Deathwatch

Ubisoft’s long-promised animated series Splinter Cell: Deathwatch has finally been given a longer trailer and a release date. Due October 14, the Liev Schreiber-fronted anime also stars comedian Janet Varney as Anna “Grim” Grímsdóttir, and has been in the works for about four-hundred-thousand years.

OK, five years, but it really has dragged on. In the meantime we learned an entire Splinter Cell movie starring Tom Hardy was canned, while there’s been no word on other announced Ubisoft TV and movie projects like Watch_Dogs, Beyond Good & Evil, The Division, Ghost Recon, Riders Republic, a Rabbids feature, and even a Just Dance movie. So honestly, the fact that anything at all is coming to screens feels fairly miraculous.

The trailer, however, is…not what I was expecting. In 2024, Michael Ironside—who voiced title character Sam Fisher in the games—said that he was “too old” to play the part at 75, with the role handed over to 57-year-old Liev Schreiber for the anime. So it’s something of a surprise to see Sam appearing in the trailer looking like a 75-year-old man.

There’s still no clear idea what the show will actually be about, beyond it being personal to Fisher, following the death of someone called Douglas Shetland. What we do see is a lot of guns being fired, and Sam mistaking a fair few people for knife racks. Oh, and while it’s weirdly tossed away in the middle of the short teaser, at least the three-light googles appear at one point. I mean, I’m not in charge of Netflix marketing, but given most of the trailer looks like Sam Fisher: The Retirement Home Years, I’d perhaps have ended on the iconic headwear and maybe something that suggested some sort of intrigue.

The better news is the team behind the show. The creator is Derek Kolstad, responsible for Bob Odenkirk’s reinvention as an action hero in Nobody, and the writer of the first three John Wick movies. That’s some caliber, although I struggle not to imagine the scripts for John Wick are mostly “John punches a man, and then another man and then he shoots three guys, and then he gets shot in the leg but shakes it off and punches four other guys and throws knives at a guy.” Along with Kolstad is a writing team that features scribes from Shooter, and some fresh faces too.

It’s an oddly witless and plotless teaser, although given Kolstad is head writer, it seems implausible the show itself could fall that way. Right? Please? As for Fisher’s age, perhaps the show is canon to the games, given the last one—Splinter Cell: Blacklist—came out an extraordinary 12 years ago. Maybe it’s to make the people who remember playing the games feel seen.

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