Adi Shankar, the producer behind Netflix's Castlevania and Devil May Cry animated series, has revealed that he owns the animated rights to Duke Nukem and seems keen to do something pretty unique with the character.
Speaking to Esquire, Shankar—who also has credits such as The Guardians of Justice and Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix on his CV—was asked what he has coming up next:
"I got video games in production. Obviously more Devil May Cry. I'm being approached with different IPs and companies that want to work with me. I bought the rights to Duke Nukem. Not the gaming rights, but I bought it from Gearbox."
When quizzed a little more on what form this Duke Nukem project might take, Shankar replies:
"It's a middle finger to everybody. When Duke Nukem blew up, a bunch of people sat around trying to turn it into a brand, when it's just a middle finger. Duke Nukem can't be made by a corporation, because the moment a corporation makes Duke Nukem, it's no longer Duke Nukem. I don't intend on having anyone tell me what to do on this one."
The Indian producer's latest work, Devil May Cry, has been such a success that Netflix has already commissioned a second series, despite it dividing the opinion of fans.
Shankar's production credits also include the Hollywood movies The Grey (2011), Killing Them Softly (2012), Dredd (2012), Lone Survivor (2013), The Voices (2014) and A Walk Among the Tombstones (2014). He's also famous for his Bootleg Universe series, which includes The Punisher: Dirty Laundry (2012), Venom: Truth in Journalism (2013) and POWER/RANGERS (2015).
The Duke Nukem series began life back in 1991 as a 2D action platformer on MS-DOS PC, but is perhaps most famous for its 1996 FPS Duke Nukem 3D. Since then, Nukem has starred in multiple sequels and spin-offs, including Duke Nukem: Time to Kill (1999), Duke Nukem: Zero Hour (2000), Duke Nukem: Land of the Babes (2001) and Duke Nukem: Critical Mass (2011). Duke Nukem Forever, also released in 2011, is one of the most infamously delayed video games of all time.
Several of Duke's early adventures have recently become playable on the Evercade family of systems thanks to the release of Duke Nukem Collection 1 and 2.