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In Dungeon Crawler Carl, the apocalypse will be televised — or, in this case, streamed on Peacock. Yes, Matt Dinniman’s bestselling LitRPG (Literary Role-Playing Game) book series is about to get the full-on TV adaptation treatment, from none other than Seth MacFarlane, a man already known for his ability to bring offbeat concepts to live-action fruition with both humor and heart. (See also: Ted, The Orville).
Dinniman’s novels follow the story of the eponymous Carl, a United States Coast Guard veteran, and his ex-girlfriend’s show cat, Princess Donut the Queen Anne Chonk, two of the few survivors of an alien invasion that has essentially seen the Earth’s resources stripped for parts. As a result, they’re forced to enter the World Dungeon, an 18-level dungeon crawl that takes its themes and ideas from popular tabletop role-playing and video games. (If you’ve never heard of LitRPG, don’t worry — think of something like Ready Player One, just with more stats and upgrades.)
In the World Dungeon, Carl and Princess Donut have to compete in a livestreamed, intergalactic reality show — Dungeon Crawler World — where they must fight bosses, improve their attributes, and make it to the stairs to the next dungeon before time runs out (or be killed when the current level collapses) Much like The Hunger Games, they’re also forced to play to the audience watching along at home, building popularity and stats in the hopes of attracting the sponsors which will give them better gear. But even as the levels become increasingly difficult — shorter time limits, more dangerous situations — Carl vows to fight back.
Thor: Ragnarok’s Christopher Yost is set to write the series, with both MacFarlane and Dinniman as executive producers. Many Dungeon Crawler Carl fans were likely hoping to see the books adapted as an animated series, given their many sci-fi and fantasy elements, as well as its inclusion of various oddities like a talking, magical cat. But Dinniman himself sounds confident that MacFarlane and his production company, Fuzzy Door, will be able to pull it off.
“[We’re] not going to do it if it’s gonna look like absolute shit,” he told Variety. “And they will do CGI testing on Princess Donut and stuff like that. And that’s all I can say, I think. It’s all gonna hinge on what it looks like. But Fuzzy Door, specifically, if you watch Ted or The Orville, you’ll see that they know what they’re doing when it comes to this.”
There have been seven entries in the Dungeon Crawler Carl book series to date, which have sold somewhere around six million copies. Dinniman has indicated he plans to release ten books overall in the series — not counting ancillary or side stories like the fan-funded Dungeon Crawler Carl: Crocodile — and the eighth, A Parade of Horribles, is scheduled to hit shelves in May.
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