For many players, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell takes you back to that nostalgic gaming era of the early 2000s. Now the veteran Ubisoft flagship series will come to the screen as an anime series of two seasons and sixteen episodes.
This partnership between Ubisoft and Netflix will involve writer Derek Kolstad – most famous for his work on the John Wick trilogy.
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell returns as an anime series with John Wick co-creator Derek Kolstad in Ubisoft and Netflix’s first partnership.
Since its first release in 2002, the Splinter Cell series has remained one of Ubisoft’s most popular franchises alongside Assassin’s Creed. The series has had six video game adaptations and seven novels published since then. Although its last release was in 2013 and has now become overshadowed by popular titles such as Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege (which even has its own e-sports following), the original Splinter Cell is still remembered fondly by many players.
Fans of the John Wick series will be excited knowing that Derek Kolstad has been confirmed as the writer for the series. The co-creator of the John Wick franchise has not yet made any comments regarding the specifics of this partnership with Netflix and Ubisoft, which leaves much to be speculated.
This includes the status of the Splinter Cell film adaptation, which was confirmed as early as 2005 and was set for release in 2017 following the 2016 release of the Assassin’s Creed film. It’s unclear whether the Netflix series replaces the film, so fans will have no choice but to wait for further updates.
The Netflix series will be an anime adaptation. Westernised anime is a tough genre to compete in, with its Japanese counterpart being far more commercially successful, but Netflix has achieved relative success so far. The Castlevania original series premiered on their streaming platform in 2017 with its fourth season green-lit as of March 2020. Castlevania was within the top ten on-demand series on Netflix in US and Japan as of 2017, confirming its success. Fans of Splinter Cell can – hopefully – expect a similar level of quality and production.
