Info in Movie News | It has been quite a while since lovers of sneaky and spy tales were fed, but one of the most legendary video game series is at last coming to the TV. The popular streaming service Netflix announced that the Splinter Cell: Deathwatch series, the fanfare awaiting for the Ubisoft's eminent video game-based animated show, will launch on October 14, 2025. For the first time since the game franchise went quiet in 2013, Sam Fisher will step out of the shadows, not in live action, but in a bold animated reimagining designed to thrill both long-time fans and newcomers.
According to Movieweb, the project was first announced in 2020 and has slowly evolved into a full-fledged animated techno-thriller.This project is under the development of Ubisoft movie & Television along with Danish studio Sun Creature and France-based Fost. Æsten has also been brought in to provide some additional animation work for the project. The mastermind behind the John Wick series, Derek Kolstad, is going to be the one creating the show. Liev Schreiber (Ray Donovan, Asteroid City) was the voice actor chosen to be the audio companion for the well-known Sam Fisher character. The moment this casting comes to our notice, we get the idea that the show will be centered on a protagonist who amalgamates strength, know-how, and danger, i.e. an on-screen character played by a top-billed actor.
The storyline of the show is set to be near future, that is very close to present with a plot focus on current conflicts in warfare. The team that worked on the game at Ubisoft called Deathwatch “a road trip around Europe,” where Sam Fisher was getting through the changed political landscape which was getting more and more complicated due to the use of hybrid warfare by the countries. Disinformation, cyber threats, and energy conflicts play as much of a role as guns or gadgets. The show even references a fictional “Cop 31” climate summit as a backdrop for international intrigue. “You don’t fight wars in 2025 the same way you did in 2000,” explained Ubisoft producer Carl Tamakloe, emphasizing how the series reflects current fears about fake news and global instability.
If the source material is not familiar to someone, the Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell series is basically a genius stealth game that started its life in 2002. The players’ introduction to Sam Fisher, a clandestine agent working for the NSA’s super-secret subsidiary, Third Echelon, was made. The main feature that was lauded in the franchise was the use of the protagonist’s famous night-vision goggles when the infiltration was done in shadows, silence, and with small but efficient gadgets. Over the period of 2002-2013, with six mainline games released, the franchise achieved total worldwide sales of over 30 million units, gave birth to tie-in novels and gained a lot of positive criticism for its perfect combination of cinematic storytelling and immersive gameplay of suspense genre.
Netflix and Ubisoft openly agree that the target audience of the animated series is not the children. Deathwatch is an adult animated thriller that doesn’t shy away from realism and suspense. Directors Guillaume Dousse (Flee) and Félicien Colmet-Daâge (The Summit of the Gods) told that the mood was "Michael Mann meets Satoshi Kon," namely, a mixture of tough Hollywood crime drama and moody Japanese animation. The program parodies references of Ghost in the Shell and Mission: Impossible, therefore, the combination of clever spy and exciting stunt sequences.
The show’s sneak peek at the Annecy Animation Festival and Netflix’s Geeked Week 2024 gave the audience a glimpse of the raw and atmospheric tension that the fans found very impressive. The style of animation is quite unusual: instead of over-the-top anime-style action, the creators at Fost used photographs of the real world as their source for each frame, then they transformed the images into animation. This process allowed for nuanced character expressions and physical detail, avoiding rotoscoping while still achieving authenticity. Animation supervisor Gaëlle Thierry emphasized the team’s commitment to “useless movements”, tiny, human details often cut for efficiency in animated productions. This decision edges the characters to reflect the same way people that have been through life, morph faults, and in turn are quite similar to humans.
Offstage, the scope of the work is bold. The series includes over 250 people divided into 13 teams, who are following a 15-step pipeline to move through almost 4,000 shots. That’s blockbuster scale for an animated series, which is the way to show the high expectations that both Netflix and Ubisoft have for Deathwatch. Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans (Tokyo Vice, Enemy), the music creators for the film, are the musicians who made the soundtrack, and they are known for their incredible and somewhat scary and moody soundscapes, which very aptly accompany the vibe of the show.
It is true that a lot of fans are still hoping that the live-action Splinter Cell will be made, but it has been quite a while since Ubisoft has been finding it hard to start such a project. In the meantime, Deathwatch is the very being that draws attention to the series after a long break. If it resonates with audiences, the success could reignite hopes for live-action projects, or even new games.
What makes Splinter Cell: Deathwatch exciting is not just nostalgia, but its ability to speak directly to today’s world. In 2025, where warfare includes disinformation campaigns and energy politics, Sam Fisher feels more relevant than ever. Schreiber’s grizzled take on the character could redefine him for a new generation, while Kolstad’s writing promises the mix of precision, grit, and unexpected emotion that made John Wick a phenomenon.
Sam Fisher is back in the game after 10 years plus in which he was not part of the pop culture. Moreover, it seems that his revival on Netflix is going to be a fantastic return for the fans as it is not his live-action but his animated one.
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