the ruins of a forgotten civilisation, pockets of humanity live on in primitive hunter-gatherer tribes. Their dominion over the new wilderness has been usurped by fearsome mechanical creatures of unknown origin. In this dangerous frontier, a young hunter named Aloy embarks on a journey to discover her destiny.

Selling more than 20 million copies, the video game swiftly spawned two sequels – The Frozen Wilds in 2017 and Horizon Forbidden West earlier this year. Now, it’s heading to the screen in a new form, with Steve Blackman (The Umbrella Academy) and Michelle Lovretta (Killjoys) adapting the games for Netflix and serving as co-showrunners.

The series is part of an expanded creative partnership between Netflix and Blackman’s Irish Cowboy productions.

“Horizon Zero Dawn is an exceptionally well-crafted game with wonderful characters not often seen in the rank-and-file of the gaming world,” he said this week. “Guerrilla Games has created an incredibly lush and vivid world of man and machine who find themselves on a collision course to oblivion. Their salvation comes in the form of a young female warrior named Aloy, who has no idea she’s the key to saving the world. Suffice it to say, yes, Aloy will be a main character in our story. My writing partner on this, Michelle Lovretta, and I are thrilled to be able to expand this remarkable IP into a series for all types of viewers.”

The project also joins another in the works at Netflix from Irish Cowboy productions: Orbital, a sci-fi set upon the International Space Station.

“There are many kinds of superheroes in the world. Not all shoot lighting from their eyes or flip cars with the flick of a hand. The men and women who live on the most expensive and complex machine ever built — the International Space Station — live in the unforgiving vacuum of space. There is no Uber to call when things go bad. They can only rely on trust for each other. When that trust erodes, every action they choose can have dire consequences,” Blackman commented about Orbital.

“With my collaborators, David and Keith Lynch, we’re creating a series that is unlike anything I’ve done before yet also shares my love of black humour, characters who live on the edge and wild action sequences. We can’t reveal much more than this, but we can say for certain that there won’t be any aliens.”

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