Love, Death, and Robots was a solid avenue for original animated shorts, but many fans thought the series was a showcase for would-be video games.
With Secret Level, though, the series takes some well-known video game IPs and puts them in an animated anthology format. While reviews have been divisive, Amazon has already greenlit a second season. As it turns out, some crossovers didn’t make the cut.
Halo Meets Doom
In a recent interview with Collider, series creator Tim Miller and supervising director Dave Wilson talk about the characters and franchises they couldn’t include in the first season of Secret Level. One franchise they wanted to do was Halo, which they wanted to cross with Doom, but Microsoft wasn’t interested in the project. Wilson explains:
“We made a big plea because one of the things both Tim and I would love to do is do something that isn't currently available in the games, like crossovers. We wanted to make a Master Chief/Doom Slayer crossover episode, and I spent a whole weekend crafting this impassioned letter of my childhood. And it's exactly what Tim said; [Microsoft] were like, ‘Nah.’”
Miller and Wilson also admit that they wanted to adapt so many things for the series that they couldn’t complete their wishlist even if they got multiple seasons of the show. Miller continues, “I love all the games that we have, and there are so many more games that we could have. That's the trouble, too, is that we could make 10 seasons of this and still not run out of games that we like.”
Give It Some Time to Grow
Admittedly, the first season of Secret Level received divisive reviews. With Love, Death, and Robots setting the standard, many critics have said that the series felt more action-focused this time, and Secret Level felt like a sizzle reel of upcoming games.
Luckily, even though Secret Level didn’t make waves when it was released, Amazon has already greenlit a second season. This would allow Miller and his team to try filling some of the episodes with something more lighthearted.
Though action is kind of the dominant genre when it comes to video games, there are some stories to be mined out of rich lore and great characters. Take, for example, Overwatch’s animated short exploring Mei’s origin. The game is a hero shooter, but it managed to tell a story that wasn’t action-heavy and still felt part of the world.
With Nintendo finally branching out to make movies like The Super Mario Bros. Movie and The Legend of Zelda, maybe they can invest in some short episodes for Secret Level to accurately gauge how the general audience would feel about adapting some of their more obscure IP.
Catch the complete first season of Secret Level, now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.