Secret Level's creator, Tim Miller, along with executive producer and supervising director Dave Wilson, recently revealed in an interview with Collider some behind-the-scenes tidbits about the making of Secret Level (Amazon Prime's latest videogame-inspired series) and the developers who turned down offers to be a part of it.
It feels like more and more studios are lining up for a swing at taking on a TV or movie adaptation. There's the Fallout series, the upcoming Devil May Cry animated Netflix show, Arcane, Castlevania, The Last of Us, and who could forget the Sonic the Hedgehog movies? But because of this saturation, Wilson admits that getting some developers on board was pretty hard, or even impossible.
"There were some IPs that we approached that were having a real big moment at that time, and Hollywood had come a calling, and three years later, nothing's happened," Wilson says. "We were going to make an episode for them, and it was going to be awesome, but Hollywood happens."
- Half-a-dozen 2000AD games were in the works before fizzling out: 'The games you get to see are a tiny representative of the number that get started—sadly'
- Saber Interactive's head honcho pulled a wild stunt to nab the Halo: Combat Evolved remaster, telling Microsoft he'd do the job for free before ultimately squeezing the publisher for millions
Basically, just because some videogames didn't get an episode in Secret Level, it doesn't mean that the series' creators forgot about them. Miller actually admits that he still gets a bit angry when he sees comments complaining about the lack of Halo in Secret Level: "Man, you think that we didn't talk to Halo?"
According to both Wilson and Miller, the creative director at id Software is actually a good friend, making Halo was actually one of the first games that they pitched for. "We made a big plea because one of the things both Tim [Miller] and I would love to do is do something that isn't currently available in the games," Wilson says. "We wanted to make a Master Chief/Doom Slayer crossover episode, and I spent a whole weekend crafting this impassioned letter of my childhood. And it's exactly what Tim said; they were like, 'Nah.'"
A Master Chief/Doom Slayer crossover episode does sound sick. But as Halo, like many others, already has its own series, I can see why the developers decided to turn this offer down. It's just a shame that the existing Halo series sucked and was canceled after just two seasons.
Despite not managing to get every game on their wishlist, Miller and Wilson both ascertain that they are more than happy with all the current games involved in Secret Level. "There are no black-and-white choices here," Miller says. "It's not like we could just have anything we wanted, or they were all available. There are lots of different reasons. We did the best we could, and I love all the games that we have."
This isn't to say that some developers couldn't change their mind, ready for the next season of Secret Level. Another game that Miller begged for was Half-Life, and while it obviously wasn't greenlit for the first season, there's nothing to say it won't make an appearance in later seasons, except maybe for the common knowledge that Valve never really seems up to delivering on Half-Life hopes, but I can dream.
