You might think that, after this week’s surprise $5.9 billion acquisition, Activision might be out of big announcements to make. But it turns out they’ve got at least one more.
The mega-publisher announced today that they’re launching a studio for film and TV projects in their huge stable of francises, which includes Call of Duty, Destiny, Starcraft, Warcraft, and Diablo. First up, the new studio plans to develop a cartoon series based around the hugely successful Skylanders toy/game series. They’ve got a ton of talent involved, including Jonathan Banks (!) aka Mike from Better Call Saul.
Says Activision:
Activision Blizzard Studios’ first production will be “SkylandersTM Academy,” an animated TV series based on the award-winning Skylanders game. Currently in production under the supervision of showrunner Eric Rogers (“Futurama”), “Skylanders Academy” will feature the voices of Justin Long (“Alvin and the Chipmunks,” “Ask Me Anything”) as Spyro, Ashley Tisdale (“Phineas and Ferb,” “High School Musical”) as Stealth Elf, Jonathan Banks (“Breaking Bad,” “Better Call Saul”) as Eruptor and Norm Macdonald (“Saturday Night Live”) as Glumshanks. Additional voice talent includes Harland Williams and Richard Horvitz.
Activision says they also “envision” feature films and maybe even TV shows based on Call of Duty. Here’s hoping for a Lost Vikings cartoon.
You can reach the author of this post at jason@kotaku.com or on Twitter at @jasonschreier.