Paramount Pictures’ Skydance Media announced it has acquired the global rights to produce a live-action television show based on the popular Japanese light novel and anime franchise Sword Art Online, in a partnership with Kadokawa Corporation.
Skydance aims to fast-track the American SAO TV series with Laeta Kalogridis (Avatar, Shutter Island, Terminator Genisys) penning the pilot episode’s script. Kalogridis will be an executive producer, along with Skymedia executives David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Marcy Ross.
Following the TV show, Skydance Interactive plans to release a "first-of-its-kind SAO virtual reality experience."
Sword Art Online franchise started in 2009 with the Japanese light novels by Reki Kawahara. Published by Kadokawa, the book series is still on-going with 22 novels and over 19 million copies sold worldwide so far.
The plot follows teenagers Kirito, Asuna, and other players of the virtual reality MMORPG titled Sword Art Online who become trapped in the game. The only way to escape is by completing the game and if you die in the virtual world, you die in real life.
“I am excited and moved that Sword Art Online will be adapted into a live action series by the highly respected Skydance Media,” commented SAO creator and author Reki Kawahara. “I would like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation and gratitude to everyone involved in this project, and to the fans all over the world who have so generously and enthusiastically supported SAO.”
“For years I have been inspired by the inventive and masterful storytelling of the SAO franchise,” added Kalogridis. “I’m thrilled to get the opportunity to work with such talented partners to bring this cutting-edge yet timeless story to a new format at Skydance.”
The past few years, Sword Art Onine rose in popularity thanks to the hit anime adaptation by studio A-1 Pictures (Erased, Anohana, Fairy Tail, Your Lie in April). A SAO anime film titled Sword Art Online The Movie: Ordinal Scale will release in theaters in 2017.
Naturally, SAO has spawned several video games, with two games, Hollow Fragment and Lost Song, released in the West so far. A new game titled SAO: Hollow Realization is set to launch this fall in North America and Europe, with the Americas getting a packed $150 collector’s edition. You can watch our gameplay of the E3 2016 demo here.
Are you excited for a live-action American Sword Art Online TV show? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!