An obvious struggle of movies based on video games is time. There’s only so much lore that can be crammed into two or so hours. The alternative would be a TV series, and it looks like that’s the option Sony has chosen for Final Fantasy XIV.
The announcement was made by Sony Pictures Television, alongside Square Enix and Hivemind Entertainment. That last one is also the one that’s working on the upcoming Witcher series for Netflix. The series is currently still being written, so it won’t be awhile before we know who will be cast.
The choice of FF XIV is a very smart and safe choice, especially for a TV series. Since MMOs are all about original characters anyway, the writers are free to create new characters and stories that are in line with the overarching story. This is opposed to the other single player FF entries with central characters and plot developments, which means little wiggle room for creative licenses.
That being said, video game adaptations have generally been pretty poor. As such, it falls upon this adaptation of FF XIV to turn this perception around. But it will be awhile before we find out if the people behind this TV series can achieve it.
(Source: Kotaku. Image: Square Enix)
