Battlefield: Bad Company comedy series now in development at Fox

When you think of the EA-published, DICE-developed Battlefield series, you likely think of gunfights, tanks blasting holes in buildings and newbies swiping those precious jets before more skilled players can actually put them to good use. For the most part the Battlefield series has no real plot to speak of, thus a spin-off, subtitled “Bad Company,” was created to offer players the kind of conversational virtual comraderie they might see in a game like Call Of Duty. Now, given the success of the Bad Company series and of the Battlefield series as a whole, executives at Fox have pushed into development an hour-long TV series based on the video game franchise.

According to Deadline, the series is being helmed by TV producer/writer John Eisendrath who you’d know best from his work on J.J. Abrams’ Alias. Unlike that show however, which was a blend of teen drama and classic espionage tropes, the Bad Company show is described as an “action comedy”.

“It follows four renegade soldiers as they exit military life and enter the private sector,” Deadline claims. “But trouble is never far behind as they realize their commanding officer had used them to further the ends of a shadow unit within the government and now wants them dead to cover his tracks.”

Given that the show is currently in the early stages of development, we have yet to hear any word on when it might hit public airwaves. For that matter, we also have no idea who (other than Eisendrath) will be working on the series. No actors, no directors, no writers; we’re lacking a lot of crucial information here. However, getting back to that plot description we quoted above, did anyone else read that and think it sounds very much like a modern reboot of The A-Team? Or, another modern reboot of The A-Team, we should say.

That’s not all that odd, given that easily definable military toughs are hallmarks of both that classic show and of the Bad Company series, but it makes us wonder why Fox would spend the cash to pick up the Bad Company license from EA if it was just going to adapt the franchise into such a well-worn cliche of a TV show. Couldn’t the studio have instead created all new, original characters? Or maybe resurrect The A-Team as a new series? We have to assume that, despite the popularity of the Bad Company brand name, the A-Team name would pull in far more viewers than a relatively esoteric first-person shooter — especially if Fox can convince Mr. T to make an occasional cameo appearance.

This project is far too nascent for any of you to get excited about the prospects of a Bad Company comedy series, so please hold off on planning your life around this thing until we hear more info. There’s still plenty of time for Fox to decide this idea is silly, and instead greenlight another reality TV talent show.