After a 20-year hiatus from the last issue of the comic book series, Battle Chasers is making its long-awaited return with new chapters of the comic, as well as a new, live-action TV series.
Deadline has revealed that John Wick creator Derek Kolstad is working on a new Battle Chasers TV show for Alcon Entertainment.
“As a storyteller — as well as a super fan of unapologetic and unrelenting action — I can’t wait for people to feel as giddy as I did when I first laid eyes on Battle Chasers,” he said. “The world which Joe has created here, coupled with the characters therein, is both unique and yet familiar. Adapting this for the small screen is gonna’ be a jon.”
The new series is being written by Kolstad and will be based on the Battle Chasers comic books. Kolstad and Alcon Entertainment co-founders Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove will serve as executive producers, with Alcon Television Group’s Ben Roberts. Hitman’s Adrian Askarieh is also exec producing through his Prime Universe banner.
“I connected deeply to this material twenty years ago when I first picked up the Joe’s comic book and so to be part of bringing this exciting material to a new audience is thrilling to say the least,” said Roberts.
Battle Chasers is an ‘arcanepunk’ story following five heroes – Garrison, a heartbroken swordsman; Red Monika, a bounty hunter and rogue; Knolan, a powerful, 500-year-old wizard; Calibretto, a mild-mannered war golem’ and Gully, a 10-year-old girl in search of her missing father.
Originally created by comic book artist Joe Madureira, Battle Chasers launched in 1998 with new issues often taking up to 16 months to materialise. Ending with issue #9, the series has long been on hold despite featuring a cliffhanger ending which was never concluded.
Issue #10 (originally scheduled for October 2001) was never released, with Madureira leaving the comic book industry to pursue a career in video game development.
Despite this, the series has gained plenty of fans, with Madureira recently confirming that the missing issue #10 is still on its way, 20 years later.
“[Battle Chasers] 10 is art complete (32 hefty pages),” he said via Twitter. “And @ludolullabi is making great progress on #11. Which means we’ll be able to confidently announce a date soon. Ruined King took much longer than we planned (check out Ludo’s amazing work there too) but we are back on track!”
Battle Chasers may be best known recently not for its comic book history, but for its move into video games. Battle Chasers: Nightwar was released in 2017, and IGN said about it that the game “scratches the JRPG itch, even if the storytelling and character development leave a fair bit to be desired.”
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.