Next month, Splinter Cell’s Sam Fisher is coming out of retirement in a new Netflix animated series, Splinter Cell: Deathwatch. While the show will feature a new story that’s not adapted from the games, the latest trailer for Deathwatch reveals that one of the primary adversaries is someone with a link to Sam’s past.
The previous trailer for Deathwatch had a quick glimpse of a gravestone for Douglas Shetland, who was a character in the Pandora Tomorrow and Chaos Theory games. Douglas was also one of Sam’s closest friends, but when he turned against his country, Sam felt there was no other choice but to kill him.
This trailer briefly revisits the final moments of Doug’s life before jumping back to his grave. Sam’s decision appears to be coming back to haunt him, now that Douglas’ daughter, Diana Shetland, has emerged as the CEO of Xanadu, the corporation that’s pulling the strings of a new crisis.
Liev Schreiber is stepping into the role of Sam for the series. Michael Ironside has voiced Sam in most of the Splinter Cell video games to date, but the role was also played by Eric Johnson in Splinter Cell: Blacklist, the most recent game in the series. The Sandman’s Kirby Howell-Baptiste is voicing a new agent, Zinnia McKenna, alongside Janet Varney as Anna “Grim” Grímsdóttir, and Joel Oulette as Thunder.
John Wick co-creator Derek Kolstad is the head writer and producer for Splinter Cell: Deathwatch, and the animation was provided by Sun Creature Studio and Fost. Netflix will debut the series on October 14.
On the video game front, there is a Splinter Cell remake in development, but there hasn’t been many updates about that game since it was announced in 2022. Earlier this year, Ubisoft added Steam achievements to Splinter Cell: Blacklist, which was released in 2013.