While IO Interactive works on the follow-up to the critically acclaimed stealth adventure Hitman, fans of the bald assassin will have something else to look forward to — a Hitman TV series. According to Deadline, John Wick creator and writer Derek Kolstad will write the pilot for a Fox 21 and Hulu developed series.
The video game franchise was previously adapted to the big screen on two occasions, with 2007’s Hitman and 2015’s Hitman: Agent 47. Adrian Askarieh and Chuck Gordon, both of whom served as producers on each of the Hitman films, have joined the TV project as executive producers alongside Kolstad.
With Kolstad attached, he also wrote the script for the third John Wick movie set to release in 2019, it’s apparent that Hulu has high hopes of turning the adaptation into a premier piece of original streaming content. Gordon has an impressive list of credits to his name as well, including producer roles for Die Hard and Field of Dreams. Askarieh, meanwhile, is also attached to Kane & Lynch and Just Cause, a pair of other video game franchises set to come to TV. Although the status of both of those projects is currently unknown.
Fox 21 and Hulu plan to stick as close as possible to the vibe of the video game franchise when adapting Hitman. It’s perhaps important to note that 2016’s Hitman, the sixth entry in the franchise, was the first to try an episodic structure. Released as six gradually ramping episodes throughout 2016, the format proved to be popular amongst longtime fans. It’s within reason to believe that the nature of its reception as an episodic game contributed to the intrigue of a long-form television series.
Hitman is the second AAA video game franchise to receive a TV treatment this year. Earlier this year, Netflix secured the rights to The Witcher. While the role-playing game series was originally a series of novels by Andrzej Sapkowski, its planned jump to the streaming service was certainly spurred by the popularity of its video game counterparts, namely the massively popular The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
Like the next Hitman game, it’s unclear when the TV series is expected to debut.
