Adapting Iconic Worlds
A school of thought believes adapting a beloved IP without prior knowledge or connection to the material or even the genre is a positive. Maybe that works. Sometimes. Once. Has it ever?
In my experience, understanding the essence of why people care is critical.
I believe in total immersion when adapting an existing property, be it a video game, comic, novel, or something with an iconic media expression like Star Trek or Hannibal Lecter. If it’s something I already know and love or something new, my job is going down the rabbit hole to grok every detail about the characters and world and why the IP remains relevant and revered.
When I jumped onto season two of American Gods, a book I knew well, I listened to Neil Gaiman’s audiobook on repeat, trying to understand his narrative voice and the diction, vocabulary, and vibe of his characters.
The same was true for Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal. Although our version of the IP was essentially a love story between two wizards, we had tremendous respect for the bestselling books. Over countless snowbound months writing in Toronto, we poured over the works of Thomas Harris, searching for any moments we could use, even repurposing lines of prose as dialogue.
For season one of Star Trek: Discovery, I co-wrote an episode featuring Harry Mudd, a fan-favorite character from the original series. We crafted a yarn that was true to Mudd’s over-the-top nature and, in a nod to the OG show, used a science puzzle to set the main characters on an emotional journey. We even found a way to connect our tale to canon.
I scribbled a Predator VR game, an IP I love. I watched all the movies, read all the comics, played any games I could load on Steam, and browsed the online wikis hunting for lore, details, and characters I could include. Even though it was a game that would only be played in Chinese arcades, my process was the same -- Immerse. Scribble. Repeat.
The beauty of working with existing IPs is that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. There’s often a rich universe with rules, characters, and relationships that have been successfully defined. The most important relationship to remember is the connection between the IP and the audience.
Dialing down your inner auteur and letting your inner craftsperson take the lead is okay. Find the balance between creativity and respect for the original work. Be a sponge. Not a bulldozer. And never forget to ask –
– “What is the audience or player experience we need to honor with this thing?”
If you do that, you might make something awesome like Amazon’s take on Fallout.
