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My Friend Pedro Video Game TV Show Coming From John Wick Co-Creator
The action game My Friend Pedro gets a television adaptation from producers by Derek Kolstad and David Leitch. Kolstad and Leitch are most well-known for their work creating John Wick, one of the most acclaimed action franchises of the past decade due to its creative and impressively challenging stunt work.
My Friend Pedro takes explicit inspiration from these types of action films. Released in 2019 with the tagline “Blood. Bullets. Bananas.,” My Friend Pedro tells the story of a gun-wielding man committing violent acts and following the orders of a sentient banana named Pedro. The game is cartoonishly violent and employs slow-motion mechanics to create the feeling of being in the middle of a cinematic action sequence. The game debuted to mostly positive reviews noting that the gameplay was enjoyable, even if the story was somewhat derivative.
Now, My Friend Pedro has a chance to develop and flesh out that story in the form of a television adaptation. The series will be produced by 87 North, a production company owned by Leitch and his collaborator Kelly McCormick. Also involved are Legendary Television, known for Carnival Row, and dj2, which produced the recent Sonic the Hedgehog movie. There aren’t many details yet about the plot or style of the My Friend Pedro show, but Legendary announced that the series would be an R-rated half-hour dramedy, which seems to fit with the aesthetics of the game.
Coming from the minds behind John Wick, a My Friend Pedro adaptation could present fans with a massive variety of top-tier action sequences. Leitch and McCormick have also both worked on Hobbs & Shaw and Deadpool 2, which both incorporate comedy into their action sequences. Since My Friend Pedro took direct inspiration from the Deadpool films, the comedy will be just as crucial to this adaptation as the action and will need to strike a balance between the two to succeed.
However, only a few movie or TV adaptations of video games have been successful. Whether due to budget constraints or the difficulty of adapting the original stories to a new format, video game movies have had historically poor results overall. Recent surveys indicate that most video game fans do not want live-action movie adaptations of their favorite games.
But there is still hope for My Friend Pedro. The production company dj2 found colossal success with Sonic the Hedgehog, and they could potentially repeat that same success if they embrace the fun and absurd nature that worked for Sonic and the Pedro game. Absurd comedy isn’t just for kids, and with some careful consideration, the R-rated My Friend Pedro show has a chance to go bananas.
