A live-action PUBG series is in development at Netflix, with Donald Glover attached to write, direct, executive produce and star in it. KRAFTON announced the project on October 29, Gematsu and Game Developer report, and Variety, Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter all carried the same creative team at 10:30 a.m. PT (17:30 UTC). There is no release date, no cast beyond Glover and no plot yet.
His brother Stephen Glover, his writing partner on FX’s Atlanta, joins as a writer and executive producer. KRAFTON’s entertainment subsidiary LV3H is on the producing side too, so the game’s owner has a direct hand in the show.
Vehicles, loot and a closing zone are all the story PUBG gives the show's writers. Image: KRAFTON
Table of Contents
PUBG Netflix series: what’s confirmed
| Detail | What’s been announced |
|---|---|
| Format | Live-action series, in development at Netflix |
| Based on | PUBG: Battlegrounds (originally PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds) by KRAFTON |
| Writer, director, star | Donald Glover (also executive producer) |
| Writer, executive producer | Stephen Glover |
| Other executive producers | Michael Schaefer (Neon TV), Fam Udeorji (Gilga), Taeseok Jang and Sujin Lee (LV3H, KRAFTON) |
| Cast, plot, episodes, release window | Not announced |
Is the PUBG show officially greenlit?
Not yet, as far as anyone has said. Every report describes it as “in development”, which in TV terms is the stage before a series order. The Hollywood Reporter frames the Netflix line-up it would join with “should it go to series”, and Variety uses the same hedge. Deadline adds that the deal “came together after lengthy negotiations”, with Netflix bringing Glover on board.
Story details are being kept quiet. That’s a real question for this adaptation, because PUBG has no campaign: up to 100 players parachute onto a map, loot weapons and vehicles, and fight inside a shrinking zone until one player or squad is left. The writers start almost from scratch, which is how PC Gamer sees it too: little existing story to stay faithful to, and plenty of room for Glover’s own ideas.
Who is Donald Glover, for PUBG players
Glover created and starred in Atlanta with Stephen as a writer and producer, played Troy in Community, and co-created Amazon’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Deadline notes he has won two Emmys for Atlanta, one for acting and one for directing. He also records music as Childish Gambino. According to The Hollywood Reporter, PUBG is his first project for Netflix. His old exclusive deal at Amazon MGM Studios is now a first-look pact, which Deadline says lets him work with other studios.
PUBG: Battlegrounds has been free-to-play since January 2022 and still gets regular updates. Image: KRAFTON
PUBG’s earlier screen plans
This isn’t KRAFTON’s first try at taking the game to the screen. Deadline recalls that KRAFTON announced plans for a PUBG film and TV series in 2020, and that an animated series from Castlevania executive producer Adi Shankar, announced in 2021, was in development at Netflix. Nobody has said anything new about that animated project; Thursday’s reports only mention the live-action show.
The game itself came out of early access on Steam on December 21, 2017, and KRAFTON says the franchise has set seven Guinness World Records since, according to Deadline and What’s on Netflix. KRAFTON made it free-to-play on January 12, 2022, and it still gets regular updates. Netflix is building up a long list of game adaptations alongside it, including a live-action Assassin’s Creed series, a Gears of War film and animated shows based on Minecraft and Clash of Clans, after anime like Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 streamed earlier this month.
How to play PUBG while you wait
PUBG: Battlegrounds is free on Steam and on console. Its next big content drop is a collaboration with the K-pop group IVE, out on PC on November 4 and on console on November 12 (UTC), according to the official PUBG account. If battle royale is more your thing in other shooters, see our guides to the Fortnite Treasure Hunters season and the MW4 Season 1 roadmap and Warzone.
What’s next
Watch for a series order from Netflix, then casting news and a writers’ room. Until Netflix or KRAFTON confirm those steps, treat any release window as a guess: the What’s on Netflix tracker doesn’t expect the show before 2028 at the earliest, since scripts haven’t been written. We’ll update this story when there’s more, and the day’s other headlines are on our gaming news live page, with yesterday’s in every story from October 29.
Sources: Gematsu, Game Developer, Variety, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, PC Gamer, What’s on Netflix, Steam, @PUBG on X.
Live: Follow today’s gaming news as it happens
Featured image: KRAFTON
