Overwatch Canceled Netflix Animated Series Amid Executive Poaching Drama

Overwatch fans may never get to see their favorite heroes animated on the small screen, as Blizzard’s once-in-development Netflix series has been quietly shelved. The reason? A lawsuit between Activision Blizzard and Netflix over the poaching of former Activision CFO Spencer Neumann. Yep, it turns out Netflix wooed the exec away mid-contract, and the fallout killed several Blizzard projects, including the Overwatch animated adaptation.

Jason Schreier, Bloomberg news reporter and author of Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment, recently dropped the bombshell during a Reddit AMA. When asked why Blizzard hasn’t branched out into TV or film, Schreier revealed that there were plans for Netflix adaptations of Overwatch, StarCraft, and Diablo. But, Blizzard sued Netflix for poaching Spencer Neumann and that was the end of that dream.

The lawsuit claimed that Netflix violated Neumann’s “no shop” clause, which prevented him from entertaining other job offers while under contract with Activision Blizzard. After a brief court battle, Neumann left Activision to join Netflix as its CFO, but not without leaving a trail of canceled shows in his wake.

For Overwatch players, this is yet another chapter in the franchise’s never-ending saga of “what could have been.” The game’s universe has always been ripe for deeper storytelling, but the closest we’ve gotten are those excellent, but far-too-short, animated shorts. There’s also the canceled PvE campaign that would have allowed players to dive deeper into the multiplayer shooter’s lore. Fans were understandably upset by the cancellation, with one player lamenting on Twitter, “It’s like the universe doesn’t want Overwatch’s story to be told.”

So, while we won’t be getting that Overwatch series anytime soon, at least we can still enjoy the occasional hero origin trailer, the latest of which is for Juno. It’s no Netflix series, but it’ll have to do for now.