Netflix, no stranger to adapting games into streaming hits, has announced that it’s partnering with game publisher Asmodee to create new TV shows and films based on the board game Catan, with multiple projects already in development. While the streamer has primarily specialized video game adaptations, the belief in post-Barbie Hollywood is that any recognizable IP could be the source of a future TV show or movie.
In Catan, players are tasked with collecting resources and building out a civilization on a remote island, with multiple ways to win or obstruct fellow players from doing the same. It’s not too hard to imagine the game being converted into some kind of competitive reality TV show, though apparently animated and live-action narrative projects are also on the table. “Anyone who has played Catan knows [that] the intense strategy and negotiation at the core of the game has endless opportunities for some serious drama,” Jinny Howe, Netflix’s head of scripted series for the US and Canada, shared in the press release announcing the deal.
Whichever Catan project ultimately heads into production, Netflix says it’ll be produced by Darren Kyman from Asmodee, Pete Fenlon from Catan Studio, and Guido and Benjamin Teuber, the sons of Catan creator Klaus Teuber. If Asmodee sounds familiar, it might be because Netflix has partnered with the publisher in the past. Exploding Kittens, another Asmodee published game, was adapted into both a mobile game for Netflix Games and an animated series with the help of its original creators.
Catan joins a Monopoly adaptation and several shows based on video games at Netflix, including the recently released Splinter Cell: Deathwatch and an upcoming series based on the Assassin’s Creed franchise.
