Ark: The Animated Series

Well this is unexpected, a trailer for a 2020 adaptation of ARK: Survival Evolved was released alongside the trailer for the game's sequel. It has a star-studded cast with David Tennant, Russel Crowe, Elliott Page, Vin Diesel and more. Judging by the trailer alone it seems to adapt the events of the game's backstory as detailed in the survivor logs.

Here's an embedded version of the trailer:

Ok, massive high is over. I'm kind of worried how they'll do some of the characters since the trailer makes Helena look like a fairly Uber action girl and that's kind of not her. Like she can survive and fight well, but she's mostly the heart and is a bit of a cloud cuckoo lander in how super into she gets into all the weird Dino stuff she finds(every Dino dossier is written by her with both great detail and a sort childish glee).

Edit: The combat scene would have actually fit her travel companion Mei-Yin much more and it's a little off-putting that it's sort of her model that gets killed(Mei-yin's gear is flak with sword and a raptor mount). I'd have changed it to Helena being chased by raiders and being saved by Mei-Yin on her raptor since the narrative asks how she'll survive.

Edited by doomrider7 on Dec 10th 2020 at 12:50:45 PM

The voice director is Wes Gleason. He's of course best known for his work in various DC shows and movies, though he's also served as a video game voice director.

https://mobile.twitter.com/Wes_Gleason/status/1337246814169272321

The lady in that video thumbnail makes me think of Korra.

I never played Ark, but I dig a good Medieval Prehistory setting. A few notes:

• Is the person in the full plate armor also a woman? She seems to have an armor with a curve for the breasts.
• I see that the show won't shy away from showing blood on-screen. Is there any word on what will it be rated? Should we expect a PG-13 show, or an R-rated gorefest similar to Primal?
• The Parasaurolophus seems to have a mouth similar to the Iguanodons in Disney's Dinosaur, with lips over its beak.

Edited by Snicka on Dec 11th 2020 at 4:53:56 PM

[*]That's just the look of flak armor in general, but it was...VERY off-putting since everything about them was full on Mei-Yin(flak armor, pike, sword, raptor mount) and she's basically the deuteragonist and primary ally of Helena.

[*]There's no way this won't be rated TV 14 or there abouts. Maybe higher. I'm not that familiar with Primal so I can't compare, but people die in this as do creatures.

[*]Links to both dinos on ARK,

Parasaur - https://ark.gamepedia.com/Parasaur

Iguanodon - https://ark.gamepedia.com/Iguanodon

Helena writes them along with her own survivor notes.

Edited by doomrider7 on Dec 11th 2020 at 11:39:01 AM

I think that's just the way its mouth is shaped, it has a beak in the game and the one in the trailer is pretty accurate to the model. Also, the grunts made by the armored person sound very masculine to me.

It seems like Ark is making Studio Wildcard more money than I thought considering both the voice cast and the quality of the animation.

Edited by Kaiseror on Dec 11th 2020 at 10:46:45 AM

What I meant about the Parasaur's mouth is that it seems to have a white strip of "teeth" in the front which are covered when the mouth is closed, which I presume is the beak covered by lips, as Parasaurolophus had no teeth in the front. Looking at video game footage and screenshots, they don't seem to have that in the game.

The game goes on sale a LOT and due to everyone being indoors due to the pandemic...it got, bigger. Like it was already pretty big and popular, but a lot of the sales and people being stuck indoors all the time, the game likely experienced CRAZY SALES this past year on top of having the final expansions dropping.

ARK 2, I'm not so sure about since it looked...iffy, and seems to be going in a different direction on top of being exclusive. I'm rather worried that they change the formula instead of doing the smart thing of making the same, but newer and better.

An extended version of the trailer was released, it has some voice-overs from the main characters. As expected they included Nerva, Mei Yin and Rockwell but also seem to have some brand new characters.

The Native American person may be John Dakheya, though his backstory is rather different in that he's disillusioned post Civil War(possible time period) Native American outlaw and wasn't married.

Edited by doomrider7 on Dec 11th 2020 at 3:50:59 PM

Is this going to air on a TV network, or is it for streaming?

Given how it's hard to get adult action shows on a regular network, I assume this will be on streaming.

It worked for Primal though.

Primal is an exception in Adult Swim's lineup, being a hardcore action show amongst many comedies that are Adult Swim's bread and butter. It also doesn't have any sort of public longevity, even got shows that haven't been out too long.

Edited by jessicadicicco610 on Dec 11th 2020 at 2:29:13 AM

Ok checked some credits details on that second video and...I only recognize like 4 names on there. This feels REALLY detached from the in-game lore and the dossiers which I'm not quite sure how I feel about since the lore really didn't need any changes. Not sure if this will only focus on "The Island" or if it will include the other maps as well.

Edit: Hindsight, the changes make sense since the writer of the lore and the notes is no longer with the company so I take it this might have to do with royalties.

Edited by doomrider7 on Dec 11th 2020 at 5:45:25 AM

Primal has actually been renewed for a second season, which will air on Adult Swim next year. According to Genndy Tartakovsky, a third is not out of the question either. If Ark is going to be on a TV network, the only two real options are Adult Swim and SyFy's TZGZ block.

Edited by ElSquibbonator on Dec 11th 2020 at 5:44:03 AM

Though would Adult Swim or TZGZ pick up an adult cartoon based on a video game? That seems more for a streaming service.

Edited by jessicadicicco610 on Dec 11th 2020 at 2:47:02 AM

There's a lot of potential audience crossover between people who watch Adult Swim and SyFy and people who play Ark.

I wonder if the crew of Neebs Gaming will make a cameo as I imagine their play-throughs got a good number of people interested in the game, it's how I got interested.

DC veteran Jay Oliva is working on the series.

https://mobile.twitter.com/jayoliva1/status/1337563983193067520

While she wasn't mentioned in the press release, Cissy Jones will do voice work for the series.

https://mobile.twitter.com/cissyspeaks/status/1337531679741599744

This post might be months after the most recent post on this thread, but I still wanna say, I am excited for this series too. ARK is a really fun game and it deserves a series.

An Ark animated series was something that I thought would be cool but it's not something I'd think would've actually happened until it was announced.