The World of Darkness tabletop RPG series is being adapted into a multimedia franchise, as the production company behind The Witcher is developing the property into movies and TV shows. The World of Darkness is composed of several different game lines, the most famous of which is Vampire: The Masquerade, where players take on the role of undead monsters in modern society.
The tabletop games in the World of Darkness can be compared to Dungeons & Dragons, except with the fantasy setting replaced with a gritty, modern world. The World of Darkness is a shared universe, with each game line focusing on different monsters who exist in the modern nights. Vampire: The Masquerade is about vampires trying to keep their existence a secret from humanity, while Werewolf: The Apocalypse is about supernatural eco-warriors. The vampires share the same world as the lupines, as well as the ghosts from Wraith: The Oblivion, and the mages from Mage: The Ascension. In recent years, the World of Darkness franchise has expanded into video games in a big way, with the most recent being a VR horror title based on Wraith: The Oblivion.
The World of Darkness is finally making the jump to the big screen and small screen in the future (not counting the short-lived Kindred: The Embraced TV show from the '90s). According to Variety, the franchise is being adapted for the screen by Hivemind, which is the production company responsible for The Witcher and The Expanse. The writer-producers of the series are Eric Heisserer (Shadow and Bone) and Christine Boylan (The Punisher), who will be working with World of Darkness franchise owners, Paradox Interactive, and Hivemind on the projects.
The exact nature of the World of Darkness projects has yet to be revealed, but the producers have discussed one important aspect of the franchise's past. Boylan issued a statement about how the World of Darkness screen projects will reflect the inclusive nature of the tabletop game. The World of Darkness was far ahead of its time when it came to the representation of gender, race, and sexuality back when Vampire: The Masquerade launched in '91, and it's heartening to see one of the heads of the screen project give credit to the series' history.
Paradox Interactive has been wanting to expand the World of Darkness franchise into different forms of media since purchasing the license back in 2015. In fact, Paradox told Screen Rant about the intention to adapt the World of Darkness into movies and TV shows back in 2019. The World of Darkness franchise has the potential to become a huge hit, in the same vein as a True Blood or Twilight. It will be exciting to see how the world at large responds to the addictive gothic horror of series like Vampire: The Masquerade and Werewolf: The Apocalypse when the World of Darkness TV and movie projects come to fruition in the future.
Source: Variety