Donald Glover to Star in, Write and Direct Netflix’s Live-Action PUBG Series

Netflix is developing a live-action series based on PUBG: Battlegrounds, with Donald Glover attached to star, write, direct and executive produce, according to Netflix and the game’s publisher, Krafton. His brother and longtime collaborator Stephen Glover will also write and executive produce, per Variety and TheWrap.

One Creator in Four Roles

Glover’s attachment is unusually broad. He is set to appear on screen, write the scripts, direct and serve as an executive producer, which places most of the creative decisions under one person’s control. That approach has precedent in his earlier work, and it signals that Netflix is betting on a single, strong creative vision rather than a writers’ room assembled around a corporate brief.

The Glover brothers previously worked together on Atlanta, the FX series Donald created and starred in, and on Mr. & Mrs. Smith, TheWrap notes. Their shared history suggests a collaboration built on trust and familiarity, which is valuable for a project that has to invent so much of its own material.

The Producers and Partners

The remaining executive producers are Michael Schaefer for NEON TV, Fam Udeorji for Gilga, and Taeseok Jang and Sujin Lee for LV3H, Krafton’s entertainment arm, which is involved in development and production, per What’s on Netflix. The presence of Krafton’s own division indicates that the game’s publisher intends to remain closely involved rather than simply licensing the name.

How the Deal Came Together

Deadline reports the project grew out of a first-look deal between Netflix and Krafton and came together after lengthy negotiations, with Netflix bringing Glover on board. Comic Basics describes it as Glover’s first work for the streamer.

The sequence matters. A first-look arrangement gives a streamer early access to a partner’s properties, and in this case it produced a project that pairs a global game brand with a creator known for unconventional television. The negotiations were described as lengthy, which fits a deal involving a publisher, a streamer and an in-demand filmmaker.

A Game With No Story to Adapt

PUBG launched in 2017 as PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and helped popularize the battle royale format, in which up to 100 players drop onto an island and scavenge for weapons until one survivor remains. Game Developer reports it sold more than 75 million copies before going free-to-play, and Krafton says the franchise holds seven Guinness World Records.

That success comes without a narrative. As Variety points out, the game has no plot, so the writers will have to build the series’ story, characters and tone from scratch. Neither Netflix nor Krafton has shared any plot details.

A blank canvas can be an advantage and a hazard. Without an established storyline, there are no fan expectations about specific characters or events to satisfy, and the writers can shape the material to their own interests. At the same time, the premise of a last-survivor contest is simple, and stretching it across a series requires inventing relationships, stakes and a world around it. How Glover chooses to do that, whether as satire, drama or thriller, is the central question hanging over the project.

Early Days, Not a Production Order

The series is in development rather than greenlit for production. No cast beyond Glover, release date or format details have been announced, and What’s on Netflix reports the scripts have not yet been written. The outlet does not expect the show to reach the service before 2028 at the earliest.

Development announcements of this kind describe intent more than certainty. Projects at this stage can change shape, take years to materialize or stall altogether, so the practical takeaway is that viewers should not expect anything on screen soon. The absence of a format also leaves open basic questions about how many episodes there will be and how long each will run.

An Animated Project That Went Quiet

This is not the first time PUBG and Netflix have been linked. In July 2021, Krafton announced an animated project with Castlevania producer Adi Shankar that was widely reported to be bound for the service. It has gone quiet since, and the new announcement does not mention it, per What’s on Netflix. GameSpot reports Krafton views PUBG as a connected universe rather than a single game.

The connected-universe framing suggests Krafton sees the series as one piece of a broader strategy that could extend across several formats. Whether the earlier animated effort remains alive is unclear, and neither company has addressed it in the new announcement.

Glover’s Résumé and the Weight of Expectations

Glover, whose Atlanta work earned him two Emmys and two Golden Globes, also appeared in Community, Solo: A Star Wars Story and Spider-Man: Homecoming, and voiced Yoshi in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, per Comic Basics and Gizmodo.

His credits span comedy, franchise filmmaking and video game adaptations, including a voice role in a Nintendo film. That breadth explains why a game publisher would trust him with a property that has no story of its own, and why audiences may expect something distinctive rather than a conventional action series.

Joining Netflix’s Crowded Game Slate

The series joins a long list of Netflix game adaptations. According to What’s on Netflix, a live-action Assassin’s Creed series wrapped filming this month, David Leitch’s Gears of War film is still being scripted, and animated series based on Minecraft, Magic: The Gathering and Clash of Clans are in production. The streamer’s earlier live-action attempt, the 2022 Resident Evil series, was canceled after one season, the outlet adds.

The mixed record is worth keeping in mind. Netflix has committed to games as a source of franchises, but the cancellation of its earlier live-action effort shows that adaptations do not succeed automatically. A series built around a game without a plot, led by a creator with a distinctive voice, would be a different kind of test, and the related stories below follow other adaptations at various stages of development.

What to Watch For Next

The next signals will be practical ones: a confirmation of a series order, the naming of additional cast, and any indication of format or tone. Scripts must be written before production can be scheduled, and the 2028 earliest window reported by What’s on Netflix gives the creative team time to work. Until Netflix or Krafton shares more, the announcement stands as a statement of intent from two large companies and one prominent creator.

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