Far Cry Goes Fargo: Why Noah Hawley’s Plan to Bin the Game Scripts Might Actually Be a Stroke of Genius
AI Gaming News Author · Eurogamer ·
Noah Hawley is ditching the specific plots of the Far Cry games for an anthology TV series, sparking a bit of a row with the game's original creators while promising a deep dive into the 'uncivilized' themes of the franchise.
Right, so I’ve been staring at my digital crystal ball—which looks suspiciously like a 32-inch curved monitor—and I’ve spotted something that’s going to ruffle a few feathers in the Ubisoft coop. It seems the upcoming Far Cry TV series isn't going to be the literal retreading of Vaas’s jungle antics or Pagan Min’s fashion choices that many were expecting. Instead, showrunner Noah Hawley is planning to treat the franchise like a deck of magical tarot cards: same deck, but he’s going to shuffle them until the original order is well and truly gone.
Now, before you go reaching for your pitchforks or your electrified machetes, hear me out. This news comes via a cracking report from Fran Ruiz over at Eurogamer, and it reveals that Hawley—the mastermind behind the brilliant *Fargo* series and the upcoming *Alien: Earth*—isn't interested in a 1:1 adaptation. He’s betting the whole loot crate on an anthology format.
I’ve been tinkering with this story all morning, and bloody hell, it’s wilder than it first appeared. If you’ve played a Far Cry game in the last decade, you know the drill: you’re a fish out of water, there’s a charismatic psychopath with a penchant for monologues, and you eventually have to blow up half a continent to see the credits roll. Hawley’s take? He wants to strip all that back and focus on the *theme* rather than the specific characters we’ve already controlled with our dual-sticks.
### The Wizard of the Anthology
For those who haven't been following Hawley’s career, the man is a bit of a narrative alchemist. He took the Coen Brothers’ *Fargo*—a stone-cold classic film—and turned it into a multi-season anthology that managed to capture the soul of the original while telling completely new stories. He’s looking to pull the same trick here.
Speaking to Deadline, Hawley explained that the very nature of the Far Cry games—where every new entry is a totally different story in a different corner of the world—is exactly what attracted him. His pitch? "A different story about civilized people thrown into situations where they have to become increasingly uncivilized."
Sound familiar? It should. That’s basically the Far Cry mission statement printed on the back of every box since 2004. But here’s where it gets a bit spicy, and where my gentle skepticism starts to tingle like a proximity mine. Hawley told Deadline that he wants to have a "dialog with this franchise" because, in his words, video games "are built in a way that doesn't make for the best drama" in most cases.
Ouch. That’s a bit of a poke in the eye for those of us who’ve been moved to tears by a well-timed cutscene, isn't it? It’s that classic Hollywood sentiment—the idea that games are just "fun toys" that need a proper "grown-up" writer to come along and find the heart. I reckon he’s being a bit dismissive there, but when you look at his track record, you have to wonder if he’s earned the right to be a bit arrogant. The man knows how to build tension better than a stealth mission where you’ve run out of silenced ammo.
### The Creative Clash: Devs vs. Hollywood
Naturally, this "I'm doing my own thing" approach hasn't gone down well with everyone. Alex Hutchinson, the creative director of Far Cry 4, took to LinkedIn to express that these comments were "pissing him off." And you can see why, mate. Imagine spending years crafting a world, a villain, and a lore, only for a TV wizard to swing by and say, "Yeah, it’s alright, but I think I’ll just use the name and bin the rest."
But here’s the rub: is he wrong? We’ve seen what happens when TV tries to copy-paste a game’s mechanics. Sometimes we get *The Last of Us* (brilliant), and sometimes we get... well, let’s not talk about the *Halo* show's version of Master Chief’s social life. Far Cry is a franchise that has always struggled with its own identity. Is it a serious political commentary? Is it a chaotic sandbox where you can train a bear named Cheeseburger to eat cultists? It’s usually both, and that tone is notoriously hard to pin down in a linear script.
By choosing an anthology format, Hawley is sidestepping the "Who should play Vaas?" debate entirely. He’s not trying to recreate the experience of playing the game; he’s trying to recreate the *feeling* of the world. It’s a bold move, Cotton. Let's see if it pays off.
### The Production Grind
From a logistical standpoint, Hawley is being quite the clever clogs. He’s building out both *Alien: Earth* and *Far Cry* at Pinewood Studios in London, using secondary locations that can serve both shows. He’s even skipping directorial duties on the second season of *Alien* just to make sure the *Far Cry* scripts are polished to a mirror finish. He’s directing the first two episodes himself to set the tone, which is usually a good sign that a showrunner actually cares about the visual language of the project.
So, what does this mean for us, the actual gamers? It means we’re probably not getting a cinematic universe where Jason Brody meets Ajay Ghale for a cheeky Nando's. Instead, we’re getting a series that explores the dark, messy transition from "guy who works in an office" to "guy who makes a grenade launcher out of a pipe and some duct tape."
### Jeff’s Final Reckoning
I’m cautiously optimistic about this one, mates. Yes, the "games aren't dramatic" comment was a bit of a low blow, but if anyone can make a show about the descent into madness look stylish and profound, it’s the *Fargo* guy. We’ve had plenty of literal adaptations that felt hollow. Maybe a thematic adaptation is the spell we actually need to break the "video game movie" curse once and for all.
It’s a bit like Web3 gaming, if you think about it—the industry is constantly trying to figure out how to take the old structures we love and port them into a new medium without losing the magic. Sometimes you have to break the old world to build a better new one. Or, in Hawley's case, you just set the old world on fire and watch the beautiful colors the flames make.
Stay curious, keep your eyes on the horizon, and maybe don't trade your civilization for a machete just yet. We'll see if Hawley can actually cast this spell when the show eventually hits our screens.
*Original reporting by Fran Ruiz via Eurogamer.*
Tags: Far Cry, Ubisoft, Noah Hawley, TV Adaptations, Gaming Culture
Original article: Eurogamer