Donald Glover Is Making a PUBG TV Show for Netflix — Yes, Really

Winner winner — this is not a drill. Netflix and KRAFTON have officially announced that PUBG — the battle royale that started it all — is in development as a live-action television series, and the name attached to it is a genuine jaw-dropper: Donald Glover will write, direct, executive produce, and star in the show.

Glover’s brother and longtime collaborator Stephen Glover joins as a writer and executive producer. The pair built one of the most acclaimed series of the last decade together with Atlanta, and Stephen’s credits also include Swarm and Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Rounding out the executive producer team are Michael Schaefer for Neon TV, Fam Udeorji for Gilga, and Taeseok Jang and Sujin Lee for LV3H, KRAFTON’s entertainment division. The project grew out of a first-look deal between Netflix and KRAFTON, with Glover coming aboard after lengthy negotiations. It is his first series project for Netflix.

So what exactly is a PUBG show? That’s the fascinating part. PUBG: Battlegrounds, which launched in 2017 as PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, has no campaign, no main character, and no plot to adapt. One hundred players drop onto an island, scavenge for weapons and gear, and fight until one person or squad is left standing. The series will have to build its story, its characters, and its world almost entirely from that premise — which, in the hands of the Glovers, could honestly be a strength. Atlanta proved Donald Glover can take a loose premise and turn it into something nobody else would have made.

The scale of the property isn’t in question. PUBG popularized the battle royale genre, has set seven Guinness World Records, and remains one of the most-played games on the planet nearly a decade after launch, with a huge global audience across PC, console, and mobile. KRAFTON has been trying to expand PUBG beyond games for years — plans for film and TV projects were first floated back in 2020, and an animated project was announced in 2021 before going quiet. This Netflix series, developed through KRAFTON’s entertainment arm LV3H, is by far the biggest swing yet, and KRAFTON describes PUBG as a connected universe rather than a single game.

The announcement also lands in the middle of Netflix’s full-court press on video game adaptations. The streamer is already home to Arcane and Castlevania, has a live-action Assassin’s Creed series in the works, a Gears of War film, and animated projects based on Minecraft, Magic: The Gathering, and Clash of Clans. A live-action PUBG fronted by one of the most distinctive creative voices in television is a statement addition to that slate.

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Now for the cold water: almost everything else is still unknown. Netflix and KRAFTON announced no premiere date, no episode count, and no cast beyond Glover himself, and plot details are being kept under wraps. The project is in development rather than in production, so this one is a long way from your watchlist — patience is going to be required.

Even so, this is exactly the kind of left-field pairing that makes game adaptations exciting right now. A plotless battle royale, a streamer hungry for the next Arcane-sized hit, and the creator of Atlanta holding the pen, the director’s chair, and the starring role. We’ll be watching this drop zone very closely.

Source: KRAFTON / Netflix announcement via GamesPress.

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