Picture: Netflix
It has been 11 years since Splinter Cell: Blacklist was released, and sadly, there has been no major Splinter Cell release ever since. There have been rumors of new entries and remakes, but nothing official. Only four years ago, Netflix announced they were developing a Splinter Cell anime with John Wick writer Derek Kolstad. So what happened to it? Here’s what we know as of 2024.
First, the project is alive as of 2024; it’s not abandoned as some have predicted online.
The latest news is that the animation team expects to work on its 16 episodes until at least December 2024. A member of the animation team commented in April 2024:
I can’t reveal much more but I can indeed confirm it is gonna be released, it’s currently in production… It was announced way too early by Netflix compared to when it actually started. We are hard at work on it.
Indeed, the series was announced in 2021, and some animation workers started as late as December 2023 or even April 2024. For example, a job listing for a light & shadow supervisor mentioned December 2023 as a start date and the job lasting 12 months. Another supervisor only began their work only in April 2024.
In June 2021, as part of Netflix’s Geeked Week, we first saw how the animation for Splinter Cell was coming along, with the first look at Sam Fisher sporting his iconic night vision goggles and a blood-soaked coat.
Who is working on Splinter Cell?
The writer and showrunner for Netflix’s Splinter Cell is Derek Kolstad who is known for creating the massive hit franchise John Wick that stars Keanu Reeves. He expressed his excitement for working on Splinter Cell in an interview with Collider:
“Animation is fucking cool, dude. You send in a script and they make it. It isn’t a matter of casting this, this, this, or that. It’s like, ‘What do you want to do, Derek?’ ‘I think this would be cool.’ ‘That would be cool!’ We start it.”
Writing alongside Kolstad will be David Daitch and Katie J. Stone.
The writing duo has worked on a number of projects together including the likes of Shooter for USA Network and the upcoming FOX series Interceptor. The rest of the writers team includes Naomi G. Davis (Torn & Frayed), Fallon O’Dowd (NCIS: Hawaii), Anthony Florez (Dark Winds) and Joseph Mwamba. Guillaume Dousse (Love, Death & Robots) is directing with co-director Félicien Colmet-Daage.
Fost Animation Studio, which is in charge of all production from backgrounds to pre-compositing, lists the following as also working on the series:
“Line backgrounds supervisor – Benjamin Loirat
Color backgrounds supervisor – Georges Bouchelaghem
Layout posing supervisors – Alix Arrault, Tracy Nowocien
Animation supervisors – Nicolas Capitaine, Gaëlle Thierry
Clean-up supervisor – Lesceline Haase”
They also state they’re using a Hand-Drawn 2D technique for the series using ToonBoom Harmony.
The voice cast is a complete mystery for the time being. We don’t know whether Michael Ironside is coming back to voice Sam Fisher or if any other game voice actors are involved.
What is the plot of Splinter Cell?
Currently, nothing is known about the plot of either season of Splinter Cell, but Derek Kolstad has commented that each season’s story will be self-contained:
“Every season is going to be self-contained, outside of the evolution of the main character. I like having one big, bad, one overarching story and one background story, with the A/B of it all, and yet, I look at everything I do — well, almost everything — especially in film and TV, as the best Westerns. He rides off into the sunset because he’s going to do the same fucking thing the next town over until he dies doing it.”
Picture: Ubisoft
How many seasons will Splinter Cell have?
Netflix has long been known for ordering 16 episodes of Splinter Cell. These 16 episodes will be split into two seasons, with eight episodes each. Each episode will be 20-30 minutes long, a standard for Netflix animation.
When will Splinter Cell be released on Netflix?
Kolstad did imply in an early interview that the series could be on our screens as early as 2022 but of course, we’re now two years on and still none the wiser. Speaking to Jeff Sneider from Collider in March 2021, Kolstad said, “Probably two years. Probably, no, about 18 months. These things, from inception to execution, are 18 months to two years. My job will be done in probably six months with the other writers. And yet you’re always on standby to go, like, ‘This isn’t working. This line sucks. The actor wants to do something cool.’ But I also believe that, especially in animation, if they can have all the episodes in hand going into it, I make their job easier, too.”
As we mentioned above, this prediction from Kolstad was a little optimistic in hindsight.
A late 2024 date for the first season is unlikely, as every major release for this year has already been announced. In 2025, it would be much more likely for Season 1, with Season 2 following perhaps one year later, in 2026.
Are you excited about Splinter Cell on Netflix? Let us know in the comments!
