Paramount Animates Iconic '80s Video Game Franchise Into New Fantasy Series Releasing Next Month In Official Trailer

Published Aug 20, 2026, 11:49 AM EDT Adam has been writing in the entertainment news space for over a decade. Beginning his career of covering film and TV at CinemaBlend, he has also appeared on The Flash Podcast and done several radio spots. Paramount+ has dropped the first trailer for its TV adaptation of the classic beat em' up video game series Golden Axe, among other key information. From 1989 to 1995, the Golden Axe games formed a cornerstone franchise for Sega, but it has been dormant since Golden Axe: Beast Rider’s release for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2008. While it remains to be seen if the Golden Axe game announced in 2023 will ever become a reality, Paramount+ is reviving the property as a comedic animated series. Now, along with this preview, its cast and release date have been revealed. Based off the first game, which was ported to various home consoles after being an arcade exclusive, all 10 episodes of the Golden Axe TV show premiere Wednesday, September 16., exclusively on Paramount+ The core cast consists of Widow’s Bay’s Matthew Rhys as Gilius Thunderhead, Community’s Danny Pudi as Hampton Squib, Jury Duty’s Lisa Gilroy as Tyris Flare, Spartacus’ Ax Battler, and Digman!’s Carl Tart as Chronos “Evil” Lait. Get the first taste of the humorous hijinks that this small screen take on Golden Axe has to offer below: Paramount+’s version of Golden Axe sees barbarian warrior Ax Battler, sorceress Tyris Flare, and battle dwarf Gilius Thunderhead reuniting to save the magical land of Uria from the villainous and seemingly unkillable Death Adder, whose actor hasn’t been announced yet. This mission to permanently vanquish the main antagonist becomes more complicated when Hampton, “an inexperienced and wildly underprepared adventurer,” wishes to accompany the protagonists so he can fulfill his own dream of becoming a hero. Also in the mix is Chronos, who is described as “an uncomfortably cheesy humanoid panther.” While the Golden Axe series is honoring its source material, the trailer shows that this Paramount+ offering is packed with jokes and fun pokes at video game tropes, such as sequential boss battles. Star Trek: Lower Decks’ Mike McMahan and American Dad!’s Joe Chandler co-created the series and wrote the first episode together, with Chandler serving as showrunner. Titmouse, Inc., the animation studio behind fellow Paramount+ shows like Lower Decks and Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, worked on Golden Axe as well. Golden Axe is the third TV show based off a video game in Paramount+’s catalog of original programming. Previously, the streamer released the live-action Halo, which was canceled after two seasons, and the live-action/animation hybrid Knuckles, which took place in the same continuity as the Sonic the Hedgehog movies. Outside the video game adaptation realm, Paramount+ is currently releasing new episodes of Lioness season 3 and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4. Once again, Golden Axe premieres September 17 on Paramount+. Other upcoming Paramount+ shows include MobLand season 2, which also kicks off in September, as well as newcomers Who the Hell Is Hamish?, Frisco King (a spinoff of Tulsa King), The Best of Us, and the Clueless miniseries revival, among others, releasing at yet-to-be-announced dates.