Blizzard head Johanna Faries has revealed that the company is actively looking into adaptations of their video games into media outside video games.
Faries took over Blizzard from Mike Ybarra last year, shortly after Microsoft finalized their deal to acquire their parent company, Activision Blizzard King. Prior to this, Faries was head of Call of Duty League, and she had an even longer tenure working for the NFL.
Today, Faries is doing a new round on the interview circuit, to give the press a chance to know her better. Interestingly, these interviews come a few days after Blizzard revealed the details of this year’s collaboration between Overwatch 2 and Le Sserafim. Jez Corden asked Faries about the prospect of making new adaptations of Blizzard properties, in context of the success of things like the Super Mario Bros. Movie and Cyberpunk Edgerunners.
Here’s what Faries had to say:
“The short answer is, we’re looking at everything, and I mean that very intentionally — and I can’t share anything specific today — but we talked again as recently as yesterday, that we have a strong collective belief that we are Blizzard Entertainment, and not simply Blizzard Games or Blizzard Gaming.
Our universes, our iconic IP can vector off into many interesting dynamic directions. We have to be thoughtful, responsible stewards of those franchises, right? Not everything will fit, and execution absolutely matters. We do think about what we can do to show up for the entertainment industry, as broadly as we can describe, so Blizzard can continue to be a beacon of that sort of … magic making, fostering joy.
Blizzard’s core foundational level is making world class games, but some people will go to BlizzCon and have their life changed. Meet their life partner. Some people will have a reunion gathering and watch that old Warcraft movie. That’s part of what it means to stay in culture, and continue to shape it. So absolutely, that’s the lens we’re looking through here.”
Blizzard very famously made a huge media mix misstep with the 2016 WarCraft movie. Reportedly, the messy production of the film prompted Chris Metzen to leave Blizzard. He very recently returned to the company, and is now once again back at the helm for World of Warcraft’s new direction.
Metzen and the WarCraft team may not be up for another adaptation, but Blizzard has other huge IPs. Rumors of a Diablo movie have been swirling since 1996, and maybe now is the time that they followed through with those plans. On the other hand, Overwatch is a franchise that is crying for the 1980s transmedia treatment, with a comic book, kid’s cartoon, toyline, and merchandise to supplement that video game. It’s pretty clear that there’s a lot of fertile ground there that Blizzard, and now Microsoft, could stand to finally take advantage of. We’re looking forward to that Orisa Gunpla whenever they get around to it.
