Skydance Television is looking to bring the Japanese novel and anime franchise Sword Art Online to the small screen.
Skydance Television has acquired global live action rights to Sword Art Online in a partnership with Kadokawa Corp.
Their main intention of Skydance Televison is to fast-track the launch of a new franchise by developing the first-ever SAO live-action TV series. If you were not already excited, Avatar‘s Laeta Kalogridis will be writing the script and will be executive produced alongside Skydance’s David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Marcy Ross.
Sword Art Online is based on the popular series of 22 books by author Reki Kawahara and published by Kadokawa. Being first published in 2009, the series has collectively sold more than 19 million print copies worldwide. The books have spawned nine comic adaptations published by Kadokawa, a video game — which has sold nearly 2 million copies and been downloaded more than 9 million times globally since its 2013 release — and two anime television series adaptations. Sword Art Online has been available on Netflix in North America since March 2014 (Which I just recently finished watching!). We cn also anticipate an animated film, Sword Art Online the Movie: Ordinal Scale, which is set for theatrical release in 2017 in Japan.
According to Skydance, its potential live-action series will follow “a brilliant young beta tester Kirito and his group of friends when they are trapped — alongside 10,000 other people — in a next-generation virtual reality online role-playing game. The game is a world unto itself: filled with sword fighting, monsters, magic and mystery, where the stakes are life and death. Kirito and an ensemble of diverse characters must fight their way through this hostile environment while making lives for themselves in the fantastical world that is Sword Art Online.”
As part of Skydance’s plan, the company plans to launch an SAO virtual reality experience through the company’s interactive arm.
All of this is coming so fast! I can say that I am a huge Sword Art Online fan, I binge watched both seasons on Netflix and was left wanting more – and it seems that I will be getting it! If you need me, I’ll be sitting here patiently awaiting the next adaptation to this wonderful series
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