Back in 2024, I covered that a new Golden Axe animated series was on the way, and that it was meant to be “hilarious”. Well, the new trailer dropped, and it’s not.
In a world where games like Castlevania have genuinely amazing animated adaptations, Sega has seemingly opted to fly in the face of one of its most beloved classic gaming intellectual properties, Golden Axe.
This was a dark and atmospheric belt-scroll action game from the late 80s, where you played with friends to save a war-torn realm from the forces of Death Adder.
Yes, there were moments of humor, such as getting magic potions around the campfire at the end of each stage by whacking helpless little elves, but most of it was played straight, to great effect.
This new animated series has none of that, and I am genuinely amazed that this feels so tonally off from the original Golden Axe games.
The team behind this is also made up of very competent people, including Mike McMahan, from Star Trek: Lower Decks and Rick and Morty, and Joe Chandler, who worked on American Dad.
I mean, even the wondrous Matthew Rhys plays Gilius, which actually made me double-take when I saw the credit.
So I don’t understand how capable people like this managed to get it so badly wrong. Not to mention that Sega’s own Shuji Utsumi is in the credits as an executive producer. Surely he should have known that this approach was clearly wrong?
If the trailer is in any way indicative of the final series, the humor just feels off and really misplaced. I don’t get why they didn’t go down the Castlevania route and treat it like the original game.
Anyway, this new Golden Axe animated series will be released on September 16 via Paramount+, but for now I am expecting the worst.
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