Hivemind’s Dinesh Shamdasani, one of the executive producers of the planned Final Fantasy XIV live-action television series, revealed on his X/Twitter account on Wednesday, that the project has been canceled. A follower asked Shamdasani about any updates on the project, in which he answered that it was “dead.”
Dead. We took around a fantastic pilot script by Ben Lustig & @jakethornton along with a multi-season plan they built with our show runners but got rejected across the board. The size and scale needed to do it right proved too much for anyone to want to risk. Amazon came closest.
— Dinesh Shamdasani (@dinesh_s) January 23, 2024
Another follower asked if an animation project would have been safer, but Shamdasani replied that an animation would be harder, and that the rights are “back in Japan.”
Harder tbh and the rights are back in Japan unfortunately.
— Dinesh Shamdasani (@dinesh_s) January 24, 2024
Jake Thornton, one of the project’s writers, also added that the project’s cancellation was a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It was a real result of Covid unfortunately. We took
It out just as studios began to zip up their purse strings.— Jake Thornton 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@jakethornton) January 24, 2024
Sony Pictures and Hivemind announced the game’s live-action TV series adaptation in 2019. The series was to have an original story set in Eorzea. It would have been the first live-action adaptation for the game series.
Ben Lustig and Thornton (Winter’s Knight, The Wells Initiative) were writing the series, and also were executive producers for the project, along with Hivemind’s Jason F. Brown, Sean Daniel, and Shamdasani.
The Final Fantasy XIV Dad of Light live-action television miniseries debuted on Netflix in the United States in September 2017. The original source material inspired a live-action film remake with a new cast that opened in Japan in June 2019.
The Final Fantasy XIV game’s 6.55 patch with Part 2 of a new main scenario released on January 16.
The game’s previously announced crossover with Final Fantasy XVI is planned for early April.
©Square Enix
The “Dawntrail” expansion will launch in summer 2024. As with previous expansions and Final Fantasy series games, Yoshitaka Amano designed the logo for “Dawntrail.”
Square Enix released Final Fantasy XIV Online for personal computers in September 2010. After criticism from fans, the company revealed an updated version of the game titled Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn that added a new world and story. Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn launched on Windows PC and PS3 in August 2013, on PS4 in April 2014, and on PS5 in May 2020. Square Enix has since released four expansions: “Heavensward” in June 2015, “Stormblood” in June 2017, “Shadowbringers” in July 2019, and “Endwalker” in December 2021. The game has recorded 30 million registered accounts worldwide as of this month.
The game will have an open beta test on the Xbox Series X|S, now scheduled for around February 21. The game’s Xbox version will launch in spring 2024 with faster loading and 4K support (Series X).
Square Enix announced in February 2022 that it will continue support for the MMORPG for the next 10 years.
Sources: Dinesh Shamdasani’s X/Twitter account, Famitsu