Skydance TV Announced Sword Art Online Live-Action TV Series

Skydance TV Announced Sword Art Online Live-Action TV Series

Sword Art Online is about to come stateside as North American independent production company Skydance Television announced that they have acquired the rights for a live action TV show adaptation of Reki Kawahara’s light novel series.

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The TV show will be written by Laeta Kalogridis (Terminator Genisys, X-Men), who also did the draft for the upcoming live-action Ghost in the Shell film, and produced by Skydances’ David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Marcy Ross.

The show is being fast tracked to be produced as part of an all-new new global franchise. Following the TV series, Skydance is set to produce a virtual reality experience based on Sword Art Online.

The production company lists the synopsis of the upcoming show:

The all-new Skydance Television series will follow a brilliant young beta tester Kirito and his group of friends when they are trapped – alongside 10,000 other people – in a next-generation virtual reality online role-playing game. The game is a world unto itself: filled with sword fighting, monsters and mystery, where the stakes are life and death. Kirito and an ensemble of diverse characters must fight their way through this hostile environment while making lives for themselves in the fantastical world that is Sword Art Online.

Sword Art Online is a light novel series written by Reki Kawahara and illustrated by abec, who also is the author of Accel World. The light novel series began in 2009 being published in ASCII Media Works’ Dengeki Bunko. To date a total of 17 volumes have been compiled in the series. Since the series’ debut, the series has sold over 16 million copies, topping the charts in 2012. Additionally in 2012, an anime adaptation was released. The Sword Art Online anime aired in July and was produced by A-1 Pictures, which received a large reception; it was followed by a recap film and a second season. Since then, the series has appeared on a plethora of media with international merchandise, various manga adaptations of the light novel’s arcs, and video games. In addition, Kawahara has relaunched the series as Sword Art Online: Progressive, a re-release of the light novels with additional content.

Here is a synopsis of the anime from MAL:

In the year 2022, virtual reality has progressed by leaps and bounds, and a massive online role-playing game called Sword Art Online (SAO) is launched. With the aid of “NerveGear” technology, players can control their avatars within the game using nothing but their own thoughts.

Kazuto Kirigaya, nicknamed “Kirito,” is among the lucky few enthusiasts who get their hands on the first shipment of the game. He logs in to find himself, with ten-thousand others, in the scenic and elaborate world of Aincrad, one full of fantastic medieval weapons and gruesome monsters. However, in a cruel turn of events, the players soon realize they cannot log out; the game’s creator has trapped them in his new world until they complete all one hundred levels of the game.

In order to escape Aincrad, Kirito will now have to interact and cooperate with his fellow players. Some are allies, while others are foes, like Asuna Yuuki, who commands the leading group attempting to escape from the ruthless game. To make matters worse, Sword Art Online is not all fun and games: if they die in Aincrad, they die in real life. Kirito must adapt to his new reality, fight for his survival, and hopefully break free from his virtual hell.

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A live action TV show adaptation of Sword Art Online is in production from Skydance, as part of a new global franchise. Further details about the show and the new franchise will be revealed at a later date.

Source Article - Business Wire
Source Article - Anime News Network

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