Netflix’s video game slate just got its biggest name yet. The streamer announced today that a live-action series adaptation of PUBG: Battlegrounds is in development, with Donald Glover attached to write, direct, executive produce, and star.
The series is based on KRAFTON’s battle royale phenomenon, which launched in 2017 as PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and is widely credited with popularizing the 100-players-drop-onto-an-island format that Fortnite, Apex Legends, and Call of Duty: Warzone would go on to run with. While the game isn’t quite at its peak like it was back around 2018 and 2019, it holds a huge playerbase to this day.
KRAFTON says the franchise holds seven Guinness World Records, and the company is now pushing it into film and television through its <a href="https://comicvibe.com/beyond-the-following-building-the-next-entertainment-franchise/” title=”Beyond the Following: Building the Next Entertainment Franchise”>entertainment arm, LV3H, which is involved in both development and production on the Netflix series.
Here’s everything we know so far.
Who’s behind the ‘PUBG’ series?
This is a Glover family affair. Donald Glover (Atlanta, Community, Mr. & Mrs. Smith) is wearing four hats as writer, director, executive producer, and star. He’s joined by his brother and longtime collaborator Stephen Glover, who co-created and wrote on Atlanta and will write and executive produce here too.
Rounding out the executive producer list:
- Michael Schaefer for NEON TV
- Fam Udeorji for Gilga
- Taeseok Jang and Sujin Lee for LV3H
For Netflix subscribers, Glover is a familiar face even if he hasn’t fronted an original for the service before. Community was a global Netflix staple for years before all six seasons left the service in April 2024 ahead of the long-promised movie. Atlanta, meanwhile, has never made it to Netflix in the US, as we covered back when fans were first asking.
No plot details, casting beyond Glover, or production timeline have been revealed. Given the project is only just entering development with scripts still to be written, don’t expect this one on Netflix before 2028 at the earliest.
Longtime readers may remember that this isn’t the first time PUBG and Netflix have been mentioned in the same breath. Back in July 2021, KRAFTON announced an animated PUBG project with Castlevania and Devil May Cry producer Adi Shankar, which was widely reported to be heading to Netflix. That project has gone quiet in the years since (just like the long-rumored Assassin’s Creed animated series), and today’s announcement makes no mention of it, so it’s safe to assume the live-action series is the franchise’s path forward on the streamer.
Where ‘PUBG’ fits into Netflix’s game adaptation slate
Netflix name-checked an unusually long list of projects in today’s announcement, which doubles as a status update on just how deep its video game bench now runs. We keep a running tracker of every video game and board game adaptation coming to Netflix in 2026 and beyond, but in short: the live-action Assassin’s Creed series is furthest along, having wrapped filming earlier this month with a late 2027 release looking likely; David Leitch’s Gears of War film is still being scripted; animated series based on Minecraft, Magic: The Gathering, and Clash of Clans are all in production; an Overcooked competition series is in the works; Splinter Cell: Deathwatch is heading into season 2 and Devil May Cry into its third and final season; and a live-action Crazy Taxi movie leads the slate of titles from the recent Sega deal.
Netflix also has a deep back catalog of game adaptations already available to stream. The streamer’s track record in the space runs from the animated Castlevania and its follow-up Castlevania: Nocturne, through the Emmy-winning Arcane, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners and its standalone sequel season that landed earlier this month, DOTA: Dragon’s Blood, Tekken: Bloodline, Sonic Prime, and Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft, to the more recent Devil May Cry and Splinter Cell: Deathwatch. Live action has been a tougher nut to crack, with the 2022 Resident Evil series canceled after a single season, which makes PUBG and Assassin’s Creed Netflix’s biggest live-action swings at the genre yet. For a ranked take on the best of the bunch, check out our list of the best video game series adaptations on Netflix.
We’ll keep updated as more on PUBG is revealed. In the meantime, are you excited to see Donald Glover drop into the battlegrounds? Let us know in the comments below.
