Hivemind founder Dinesh Shamdasani rolled up to NYCC earlier this month to chat about a variety of upcoming projects, and ended up getting a decent grilling from IGN on the new Final Fantasy XIV live-action series in the works with Sony and Square Enix.
When they first started developing the series, there were tough decisions to make on where to start adapting the hugely successful game franchise.
“It was a hard choice,” Shamdasani admitted. “VII was definitely up there. Ultimately, XIV was the one that we thought, ‘Actually everything we want to do is here’.”
A compelling reason to go with XIV was the opportunity to expand the series as it goes along:
“Our hope is that we build something cool that goes for a long time. Final Fantasy XIV is, by virtue of its format, able to continue to expand itself, add itself in there. Hopefully it can be some cross-pollination where they can say, ‘This is a new expansion,’ and we say, ‘Great, we’re going to lean into that in the new season’ or ‘we’re going to lead to this (in the) new season,’ and they say, ‘Great, we’re going to do an expansion that includes those elements,’ and it can feel more (of) a piece, which is rare.”
He also explained how they’ve approached the beginning of the story with non-fans in mind, just in case.
“The first person we see is Cid on an airship, but then we’ve got an entry point that is new so that we can journey with these two people through the world of Final Fantasy XIV. You open with Cid, the airship, everything about Final Fantasy and then swing wildly the other direction. … We get to walk through the world in the surrogate character, build our team and basically secretly do Final Fantasy without the people that don’t know Final Fantasy knowing that we’re doing it. At least that’s the thinking now. It’s early days, so it can change.”
You’ll not need to worry about a lack of chocobos in the forthcoming series, that’s for sure.
“Literally, there was no draft of the script that does not have the note, ‘More chocobos’. One of the notes that I gave, I gave this note and I got the worst stink eye in a meeting. I said, ‘Guys, I know everyone wants chocobos. Page 3 someone rides in on a chocobo for no reason. It’s distracting. It’s silly. It’s too early.’ And everyone’s like, ‘What are you talking about? Everyone should be riding on chocobos in the opening’… So no, there’ll be chocobos out the wazoo.”
Though Netflix is chomping at the bit to acquire the rights, it will be a fair while before we’ll see the series arrive on screens, as it is still in pre-production. Meanwhile, Hivemind are about to launch their live-action The Witcher adaptation on the streaming service.
Wireframe #24 is out now
