The much anticipated Twisted Metal live-action series just got its first teaser trailer (see below), and it sure looks like it will be a very polarizing adaptation. "True fans" of the original video game franchise will undoubtedly start picking it apart, analyzing every frame. At the same time everyone else probably won't give a hoot about the trailer's visual roots and atmosphere.
Spanning nine titles across multiple PlayStation generations, Twisted Metal is all about vehicular mayhem and destruction. Think of it like an apocalypse on wheels or Mad Max in cars, but just in Thunderdome.
These aren't your garden-variety mini-vans either. The drivers ride in highly modified vehicles (ice cream trucks included) while trying to blow each other up to smithereens. The best part is that now there's a TV show adaptation in the works.
We can thank David Jaffe for starting it all. If you have never heard of this (controversial) gaming industry icon, just know that you might have played one of his previous creations, a little Greek adventure flick named God of War.
While I haven't played Twisted Metal since I was "but a wee lad" at the age of 8 or 10, it's still one of my favorite childhood games. The best part was the split-screen mode, where I spent countless hours with friends and foes alike.
I was too young to understand TM's lore and story, but I still felt it had something special. And if you take the time to read some of the mythology around the pivotal Calypso character who created the deadly Twisted Metal tournament, you'll see exactly what I mean. I won't give out any spoilers but expect old-fashioned demonic evil powers to show up at some point.
The series' whole story has yet to be laid out at the moment, but the synopsis from the freshly released teaser trailer goes something like this.
There will be ten 30-minute-long episodes, where we'll be privy to "high-octane action comedy" scenes. We got a taste of that in the first 40 seconds of the teaser, and it didn't look all that impressive.
Sure, the aerial shot with the car shooting off its side-mounted machine guns looked badass, but seeing Anthony Mackie trying to look hardcore and funny at the same time didn't quite have the vibe we fans were clamoring for. Though let's not judge a show by its teaser.
The synopsis goes on by saying that a "motor-mouthed" stranger has the chance to rewrite his life, and all he has to do is to deliver a mystery package through a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Those last three words sound more like the original Twisted Metal we know and love.
The other drivers who make up the story's roster are the dangers he will face. Writing and directing these characters will make or break the show. Each has a rare or unique trait and backstory that will either make you thirst for more or completely give up on the show.
Take Sweet Tooth, for example, who appears during the last 10 seconds. Canonically, he certainly looks the part of the escaped mental patient he was initially written as.
Twisted Metal will arrive on the Peacock streaming service this summer on July 27.
Codrin just loves American classics, from the 1940s and ‘50s, all the way to the muscle cars of the '60s and '70s. In his perfect world, we'll still see Hudsons and Road Runners roaming the streets for years to come (even in EV form, if that's what it takes to keep the aesthetic alive). Full profile
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