Peacock has officially greenlit the live-action series Dungeon Crawler Carl, adapted from the wildly popular fantasy book saga. And we’re eager to see what it becomes.
Clearly, the craze for literary adaptations isn’t cooling down. From the blockbuster success of It Ends with Us to the phenomenon The Maid, to the forthcoming revival of Harry Potter and the return of The Hunger Games, the movie industry has made one thing clear: the bigger the reader base at the source, the juicier the pool of potential viewers for studios’ coffers.
This appetite for printed pages doesn’t stop at the Atlantic, either, as the French industry applies the same recipe with the successes of The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo, and the notable feat of adapting Albert Camus’ The Stranger. It’s in this same “safe bet” mindset that we’ll see the official adaptation of one of the biggest sensations in contemporary genre fiction: the zany Dungeon Crawler Carl.
Dungeon crawler carl : an acid-fueled Running-Man RPG
It was via Deadline that the news broke: the Peacock streaming platform has officially greenlit the live-action series Dungeon Crawler Carl. In development since 2024, this project will be directed by Seth MacFarlane (Ted, The Orville) while the script has been entrusted to Chris Yost (Thor : Ragnarok, Wolverine and the X-Men).
For those who avoided the LitRPG (Literature + RPG, as the field is known) wave, the madcap Dungeon Crawler Carl (or DCC) began life from the pen of Matt Dinniman. The story opens with an extraterrestrial invasion of staggering violence that wipes out the Earth’s surface in an instant.
The few survivors are then forcibly hurled into a colossal underground dungeon with eighteen levels to participate in a galactically televised deadly game. It’s there that Carl, a thirty-something in his underwear, accompanied by the ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut, are determined to survive the carnage. To escape, they must reach the final level and defeat the end boss.
The saga stacks up an impressive tally of more than 10 million copies sold worldwide. With eight volumes already published in the United States and five titles translated for audiences beyond, this sprawling universe quickly overflowed from bookstores. The phenomenon has since expanded into webcomics, deluxe graphic novels, an official board game, and a mountain of collectible figurines.
With such enormous enthusiasm, author Matt Dinniman took to Instagram to celebrate the leap to television with a public post:
« I’m happy to announce that our friends at Peacock have officially given the green light to the series! Chris Yost, Seth MacFarlane and his Fuzzy Door crew are all itching to get to work. I’ll share more details in the coming weeks, and if you’re heading to San Diego Comic-Con, don’t miss our dedicated panel. In the meantime, I wanted to thank you, you fans, for making this dream exist. »
For now, the U.S. broadcaster has not announced an official release window, and no actor names have leaked yet to portray the infamous Carl in his underwear. Still, we did get an official first poster with a tagline straight to the point: “Surprise, you jerks! It’s official: the apocalypse will be televised.”
