‘Diablo’ Animated Series in Development at Netflix

An animated series based on Blizzard Entertainment’s popular “Diablo” video game franchise is in the works at Netflix, as revealed at the gaming company’s BlizzCon gathering on Saturday. “We are thrilled to share that we are in development on a new animated series for ‘Diablo’ with Netflix,” Blizzard Entertainment president Johanna Faries said onstage at the opening of BlizzCon’s livestreamed presentation in Anaheim. The statement drew cheers from the crowd. “As a big ‘Diablo’ player myself, and as someone who loves the indulgent darkness of Sanctuary, I am very excited to see this project come to life.” Faries also teased that more “great discussions being had” about expanding other Blizzard Entertainment video game properties, shouting out the fanbases for titles like “Overwatch” and “Starcraft.” The “Diablo” action RPG series is set in the infernal fantasy world of Sanctuary, where demons, monsters, angels and humans are caught in an ongoing conflict. The first title launched in 1996, with three mainline entries releasing over the following decades. The most recent installment, “Diablo IV,” broke Blizzard internal records at its 2023 launch, with the publisher cheekily reporting that it had passed $666 million in its first week of sales. The game has sold numerous expansions in the years since. BlizzCon is Blizzard Entertainment’s expo at which the video game company touts new content for its ongoing franchises like “Warcraft,” “Hearthstone” and “Heroes of the Storm.” While BlizzCon featured annual editions from 2013 to 2019, the gathering has been a more intermittent occasion in the years since. This year’s expo marks the company’s first since Microsofts’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard in 2023.